Tuesday, August 8, 2016 – Fresno, CA – The PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports team finished the Continental Tire Road Race Showcase P7 after a hard fought 2 hour and 45 minute battle on Sunday.
On Saturday, José Gutierrez qualified the #52 Ligier JS P217 in second position just behind the Cadillac of Wayne Taylor Racing. Although the weather report called for rain during the race, the green flag flew under blue skies on Sunday.
“We finished P7 here at Road America, and I am very thankful that it didn’t rain and we had a dry race the entire time,” said Gutierrez.
“The PR1 and Onroak guys did a fantastic job getting our car ready for the weekend. Unfortunately, I made a mistake in traffic and both of the ESM Patron cars passed me. As my stint went on, we struggled a bit more than some of the other cars in the corners, but I knew I had to keep pushing to make up time where I could.”
“When Olivier [Pla] got in, we ran into a little issue in the pits because the first gear would not engage, so we lost about five seconds there. Olivier did a great job in his stint, and our car continues to improve each weekend. I’m optimistic about the final two races of the season and looking forward to seeing what we can do at Laguna Seca.”
Onroak development driver Olivier Pla had hoped to be able to score the first podium of the season for PR1 at Road America. Although the team will have to wait until their home race at Laguna Seca for the chance to score their first podium of the season, they were able to come away from the weekend having gained more valuable data from the car.
“I’m a little bit disappointed with where we finished. I think we had the pace this weekend to at least have a podium finish,” explained Olivier Pla.
“Unfortunately, we lost pace to the other P2 cars during the race. Also, on my last pit stop, I wasn’t able to get the car in first gear to leave the pits, so we lost another place to the Visit Florida car.”
“Once we were back on track I tried to close the gap between myself and the next car, but unfortunately, I was never able to get close enough to make a pass. It wasn’t the result we were hoping for, but we made a lot of gains with the car, and we can take what we learned here and move forward for the next race.”
The penultimate round for the PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports team in the 2017 IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar season will be at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on September 24. On track action will begin on Friday, September 22 and continues through Sunday. Be sure to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to stay up to date with all of our racing news!