Canadian team Multimatic Motorsports’ two Ford Shelby GT350R-Cs earned took a double-podium during 2016 IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge action season at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park Saturday, finishing first and third in class.
Billy Johnson and Canada’s Scott Maxwell piloted their Shleby Mustang to the win at the team’s hometown track, while teammates Paul Holton and Pierre Kleinubing nabbed third. The result helped Johnson and Maxwell build on their CTSC driver’s championship lead over Porsche’s Daniel Burkett and Marc Miller.
“It took fast pit stops, strategy and Scott’s stint, my stint, traffic management, all of those things had to come together for this win,” Johnson said post-race. “That just goes to show what Multimatic and Ford Performance is all about.”
Kleinubing admitted that taking two tires on the final pit stop probably hurt their shot at taking second, but said he and the Multimatic team were still happy with the double podium result.
“We had a pretty good strategy, I think we just gambled a little too much on only taking two tires on the last stop,” Kleinubing said. “Maybe otherwise we’d have had the pace to finish second and it would’ve been a great 1-2 for Ford, but we’ll take the podium and build on it. It’s our first year with the car. We have a lot to learn but we’re getting better every week and that’s what counts.”
Porsche currently leads Ford in the manufacturer standings with 137 points to the Blue Oval’s 131. Aston Martin, the only other manufacturer in the series GS class, is third with 120 points.
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