- 05/24/2017
- 2 Min Read
- By: Anthony Magagnoli
Driver's Log - 2017 PWC Season Rounds 3 + 4 - Mosport
What a great weekend at Mosport this past weekend for Rounds 3 & 4 of the Pirelli World Challenge. We were coming off of our first weekend of pro racing with a sour taste in our mouths, as I had been blatantly taken out in BOTH races by drivers who were driving outside of their talent level and collected me on their way off the track when I had been running in 5th each time. While I limped across the finish line to 12th place finishes, it was not the results we deserved.
Canadian Tire Motorsports Park - aka Mosport - was a new track for me, and an intimidating one, at that. This track is hair-raising just to drive alone, let alone race on! I came the previous weekend with my SpecE30 so I could learn the flow of the track. Without our race engineer, Gary De La Rosa, on hand for this event, though, I was pulling double duty to do the driving and also prescribe the setup changes for the car.
The energy at this event was incredible. On Thursday, there were already campers and tents lining the entire track. Throughout the weekend, fans were constantly lining the track. Kids would wave and say hi when we were wearing our fire suits and nervously ask questions. I always tried to indulge them! It was also made special by my fiancée Tina and my parents Joanne and Angelo joining us. And I was especially thankful to have my sister, Tessa, brother-in-law, Tim, and nephew, Mason, surprise me shortly before the start of the race!
We were looking good during the 15 min qualifying session, but a few cars laid down some fast laps late in the session. With my tire pressures having peaked at lap 3, they were now too high to make an attempt at going faster and I had to settle for 7th, next to last year's champion, Toby Grahovec, on the starting grid.
At the start of the race, Toby got a jump through traffic to drop me back a spot. We both proceeded to work past 2 of the Audis ahead of us before the full course yellow came out. When we restarted a couple laps later, we got about halfway through before the red flag came out for a pile-up in turn 3, including cars of all 3 classes. The race ended under these conditions after a short 6 green laps. I felt bad for the viewers at home and fans in attendance. I'll take a 6th place finish, though, having moved up a spot from where I started.
For the second race, we were sitting on the grid, starting in 9th. Everyone was on a dry setup and tires, nervously watching the radar when a brief rain came through. All but 5 cars switched to wet tires in the pit lane before the race because it looked certain that more rain was coming.
We didn't get more than a heavy sprinkle through the race, though! The cars on drys went to the front relatively quickly, including one of the drivers who had taken me out in the last race. In a show of his awareness, he bumped me off the track on the front straight on his way by. Though I was able to recover, we had a new, longer exchange of words after the race than last time.
Through the first half of the race, I moved up through all the cars that were on wet tires. I was pushing the wet weather tires harder than I likely should have, and the car was moving around a lot. If the wet weather had come, I would have been screwed, because the tires were slicks by the end! After having passed him earlier, one of the field's strongest contenders, Nick Wittmer, stated making a charge forward, likely after he realized the heavy rain wasn't coming. I defended his attempts for the whole second half of the race and finished 5th, which was the highest-finishing car on wet tires!
Two solid finishes this weekend and a clean car was exactly what we needed, as we're head to Lime Rock Park for Rounds 5 & 6 this coming weekend. I'm looking forward to putting our heads down and pushing forward!
