Vincent conquers Mosport

Thirty members of the Red Sox Racing League traveled to Canada for the “Strawberry Fields Forever” at Mosport for week five of the 2013 Season One schedule.  Paul Hesla has two wins in 2013, but missed his second start in a row.  Last week Brad Vincent seized the opportunity provided by Hesla’s first DNS to take the win, and it looked as if he would do the same at Mosport.  He sounded confident when speaking with reporters before the race.  “Team VBR was happy to earn the victory last week, but we are expecting it to be the first of many.  The car is dialed in, the crew is primed for action, and I know we will be in the hunt again this week.”

Vincent’s pre-race comments were more than mere boasts as he not only secured the pole position at Mosport (his third in five races), but he once again lead every lap on his way to a second dominating win in a row.  Taming the 2.45 mile, ten corner road course is no easy feat, but Vincent did so in convincing fashion.

Canadian driver and local favorite, Les Turner, has multiple wins at the course he considers to be his home track, but even he was no match for Vincent.  “Brad stole the show here tonight”, said Turner after the race.

Vincent’s qualifying effort of 1:16.747 was enough to edge out Empty Keg Racing’s Patrick Guerin lap time of 1:16.876.  It was Guerin’s second time in the runner’s up spot on the starting grid.  Andrew Humphrey (3^rd) and Tommy Rhyne (4^th) began the race in row two.  Nim Cross, Jr (5^th) and Corey A. Wolf (6^th) started in row three.  Dean Moll (7^th), Les Turner (8^th), Reed Rundell (9^th), and newcomer Gilles Mourette (10^th) rounded out the top-10 starting positions.

Douglas Beard, Tony Duffy, John Koscielniak, David Weiss, Andrew Gantman, Dylan Roberts, Scott Husted, Terry Daul, Stefan Hojnowski, Dennis Griffen, Kevin Kyle, Jeff Thomas, Ed Sutcliff, Dean Ayer, James Prostell Jr., Divina Galica, Andrew Feldman, William Kabela, Gerald Livingston, and Chad Tracy completed the starting grid.

The Mosport circuit’s second turn, also called Clayton Corner isn’t as famous as Moss Corner in T5, but the sweeping downhill left-hander is deceptively dangerous.  Drivers who lose their focus at Clayton Corner’s entry find themselves watching helplessly as their cars careen through the infield grass and speed into the tire barriers.  RSR drivers are known as a cautious and courteous group, but even they were not immune to the dangers lurking at Mosport.

Stefan Hojnowski  almost made it past the danger zone of T2 when his right side tires dipped off track at the bottom of the hill on lap one.  In 18th place at the time of the incident, Hojnowski miraculously escaped contact with traffic as his car spun across the track in front of half the field before sliding into the wall.  The incident dropped him to last place, but he was able to continue racing.

David Weiss and Scott Husted tangled on the downhill exiting T2 on lap two when Weiss lost control of his car and slid back across the track as Husted was barreling down behind him.  Both cars slid off track and suffered heavy damage after impacting the tire barriers.  Husted was disappointed about the incident.  “I’ve had a rough time avoiding danger this year.  It seems like I am always in the wrong place at the wrong time!”

T2 collected additional victims on lap three when Kevin Kyle and Jeff Thomas both drove off the right edge of the track and into the grass as they battled to remain the top-20.  “I’m not sure what happened”, said Thomas after the race.  “I was following Kevin so closely I didn’t even realize we’d left the track until I felt my car sliding sideways!”

Gilles Mourette joined RSR just in time to make his first league start at Mosport.  Mourette was fast in practice and confident about his chances for a solid finish.  Unfortunately, a mistake at Moss Corner on lap three, coupled with an incident in T9 on lap five and a hard wreck exiting T1 on lap six, crushed  his hopes of earning a top-10 finish.  “I thought we’d make a run at the podium tonight, but it wasn’t meant to be.  Congrats to Brad for his win.”

Lap three was the harshest lap of the race.  Kyle and Thomas started things off with their dance through the grass in T2, then Mourette picked things up with his spin at Moss Corner, but it was a series of miscues between turns eight, nine, and ten that caused the most trouble.  Terry Daul was in 16th place when he lost control driving through the Esses.  He slid into the inside curbing before cutting back to the left and being hit by Dennis Griffen and Ed Sutcliff.

