MALE SPEAKER: It is halfway through the season for the
Porsche IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge by Yokohama as the series
travelled to the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, the daunting
2.5 mile, 4 kilometer road course of profound history,
best known as Mosport.
ANGEL ANDRES BENITEZ: For me, the most dangerous track in
North America.
FERNANDO PENA: To me, the most scary track I've ever driven.
MALE SPEAKER: High speeds, blind corners, and big
elevation changes define this track, challenging car,
driver, attitude, and emotions.
ANGEL ANDRES BENITEZ: It's like a monkey with a knife.
It's something that you don't know what is going to happen.
MALE SPEAKER: It takes confidence to race and win at
Mosport, confidence in one's talent, race
car, and race team.
With seven races completed in the 2012 Porsche GT3 Cup
season, the battle lines are being drawn
between drivers and teams.
SEAN JOHNSTON: You know, the competition is very fierce up
at the front.
Every single race weekend, I've been
pushed harder and harder.
MALE SPEAKER: Hertz made news as a new series sponsor,
adding its identity to every Porsche GT3 Cup car, its
marketing support, and Porsche cars to its Hertz rental fleet
in select locations in the US.
Bryce Miller made his own news by moving to the Effort Racing
team, joining forces with Michael Mills to create a more
formidable challenge to the Wright Motorsports phalanx of
Sean Johnston, Madison Snow, Fernando Pena, and Kasey
Kuhlman in the Platinum Class.
In Gold Class, the car and driver to beat this season is
Angel Benitez Jr. and his '05 Porsche.
But Junior is not without competition.
There are other racers confident in their ability and
mastery of the Mosport track.
SEAN JOHNSTON: High commitment, high speed, but
also high consequences.
There are some places where you do not
want to make a mistake.
DAVID CALVERT-JONES: We want the top and we want one and
two, but we'll take one and three, or two and three.
But that's the goal.
MALE SPEAKER: Race 1 for the weekend, Race 8 for the
season, saw the story lines for Mosport emerge.
Sean Johnston, Bryce Miller, and Michael Mills immediately
took to the lead.
Benitez Jr. Worked his way into a controlling Gold Class
P1 spot by lap 10.
Back at the front, Johnston and Miller separated
themselves from the field, but not from each other.
And the intense battle for the win took hold for the first 25
laps of the 45-minute race.
The move Bryce Miller made for the lead was one of confidence
and validation in his move to Effort Racing.
Taking control of the race from P1 and putting pressure
on Sean Johnston to respond created two results.
First, Sean, pushing hard, made for some dramatic
moments, the last one damaging his front splitter and
reducing front downforce necessary to Mosport's
high-speed corners.
But the save was a display of magnificent car
control by Mr. Johnston.
Two, Bryce Miller, in winning the race, threw down the
gauntlet that he was now in the championship battle.
Michael Mills finished third, giving Effort Racing two of
the three podium steps.
Behind them, Kasey Kuhlman, Fernando Pena, Madison Snow,
Sloan Urry, John Baker, and Phil Fogg Jr.
kept the action intense.
In Gold, Benitez Jr. won.
Scott Tucker made a next-to-last lap move in P2,
giving P3 to Peter Collins.
The first race of a Porsche IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge by
Yokohama weekend always adds a bit of tire management
strategy to a driver's race craft.
Racers race on the tires they qualify.
So when Sean Johnston took the BBS Pole award for Race 1, and
then parked the car in the qualifying session to save
tires, Michael Mills put in twice the laps to earn himself
a P2 front-row start, but used up some of his tire life.
So there may have been tire degradation that factored into
lessening his chance to win Race 1.
But Race 2 of the weekend puts all the cars back on fresh
Yokohama rubber, the starting grid determined by fastest
laps in Race 1.
So, Race 2 in a Porsche GT3 Cup weekend tends to create
even more race-long intensity.
The front of the grid saw more Effort versus Wright team
competition.
But quickly, Miller and Johnston set themselves up for
another race-long, race-win fight.
In Gold, Benitez Jr. worked his way around BBS Pole winner
David Calvert-Jones of Competition Motorsports, he of
racing winning experience, but zero Mosport track time until
this weekend.
Jr.'s '05 once again worked traffic and pace to establish
a race-controlling lead on Calvert-Jones, CJ's teammate
Fred Poordad, and Melanie Snow.
But late in the race, with less than two minutes to go,
Angel Benitez Jr. spun off course, handing the win to
David Calvert-Jones.
In Platinum Class, it was Bryce Miller forcing Sean
Johnston into the race-long chase for the win.
But the opportunity never materialized, not for lack of
trying on the part of Sean.
But Bryce Miller, inspired by his Race 1 win, decided this
win would come by simply focusing on
his race car driving.
Bryce was quick when he needed speed, professionally
defensive when Sean attacked, and simply focused on driving
his race, confident that being Bryce and not letting Sean
into his head would be the way he would get the win.
And so it was for Race 2 at the Porsche IMSA GT3 Cup
Challenge by Yokohama.
Confidence worked for the win.
Confidence worked when racing a track like Mosport, the
Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
Confidence will be a determining factor in the
remaining races on this Porsche Cup Series.
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