Nineteen-year-old California driver Mason Filippi piloted the #12 Winding Road Racing M235i Racing to a dominant win in the second Pirelli World Challenge Touring Car race of the weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park on Sunday, May 21. Nick Wittmer, driving the #91 ST Racing M235iR, placed second in the first race, run on Saturday.
Filippi’s team bet on slicks for the 40-minute sprint despite light rain at the start. Several of the front runners, including race one winner Paul Holton in an Audi RS3, elected to start on rain tires. It turned out to be the wrong bet, as the track stayed relatively dry much of the way. Filippi said, “We ended up sitting in the pits and we saw everyone coming in trying to get their tires done. My coach went over to turn two and three to check out the corners and I had someone else check out the back side. It wasn’t raining too much so we decided to stay on slicks for this race and it ended up being a great decision. We were going at it for a while and ended up catching traffic – TC, TCB, and TCA – and we were all together and it seemed that whoever could get through the track faster would be able to pull ahead. (The rain) seemed to move around. It was very exciting on slicks.”
Even when the rain got heavier Filippi was able to stay in charge; he built a cushion over his closest competitors that turned into a wide margin when second-place runner Cody Ellsworth retired his Porsche Cayman late in the race. Second place went to Audi RS3 racer Jason Coupal and third went to Nissan 370Z racer Tony Rivera. The next M235iR in the standings at the end of the race was the fifth place #80 Rooster Hall Racing car driven by Anthony Magagnoli, Three more M235iRs finished in the top ten, including Nick Wittmer in sixth, Greg Liefooghe in seventh, and defending TC champion Toby Grahovec in tenth.
Wittmer finished second to Holton in the first race of the weekend. The race was red flagged after nine laps, just over 18 minutes into what was scheduled to be a 40-minute race. The red flag came out because of a three-car incident that left too little time for the track repairs needed to complete the scheduled 40 minutes. Grahovec finished fifth, Magagnoli finished sixth, and Stephen Cameron Racing M235iR drivers Ari Balogh and Greg Liefooghe finished eighth and ninth.
TCB class Mini racers Travis Washay and Taylor Handwerk finished third and fourth in class in race one and fourth and fifth in class in race two. Jake Pipal in a Honda Fit won TCB in both races.
PWC racers have no time to rest before the next race; the series runs at Lime Rock Park on Friday, May 26 and Saturday May 27.—Brian S. Morgan