Sutcliff limped his heavily damaged car to the pits as Griffen drove along the outside wall in an attempt to nurse his car towards pit road.  Griffen was on the wrong side of the track to make a safe pit entry  and was forced to cross the track at T10.  Unfortunately for Dean Ayer, Griffen made that move just as Ayer was coming through the corner.  Their contact forced Ayer into James Prostell , Jr.

Gantman was running in 13th place when he got into the side of Daul’s car in T8 on lap.  Daul had moved left and slowed slightly to allow lead lap cars past, but moved towards the center of the track as Gantman entered the corner.  Neither car was damaged in the incident and Gantman would go on to finish in 11th place.

Moll surrendered a top-10 finish when he went off track and hit the tire barrier at T3 on lap nine.  The incident was caused when Moll waited a fraction of a second too late to brake while following Corey A. Wolf into the corner.  Rather than run into the back of Wolf’s car, Moll moved left and allowed his car to leave the track.  It was a dangerous move, but one that illustrated the courteous nature of RSR drivers.

Clayton Corner’s last victim of the night was Weiss.  He got off the right edge of the track on lap eleven and slid all the way through the grass until his car slammed into the tire barrier.

T1 caused the rest of the night’s carnage, as Moll, Kyle, and Duffey all succumbed to errors exiting the narrow high-speed corner.  Each of them paid dearly for the same mistake, getting their left side tires over the rumble strip on corner exit.  The mistakes likely cost each of them a legitimate chance at a top-10 finish.

Vincent crossed the finish line with a 12 second lead over Nim Cross Jr.  Patrick Guerin finished a second behind Cross.  Les Turner crossed the line in 4th place, while Wolf finished in 5th place.  Reed Rundell, Douglas Beard, Andrew Humphrey, John Koscielniak, and Dylan Roberts rounded out the top-10 finishing positions.

Turner was not happy with his effort.  “To be honest, Canadian Tire Motorsports Park (Mosport) has always been one of our strongest tracks.  I made a mistake in qualifying that prevented me from getting a clean hotlap.  The error meant I started too far back on the grid to focus on the leaders.  Instead, I was tangled in a fierce battle just to stay in the top-10.  The TeamDraft Batmobile has not been on the podium yet this season, but we are sniffing at the door week in and week out.  We are going to enjoy the off week and dust off the old TDR Chevy Monte Carlo for a fun race at Watkins Glen next Thursday.  It should be fun!”

Wolf was happier about his top-5 finish.  “I wasn’t feeling well before the race, but figured I’d give it a go and see how it went.  I found out that the best cure is a fast car!  I had hard fight going with Reed most of the race.  We swapped spots a few times before he made one last mistake that gave me some breathing room.  I’m very pleased to have finished in fifth!”

Vincent has five podium finishes in as many starts in 2013.  His string of success gives him a twenty-four point lead over Turner in the championship battle.  Rundell is thirty-eight  points back, while Storm Front driver Koscielniak and EKR’s Guerin round out the top-5.

Despite the narrow passing zones and high number of off-track incidents, Vincent, Turner, Wolf, Rundell, Koscielniak, Kabela, Livingston, Rhyne, and Feldman all managed to complete the race without collecting a single incident point.

Team VBR (Vincent/Beard) continue to lead the team championship battle. They enjoy a sixty-eight  point lead over Teamdraft Srt (Thomas/Tuner), and an eighty-four point lead over Empty Keg Racing (Guerin/Hesla).  TOC Racing 3 (Gantman/Humphrey) and TOC Racing 2 (Moll/Rundell) round out the top-5.

Next Race

RSR members take a week off before traveling to Belgium for the ”Masta Kink 30” at Spa-Francorchamps.

Results / Standings / Video coverage

Race Results:  http://rsr.ileaguerace.com/champ/show_event_result/Red-Sox-Racing-League/2869

League Standings:  http://rsr.ileaguerace.com/champ/show_champ/Red-Sox-Racing-League/432

League Video Site:  http://www.youtube.com/user/draftin11

Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/all-news/vincent-conquers-mosport

Jim Hurtubise Gus Hutchison Jacky Ickx Yuji Ide Jesús Iglesias