Mazda scores a double in Canada

Mazda team joest won the Canadian event at the Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in Bowmanville (Ontario) in IMSA at the end of 2h40′ of racing where the Mazda RT24-Ps were constantly at the forefront.

Started from pole after the No. 54 Onroak-Nissan DPi prototypes fell back to the back of the grid – CORE Autosport, Helio Castroneves (Acura ARX-05 n°7 – Acura Team Penske) quickly gave in to attacks from Jonathan Bomarito (Mazda n°55).

The latter will then impose its own tempo throughout the event, before losing time during a refueling and letting the sister car no. 77 take over.

This last sequence of passages to the pits is then followed by a neutralization under yellow flag then red flag shortly before the last half hour, after the violent exit of the track at turn n°2 of the Cadillac DPi-VR n°50 – Juncos Racing by Victor Franzoni.

The Brazilian made a mistake and collided sideways with the tire walls, the Cadillac sinking deep and ending up on its side. After the emergency services intervened, Franzoni was finally seen sitting on the stretcher before leaving for follow-up examinations at the medical center.

At the restart with a quarter of an hour remaining in the race, Oliver Jarvis (Mazda n°77) retained the advantage over the n°55, the two prototypes operated by Team Joest crossing the line in that order, i.e. the reverse of double last Sunday at the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen, which marked Mazda's first victory in IMSA.

The No. 05 Acura ARX-6 – Acura Team Penske of Dane Cameron and Juan Pablo Montoya completed the podium.

In GTLM, Porsche wins for the fifth time in a row, this time with the No. 912 of Laurens Vanthoor and Earl Bamber. The “Bamthor” duo returned to third position in the first laps of the race, took advantage of an early first pit stop to place themselves at the front against the #8 BMW M24 – Team RLL of Jesse Krohn and John Edwards .

The latter, which was placed in the same sequence of stops as the Porsche n°911 of Patrick Pilet and Nick Tandy, will no longer be able to recover its property, finishing the event in second position between the two official 911 RSRs.

BMW, however, consoled itself with victory in GTD, with the No. 6 M3 GT96 – Turner Motorsports of Bill Auberlen and Robby Foley.

Discover the full report of the Canadian Tire Motorsports Park IMSA event, in issue 2224 of AUTOhebdo, available tomorrow evening in digital version and on newsstands this Wednesday.