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Bowmanville, ON – The FEL Sports Car Championship Canada presented by Michelin (SCCC) opened its season with a pair of races at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (CTMP), during the Victoria Day SpeedFest weekend. Jack Polito (GT4), Richard Boake (TCR) and Eric Kunz (TCA) each recorded a pair of victories.
Race One
Polito started on the GT4 and overall pole for Saturday’s race one, while Boake started on the TCR pole and Kunz started out front in TCA.
Polito and Kunz pulled away as the race went on, but a spirited battle for fourth overall and the TCR lead saw Dean Baker take the spot on Lap 1 and hold off Boake during the first half of the 40-minute timed event. The reigning TCR champion is running a partial schedule this year, as he’ll be competing in select IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge races with his son Sam.
On Lap 16, Boake took the lead entering turn one. Baker remained second in class until spinning off track in turn eight, on Lap 22. He limped his Audi RS3 LMS around the track before retiring to pit road.
The race went caution-free, with defending GT4 champion Polito winning by eight seconds over Justin Di Benedetto. Polito brought a new Ford Mustang to the track this season and was able to quickly get it up to speed.
“The car handled great, we just did what we did in qualifying, put the hammer down and finished the race with good spirit,” said Polito. “New car, so we’re learning lots of new things, some new technology in the car, different centre of gravity, so we’re just getting everything dialed in for the rest of the season.”
Boake took the TCR win in fourth overall, followed by Anthony Martella and Ron Tomlinson.
“Dean got the jump on the green flag and I think he had a little bit of a better car at the beginning of the race,” said Boake. “We just kind of waited for our tire pressure to come to us, then we started reeling him in. I capitalized on some lap traffic and, from there, I don’t really think he had the pace to match us, so I was just managing tires.”
Kunz ended up taking a one-lap lead in TCA, but it was still a tense finish for the driver, as his Honda Civic Si lost power exiting turn three on the last lap.
“Had a sputter of fuel, lost all pedal control on the gas, so I had to switch off all power to the car, restart it and get going again,” said Kunz. “Didn’t regain power until the exit of turn five, I was fiddling with it, no power steering, turning it off, getting it back on…I was so nervous that I wasn’t going to get the win so I’m very happy I came out on top.”
Race Two
The second race took place just before the lunch break on Sunday and saw tight battles throughout the field.
In TCR, Boake and Baker remained close for the lead, while a group of cars battled for the final step of the podium. Tomlinson held the position for most of the race, while Martella and Connor Attrell had an early battle for fourth in class, before Attrell fell back.
Boake took the win by three seconds over Baker, with both drivers passing Di Benedetto in the closing laps to finish third and fourth overall. Martella, Tomlinson and Quinn Attrell traded spots with a few laps remaining, with Martella initially taking third in class before a penalty for avoidable contact put Attrell on the podium.
“We had a great car from the drop of the green, we nailed the tire pressure,” said Boake. “We got the lead into corner one, then we just kind of managed the gap from Dean. Smart with lap traffic, made sure I saved the car in case a full-course caution came out late in the race.”
Polito led flag-to-flag in GT4, but the win wasn’t uncontested. Cayden Goodridge, who raced in the Emzone Radical Cup Canada last season, cut into the deficit in the closing laps, applying pressure to the leader.
“The gap on track was a bit wide at times, but I could tell he was pushing, I was pushing,” said Goodridge. “He was really aggressive at the start so he burned off a bit of his tires and he came back to me at the end, but it was fantastic, that was absolutely everything I had to bring that gap down.”
Polito crossed the line just 0.534 seconds ahead of Goodridge to extend his undefeated SCCC GT4 streak at CTMP to 10 races.
“It feels really good, that’s for sure,” said Polito, about extending that streak. “I enjoyed (the lead battle) very much, it was nice to have some action out there, but kept my head down and got the win.”
In TCA, Kunz scored the victory, ahead of Robert Cipriani-Detres and Peter Hanson.
“Much more calculated than yesterday’s (race), I wasn’t pushing as hard on the tires to save them to the end,” said Kunz. “I was lifting and coasting a little bit to make sure I saved enough fuel, so I didn’t have that same issue again at the end of the race…I was much more focused on maintaining a constant gap rather than growing a gap this race.”
Next up for the SCCC is two races at Calabogie Motorsports Park on June 21-23.
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