Bowmanville, Ont. (4 July 2017) – The only back-to-back weekend of races on the 2017 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship schedule is one that is well-timed for Mustang Sampling Racing, as the team will pack its race-winning momentum from Watkins Glen for the trip up north to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (CTMP) and Sunday’s Mobil 1 Sportscar Grand Prix.
The No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R of Christian Fittipaldi and Joao Barbosa will look to build momentum through a busy second half of the IMSA season.
The CTMP facility is one that has played host for events since 1961, and the 2.459-mile natural terrain circuit is one that has gone largely unchanged through the decades. The 10-turn track is one that features very high speed corners and rewards commitment from the driver.
Last season, Fittipaldi and Barbosa scored their first-ever podium at the track with a run to second place in the Mustang Sampling Racing DP as part of an Action Express Racing 1-2 result. This year will mark the debut for the Cadillac DPi-V.R at CTMP.
“It is an old style track, a fast race track and I think it will be a very fun place to race with the Mustang Sampling Cadillac,” said Barbosa. “We still have half of the season to go really and now that we’ve won with the Cadillac, that is a little more momentum for us. We’ve had some good days there (CTMP) and it was a great team result there last year. No matter where you go, you want to win. And racing at CTMP right after racing on another great track like Watkins Glen is a great part of the IMSA schedule so we are eager to get up there and get the weekend started.”
Barbosa and Fittipaldi have combined for three top-five finishes in their three IMSA starts at the track together, and will look to go one better than the second place result the duo scored in 2016.
“One of the things I love about IMSA is that all the tracks we go to are awesome, all through the schedule and now we are going to another one of these great tracks with Canadian Tire Motorsport Park,” said Fittipaldi. “We’ve had some days where we were very competitive there, but the luck didn’t fall our way. So we still have to get to that top spot on the podium there! It is unbelievably quick. You are always in a corner it seems—you finish one, and then immediately the next one is right there. It is a challenging lap and with the speeds we have, you operate on a different rhythm running at that pace. It will be very competitive racing again, like what we saw at the Glen and hopefully it can be a similar result!”
2017 Mobil 1 Grand Prix:
Friday, July 7, 2017:
11:20 AM – 12:20 PM Practice 1
3:55 – 4:55 PM Practice 2
Saturday, July 8, 2017:
9:20 – 10:20 AM Practice 3
1:20 – 1:35 PM Prototype Qualifying
Sunday, July 9, 2017:
8:50 – 9:10 AM Warm Up
12:05 – 2:45 PM Race
TV Coverage: 12:00-3:00 PM FS1
No. 5 Mustang Sampling Racing, IMSA WeatherTech Championship
Canadian Tire Motorsports Park
2014 Started: 5 Finished: 4 Joao Barbosa, Christian Fittipaldi
2015 Started: 2 Finished: 5 Joao Barbosa, Christian Fittipaldi
2016 Started: 4 Finished: 2 Christian Fittipaldi, Joao Barbosa
