Bowmanville, Ontario---   Benefiting from a lightning-quick change to rain tires by the crew as the skies opened up on the pre-race grid, PRT finished a strong 6th in Sunday's one hour Canada GT Challenge Cup race at Mosport Park. 

Rain had been predicted throughout the weekend and the weatherman’s prophecy duly unfolded just as the drivers and crews were preparing to roll out for their pace laps.  Most of the 40 000 strong crowd, who had gathered to see the preceding American LeMans race, were still on hand and were definitely in for some intense CGTCC action. 

While the event had officially been declared a rain race 1 hour earlier, most of the 38 car grid was shod with dry tires and teams were left scrambling when the heavens erupted.  PRT took full advantage of this situation, and with some heads up pit work advanced from their uncharacteristic 10th position on the grid (due to mechanical troubles encountered in Saturdays' qualifying session) all the way up to 4th before the Canadian flag was waved at the end of the third pace lap to start the race.  PRT driver Aaron Pettipas, competing in the first rain race of his five year career and learning "on the job" how to manage 630 hp in the wet, quickly swept past the Camaro of Gord Vipond and into 3rd at the entrance of Mosport's extra-treacherous first turn.  Unable to match the pace of eventual winner James Holtom and polesitter Brent Gates, Aaron settled into a comfortable rhythm - a decision which proved to be very intelligent. 

Predictably, the sketchy conditions caught out many competitors, most notably 4-time defending CGTCC champ Klaus Bytzek who backed it into the pit straight retaining wall while attempting to chase down the Dairy Queen/Synergyn Racing Oil/prtracecars.ca Camaro.  With the weather becoming increasingly nasty, Aaron came in for his mandatory one minute stop earlier than planned and was forced to concede several positions to some of the lighter, under powered cars that found themselves right at home in the inclement conditions.  These positions were ostensibly regained as the track began to dry considerably at the race's 40 minute mark. 

The final 20 minutes of the race saw Aaron circulating in close proximity to the Camaro of Charles Webster and running some of the race's fastest laps (4th fastest) in the 1:35 – 1:36 range while scything through the back markers.  Inexplicably, although the PRT Camaro ran a trouble free race and was one of the few contenders that managed to avoid getting tagged with a stop-and-go penalty for passing under yellow, the final results would only give up a 6th place finish for the team. 

In retrospect, the team was seemingly a victim of an erroneous timing and scoring system that placed at least one car that had clearly finished behind Aaron ahead of him.  C'est la vie!  Nevertheless, the PRT crew didn't let this mix-up dampen their spirits and were extremely pleased with their performance.  The team will now prepare to take on a  tough posse of Trans-Am cars, Winston Cup cars, and Porsches at the SVRA Fall Festival at Lime Rock Park in Lime Rock, Connecticut, August 29-Sept. 3rd.  This will be PRT's first visit to the self-proclaimed "Road Racing Center of the East", but their relevant experience on Canadian circuits should put them in an excellent position to contend for the win.

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