JULY 13, 2016

(John Thawley ~ Motorsports Photography @ www.johnthawley.com ~ 248.227.0110)
Eric Curran and Dane Cameron (No. 31 Action Express Racing Whelen Engineering/Team Fox Corvette DP) captured their first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship victory of the season Sunday in the Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, leading Action Express Racing to its second consecutive 1-2 finish. The pair led 66 of the 125 laps in the two-hour and 40-minute race, including the final 36 circuits. Joao Barbosa (No. 5 Action Express Racing Mustang Sampling Corvette DP, started by Christian Fittipaldi) passed Jordan Taylor (No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette DP, started by Ricky Taylor) for second place in traffic with five minutes remaining. Three minutes later, the third caution period of the race froze the field with Cameron leading his teammate by 17.067 seconds. Curran and Cameron trimmed the points lead of Fittipaldi and Barbosa to four, 220-116, with three races remaining for the Prototype class. The Taylor brothers finished third and are third in the standings with 211 points. Check out a great gallery of scintillating images from John Thawley here.

(John Thawley ~ Motorsports Photography @ www.johnthawley.com ~ 248.227.0110)
Richard Westbrook and Ryan Briscoe (No. 67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT) delivered their third consecutive IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GT Le Mans class victory at the track formerly known as Mosport. A strategic call by the Chip Ganassi Racing team sealed the deal for the duo. After running most of the first half of the race in third or fourth place, the team put fresh Michelin tires on for the final time when they pitted under full-course caution an hour and 20 minutes into the two-hour and 40-minute race. The No. 67 Ford GT was sixth in class following that stop, but as the cars running ahead of them made their final pit stops for fuel and tires under green-flag conditions, Briscoe gradually worked his way to the class lead. Then, with approximately 50 minutes remaining in the race, the Ganassi team brought Briscoe on to pit road for a seven-second splash of fuel only and sent him back on course without losing the lead. That was the difference, as Briscoe maintained a 5-6-second gap to Tommy Milner (No. 4 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C7.R, started by Oliver Gavin) for the remaining distance and the win. “We were in tire and fuel conservation mode as soon as we left the pits, but needed some help,” Briscoe said. “When everyone else pitted we knew we had the opportunity to take a splash of fuel but not change tires. It was a brilliant call by the team. Tommy was a bit quicker, but I was just trying to hang on and bring it home.” Westbrook and Briscoe now trail Milner and Gavin in the GTLM class standings by five points, 192-187. Gavin and Milner finished second, while their teammates Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen (No. 3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C7.R) finished third. Garcia started the race from the pole and led throughout his 42-minute opening stint, while Magnussen also led for more than 50 minutes.

(John Thawley ~ Motorsports Photography @ www.johnthawley.com ~ 248.227.0110)
Jens Klingmann (No. 96 Turner Motorsport Spectra Resources/United Steel/Valspar Paint/IHG Rewards Club BMW M6 GT3) went from third place to first in the GT Daytona (GTD) class with a brilliant pass in Canadian Tire Motorsport Park’s famed Moss Corner with 30 minutes remaining to give the BMW M6 GT3 its first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship victory. Klingmann got around both Jeroen Bleekemolen (No. 33 ViperExchange.com/Cruising with the Monkey Dodge Viper GT3-R), who was running second in class, and Fabio Babini (No. 27 Dream Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3), who was leading. He then pulled away from the rest of the GTD field over the closing laps to score the victory for himself and co-driver Bret Curtis, who started the race from fourth on the class grid. After Klingmann made the pass, Bleekemolen and Babini made contact, which brought the Viper on to pit road with front-end damage. Babini, who led for more than 20 minutes, made his final pit stop shortly thereafter, enabling the No. 6 Stevenson Auto Group Audi R8 LMS GT3 co-driven by Robin Liddell and Andrew Davis to move into second and the No. 48 Castrol Edge/Universal Industrial Sales Lamborghini Huracán GT3 of Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow into third, where both would finish.

(John Thawley ~ Motorsports Photography @ www.johnthawley.com ~ 248.227.0110)
After Colin Braun captured his second TOTAL Pole Award of the year in Prototype Challenge, qualifying in the No. 54 Flex-Box/Composite Resources/Crowdstrike ORECA FLM09, the team elected to swap starting drivers for the race. As a result, Jon Bennett started the machine from sixth position at the back of the PC grid and the duo went on to the class victory, their second of the season. “We had a great strategy planned from our race engineers,” Braun said. “They came up with a unique strategy that didn’t play out until the last 20-30 minutes of the race. In order for it to work, you had to have the pace the entire day. Hats off to everyone, everyone did their jobs and when that happens nine times out of 10 that turns out to be a win.” Renger van der Zande/Alex Popov (No. 8 Starworks Motorsport ORECA FLM09) finished second, followed by Robert Alon and Tom Kimber-Smith (No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Professional Security Systems ORECA FLM09).

