GT – Still Anyone’s Title Heading Into Mosport

August 27, 2010

GT – Still Anyone’s Title Heading Into Mosport

August 27, 2010

Corvette won in GT at Mosport in 2009 and searches for its first win of 2010 here this weekend. Photo credit: Rick Dole for Michelin North America

It’s still anybody’s championship as a look over the manufacturer’s, teams’ and drivers’ standings in the American Le Mans Series GT class will indicate in the final two races. This weekend at Mosport is, like any race in GT, a bit of a crapshoot.

Flying Lizard Motorsports drivers Joerg Bergmeister and Patrick Long lead the drivers’ championship by 18 points over a pair of teams. Bergmeister and Long have three wins and scored a vital second place at Road America last race, gaining valuable points at a track the team acknowledged was not their best circuit. The Porsche drivers have not won since Lime Rock in July and additionally, the team has never won at the picturesque Canadian road course.

Two teams are tied for second. The Risi Ferrari pair of Jaime Melo and Gianmaria Bruni are deadlocked with the Rahal Letterman BMW duo of Joey Hand and Dirk Mueller, as they all have 101 points to the Lizard pair’s 119.

While Melo and Bruni have three wins this season, a sixth place finish at Road America last race represented a sizeable points differential to their championship rivals. However, the team has three wins in the GT2 class at Mosport (2006-’08) and also the added strength of the team’s second car to assist in all championships with Toni Vilander and Pierre Kaffer in the No. 61 this weekend.

BMW is fresh off their first win of the season at Road America with Hand and Mueller in the No. 90 car. They also lead the manufacturer’s championship with 125 points to Porsche on 119 and Ferrari on 113. The team’s second car is a rebuilt backup chassis, as the primary No. 92 for Bill Auberlen and Tommy Milner was damaged in an accident last race.

Corvette Racing has made a slight restructuring of its driver lineup in a quest to repeat its GT2 win here last year, the team’s first with its new GT2-specification Corvette ZR1. Jan Magnussen moves from the No. 3 to the No. 4 car while Olivier Beretta does the reverse. So it is Magnussen and Oliver Gavin in the No. 4 car with Beretta and Johnny O’Connell in the No. 3.

The team that is incredibly close to its first podium finish if not a win is Extreme Speed Ferrari. In the No. 02 car, Guy Cosmo made a last lap pass on Bruni at Road America to net the car’s best finish this season in fifth place in class. While Cosmo and Ed Brown look to continue the upward momentum, the team’s No. 01 has the two-time defending winner at Mosport in Scott Sharp and the always quick Johannes van Overbeek.

Of the other entrants in class, Falken Porsche is coming off its first win in the MICHELIN® GREEN X® Challenge at Road America, Robertson Ford ran as high as second at Road America, and JaguarRSR makes its first Mosport start with its XKR.

There are only five cars entered in the GTC class, which makes its debut at Mosport after not running at this track last year.

See also: Highcroft Aims To Get Back On Top In Mosport

Latest Photos

Latest Video

Kellymoss provides drivers a path to the IMSA WeatherTech Championship

Friday August 25, 2023
[/et_pb_section]
[/et_pb_section]