Hot Streak
The Multimatic Shelby GT350R-C makes it three in a row at Road America
By Steve Turner
Photos courtesy of Ford Motor Company
We aren’t sure if drifting Lethal Performance’s new Focus RS was good practice for Road America, but Billy Johnson and his teammate Scott Maxwell scored their third win in a row at Road America over the weekend and added to the tally of seven podium finishes for the GT350R-C this season.
After qualifying on the pole, the Multimatic drivers were feeling good about the setup of the Number 15 Shelby going into race day on Saturday.
“It feels really good today, because I didn’t expect it. We struggled the last few days, but we made some changes late, late before qualifying and the car was quite good. I drove a good lap,” Scott said after qualifying. “Some of my poles this year, I haven’t been overly pleased with my lap, but today I really, I think, maxed out the car and the car was really strong. It bodes well for tomorrow.”
And bode well it did. On race day the two drivers battled to hard to keep the GT350R-C near the front. As the race waned, it was Billy’s turn in the driver seat and it looked like he was destined to finish in the second spot. However, the lead car rand out of fuel and gave the win to the Ford Performance machine.
“I left the decision to push and conserve and all of that to the team,” Billy explained. “I was just doing as I was told, and that was to go as fast as I can. Then I was getting a little nervous when I saw cars running out of fuel, pitting and pitting earlier than us, but the Multimatic Ford team had the strategy down and had everything figured out. Kudos to the team for having a great strategy and making us do what we needed to do to be in position to win.”
“The Ford Shelby GT350R-C is just a fantastic car,” he added. “I love driving it. Both Scott and I worked on the development on the street and race car and we’re both very privileged to be racing it. It’s a hell of a race car and pretty good at drifting, too.”
While another win was great, the main objective of the Multimatic team was to stay ahead in the points chase, which they did. The duo stretched their Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge points advantage by 23 points (228 vs. 205).
“Every win is important, but now that we’re into the second half of the year and the championship is narrowed down to two or three cars, this is a really big win,” Scott said. “Our objective, really, today, was just to be ahead of the Miller car (second in points). Even towards the end, when we were running second with Billy and Miller in third, I thought it was a pretty good day, but at the end it all switched around when the leader ran out of fuel. It’s a fantastic day for us winning the points day, then winning here. Road America is one of my favorite tracks and I haven’t won here in about 15 years, so it’s a good feeling.”
Unfortunately, things didn’t feel as good for the Number 76 Shelby GT350R-C piloted by Paul Holton and Pierre Kleinubing. The drivers of the colorful Shelby GT350R-C qualified in the third position, which was promising. However a collision in Turn 12 right after the race began put the Shelby on its side and out of competition.
The Shelby GT350R-C teams will return to action at Virginia International Raceway in Alton, Virginia, in the 2016 Michelin GT Challenge on August 26-28.
Drivers Billy Johnson and Scott Maxwell won their third Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge race in a row at Road America.
Scott earned his 14th career pole on Friday and Billy was in the driver seat at the end of the race to take the win after the former leader ran out of fuel.
Things didn’t go as well for Paul Holton and Pierre Kleinubing in the Number 76 Shelby, as a crash early in the race took them out of competition.