(Photo by Chris Owens/INDYCAR)
Josef Newgarden (No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Fuzzy's Ultra Premium Vodka Chevrolet Turbo V6) steams into Turn 1 during the Iowa Corn 300 at Iowa Speedway. Newgarden turned in one of the most dominant performances in Indy car history on Sunday, leading a record 282 laps today to win the race. It was the third victory of Newgarden's six-year Verizon IndyCar Series career and first on an oval track. It also vaulted the Ed Carpenter Racing driver three spots into second place in the Verizon IndyCar point standings after 10 of 16 completed races. The only time the 25-year-old surrendered the lead in the 300-lap race came when he made pit stops for fuel and tires. His 282 laps led are the most ever by a driver in an Indy car race, surpassing the 250 by Ryan Hunter-Reay when he led every lap to win at Milwaukee in 2004. "It was a lot of fun, mainly because the car was so good," said Newgarden, who finished second to Hunter-Reay in each of the past two Iowa races. "It would go anywhere, it wasn't really falling off much. It was fun. In some stints it seemed like a video game. You put on new tires, you catch people at the right point and you could just slice and dice." What made Newgarden's day all the more impressive was that he sustained a fractured right clavicle and fractured bone in his right hand in a crash during the Firestone 600 at Texas Motor Speedway that was suspended by rain June 12 after 71 laps. Still recovering, Newgarden finished eighth at Road America two weeks ago before driving to victory lane today. He trails Team Penske's Simon Pagenaud - who finished the race in fourth - by 73 points in the championship. "If you have as good of a car as I had today, it makes your race so much easier to drive," Newgarden said. "I don't think people should feel like I did some crazy feat. The hand is still a little broken. I was able to use it; it wasn't too painful. The clavicle feels good with the plate in, was stable. It was a little more uncomfortable than normal around here, but it was doable." Will Power (No. 12 Team Penske Verizon Chevrolet Turbo V6) finished second, 4.2828 seconds behind Newgarden. Scott Dixon finished third in the No. 9 Chip Ganassi Racing Target Chevrolet Turbo V6 for his 88th career podium finish - moving the four-time series champion into a tie for sixth on the all-time podiums list with Helio Castroneves, Bobby Rahal and Al Unser Jr. The race on the high-banked 0.894-mile short oval - the 10th Verizon IndyCar Series event at Iowa Speedway - was slowed three times by full-course cautions. For more IndyCar info go here.

(BBC)
Lewis Hamilton (No. 44 AMG Petronas Mercedes) took a dominant victory in a hectic British Grand Prix, to take his fourth career win at Silverstone. Hamilton led every lap of a race that started under the safety car in wet conditions but dried out. Nico Rosberg (No. 6 AMG Petronas Mercedes) battled back to second past the impressive Max Verstappen (No. 33 Red Bull Racing Renault), but with five laps to go Rosberg hit a problem that required him to reset systems in the car and then avoid seventh gear - shifting straight from sixth to eighth. He hung on in second place, but race stewards determined that the help Mercedes gave him over the radio exceeded limitations on the amount of help drivers can be given by teams and he was given a 10-second penalty, which demoted him to third. Rosberg had said immediately after the race: "It was a very critical problem because I was stuck in seventh gear and about to stop on track." Rosberg's lead in the championship over Hamilton is now just one point. Hamilton's win sent the 135,000 fans packed into the famous old track into a frenzy as they cheered Hamilton's progress to the flag on the last lap.

(Ford Performance)
Brad Keselowski (No. 2 Team Penske Miller Lite Ford Fusion) and his Team Penske crew played the fuel mileage game to perfection Saturday night, stretching his fuel the final 72 laps to hold off Carl Edwards (No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing ARRIS Surfboard Toyota Camry) by .175 seconds to win the Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway. Keselowski actually needed a push to get to Victory Lane as he ran his fuel cell dry. The win was Keselowski’s fourth of the season and second straight after taking the checkered flag a week ago at Daytona International Speedway. Keselowski has now officially become the first driver to clinch a spot in this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Ryan Newman (No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Caterpilllar Chevrolet SS) finished third, Kurt Busch (No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Monster Energy/Haas Automation Chevrolet SS) was fourth and a rejuvenated Tony Stewart (No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Rush Truck Centers/Mobil 1 Chevrolet SS) was fifth. Get more NASCAR info here.

(Ford Performance)
Driving for Multimatic Motorsports, based in nearby Markham, Ontario, Scott Maxwell and Billy Johnson (No. 15 Multimatic Motorsports Ford Shelby GT350R-C) combined to lead all but three laps of Saturday’s 2016 IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, scoring the second victory of the season for the No. 15 Ford Shelby GT350R-C. Maxwell followed up his series record-breaking 13th TOTAL Pole Award by leading all 38 laps of his 57-minute opening stint. Johnson took over for Maxwell and only gave up the point during his final fuel stop. “Honestly, I wasn’t even thinking about points today,” said Maxwell, a Toronto resident. “I just wanted to win. We were coming off a couple of mediocre results and I think we both really wanted to win today. It’s really nice to do that in front of my home crowd and my home track; it’s pretty special.” Marc Miller (No. 33 CJ Wilson Racing ONE Capital Management/MotorOilMatters.org Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport, started by Danny Burkett) finished second in the Grand Sport class, 11.271 seconds behind, and Paul Holton and Pierre Kleinubing (No. 76 C360R AERO Advanced Paint Technology/Children’s Tumor Foundation Ford Shelby GT350R-C) finished third. Maxwell and Johnson increased their lead to 10 in the GS point standings over Miller and Burkett, 158-148.

(VW)
Fifty years ago to the day, on July 11th 1966, a group of Munich-based traders and importers who shared an interest in motorsport founded the “Verband Formel V Europa e. V.,” which was the birth of Volkswagen Motorsport in Germany. But it all started even earlier than that, because back in the USA VW technology was used to launch the Formula Vee racing series in 1963. The small, single-seater racing cars – utilizing components from the iconic Volkswagen Beetle – became a thing, which ended up finding its way to Europe. With national championships and competitions between the USA and Europe, there was also an unofficial world championship, which American Bill Scott won in 1970. By 1971 the momentum developed into the Formula Super Vee series, which became a serious training ground for young drivers and produced eventual world champions including Jochen Rindt, Niki Lauda and Keke Rosberg.