Ford Racing overcame an early puncture and outlasted fuel-starved rivals to emerge victorious in GTD Pro at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on Sunday.
A left-rear tire puncture derailed the group at the start, but co-drivers Christopher Mies and Frederic Vervisch battled through the adversity to sit fifth with roughly 20 minutes remaining. However, each of the top four, led by AO Racing’s Nick Tandy, were thrust in fuel conservation mode and holding out hope for a caution that never came. As they pitted one by one, Vervisch elevated until landing in the top spot in the final minutes, and left holding serve to the hungry Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports’s Nicky Catsburg.
Versisch remained undaunted, with his #65 Ford Mustang GT3 crossing the finish line 1.277s ahead of the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.
“There was a little problem in the first stint, which put us on a different strategy, but at the end, it looks like it’s the winning strategy,” Versisch said. “We had to go very long on the same tires and pushing hard. We knew that would be difficult because it’s a very aggressive track, or at least for us, the tire suffers a lot.
“Honestly, I thought, ‘OK, probably the Corvette will just pass me by.’ But surprisingly, I could keep it in front of him. And yeah, just an amazing strategy.”
#1 Paul Miller Racing: Neil Verhagen, Connor De Phillippi, #65 Ford Racing: Christopher Mies, Frederic Vervisch, #77 AO Racing: Nick Tandy, Harry King
Photo by: Art Fleischmann
It also became the first EVO-spec win for the Ford Mustang GT3 in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
“I think it proves that the EVO is really a great step in the right direction,” Vervisch said. “And yeah, never thought we could win here because we always considered this track as our worst track for the Ford Mustang since the beginning. So that’s really cool.”
Vervisch also mentioned that while running in fifth, he wasn’t immediately aware of those ahead of him being put into a fuel-save mode would be able to make it to the end or not.
“We knew that they were fuel saving and hoping for yellow,” Vervisch said. “I think about 17 minutes before the end of the race we understood that they would have to pit for fuel. But, yeah, I still saw them driving, so you’re still waiting until they effectively go in the pit lane. And then I saw it, so that was a nice feeling.”
Mies, who qualified the car third in class and was in the car during the opening stint tire puncture, was elated with the finish after a rough start to the year with results of seventh and eighth in the Rolex 24 At Daytona and Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, respectively.
“Yeah, we had a tough start to the season,” Mies said. “Daytona and Sebring were obviously difficult. We brought the Evo package for this year, so it finally paid off. I mean, last year we got lapped here by pure pace with a pre-Evo car, so we were actually a bit afraid that something similar would happen again, but obviously the Evo package did its job.
“And yeah, I’m just happy that after, I would say, a good start to the last season, but then, as most of the time, quite difficult learning tracks and how we race in it, that we finally have a good result for the team. The car has been good, yesterday in qualifying already and all practice sessions. I’m happy for everyone at Ford and Multimatic for that win.
“And I think from here we can fight now for the championship.”
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