Thursday, July 7, 2016 – Fresno, CA – After a disappointing finish at the Sahlen’s 6 Hours of the Glen, the PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports team is ready to move past the New York race and travel north of the border to the Mobil 1 Sports Car Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
The weekend at Watkins Glen started out promising, with Robert Alon qualifying the car in second position for Sunday’s race. But when the green flag dropped on Sunday, the team quickly realized they had an electrical problem and had to make several pit stops to be able to stay in the race. The trio of Alon, Jose Gutierrez and Tom Kimber-Smith did cross the finish line at the end of six hours but were unfortunately several laps down.
With less than a week between Watkins Glen and the Canadian Grand Prix, the PR1 team is ready to get back on track at the 2.459-mile road course and make a run for another podium finish.
“I’m happy to get back on track this weekend so quickly after Watkins Glen. Unfortunately we had a tough weekend there, but I know the guys have been working hard to get the car ready to go for this weekend,” said Kimber-Smtih.
“This is an extremely fast track with not a lot of room for run off or error, so Robert and I will have to be ready to go straight out of the box. Last year there were only three classes running here, as the GTD cars were not at this particular event, so it’s going to be very busy out there with traffic with all four classes, but hopefully we can get out in front and stay there and finish the weekend on the podium.
Both Alon and Kimber-Smith have raced at the Canadian circuit, but this will be Alon’s first competition in the PC car.
“I’ve raced at Canadian Tire two times before, but in the prototype lites car, so this is going to be a completely different experience for me,” explained Alon.
“The track already felt really fast in the lites car, so I’m definitely looking forward to turning my first laps in the PC car with all of the added the down force compared to the lites car. I know the PR1 guys have been working hard the last couple of days to get the No.52 ready to go for the weekend, so I can’t wait to get back on track on Friday and see what this place is all about in the PC car and hopefully finish the weekend back on the podium.”
On track action for the Mobil 1 Sports Car Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park begins on Friday morning and continues through Sunday. Be sure to catch the full race LIVE on Fox Sports 1 with coverage beginning at 11:00 AM EST.