Third best the best that Volt Racing could do in IMSAs return to CTMSP

Sunday, July 03, 2022

A somewhat depleted grid was the unfortunate result of IMSA’s Michelin Pilot Challenges return to the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park circuit for their sixth round of the series.

With many citing the additional bureaucracy needed to cross either way over the Canadian/American border and Canada’s heightened COVID-19 vaccination demands saw many teams and personnel skip the event leaving us just the #7 Volt Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 of Alan Brynjolfsson and Trent Hindman amongst its GS entry of eighteen cars.

Like all the series that utilise the SRO Balance of Performance system, the Aston Martins within the Michelin Pilot Challenge have seen a distinct drop of in performance relative to their season opening performances that has seen the Mercedes AMG GT4 become the car of the moment.

Qualifying in fourth for this two-hour race, the series return to Canada was at least blessed with a clam and methodical start from all the GS and TCR runners which saw the #7 car penalise itself for an early move for position that cost it one place on track during the opening laps.

Twenty minutes in and a failing Porsche 718 GT4 had parked itself close to the recovery crews based off circuit but the racing rules of IMSA again stagnated the race with another of their twelve minute long Full Course Yellows that ended up needing a class split after the offerings of the pit lane.

With one GS car taking that option of fuel during that caution, it became evident that most would be running a simple one stop strategy – running until the halfway mark before stopping for full service close to the mid-way point with further yellows only serving to help save fuel.

Pitting from third, Brynjolfsson had done his bit with just the two Murillo Racing Mercedes ahead of him but a close call with a Camaro in pit lane nearly ended it all for Volt Racing as the #71 car was released right into Brynjolfsson’s path.

Three more FCY’s for stranded vehicles again affected the flow of the race during its second hour but on each of these restarts, Hindman was at best only able to close the gap to the two Mercedes ahead without ever being able to challenge for position.

Fortunately, the final fifteen minutes were caution free and allowed the top five GS cars (now all line astern) to race to the end. Whilst the Mercedes were comfortable ahead, Hindman was coming under increasing pressure from the #71 Camaro which saw Hindman having to run a completely defensive final lap to hold onto their P3 position to the end to help extend their Championship lead.