Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Markham, Ontario, Canada - The Multimatic Motorsports/Miller Racing team, based in Markham, Ontario, Canada, had a very challenging time during Round 3 of the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge (CTSCC) at California's iconic Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on May 3.
Qualifying went reasonably well, with the assistance of a 50-lb weight reduction thanks to an adjustment in IMSA's Balance of Performance rules. Billy Johnson timed in sixth in the No. 158 Ford Mustang Boss 302R he co-drives with Ian James, and Jade Buford was ninth in the sister No. 15 that he shares with Scott Maxwell.
The race start was smooth, and both cars were trying to work their way toward the front in the opening laps. Johnson had a very scary moment early in the race when he had to drive off track at the bottom of the Corkscrew turn to avoid a spinning Aston Martin. In doing so, he drove over a curb that launched the Mustang about five feet in the air. He managed to maintain control, but the impact broke the power steering and damaged the suspension. He and James would have their hands full for the rest of the day.
Following pit stops, both cars were still running in the top 10, but Maxwell had a frightening moment with about a half-hour remaining in the 2.5-hour race when he was punted off-course by an Aston Martin at the top of the Corkscrew. He was forced nose-first into the wall bordering the gravel trap, and his Mustang rolled completely over. Luckily, Maxwell was uninjured but the same could not be said for his Boss 302R.
The Multimatic Motorsports/Miller Racing team, based in Markham, Ontario, Canada, had a very challenging time during Round 3 of the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge (CTSCC) at California's iconic Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on May 3.
James drove his heart out in the No. 158 to claim a hard-fought 10th place at the finish with a very ill-handling car, while the No. 15 was unable to continue and was scored 23rd in class and 53rd overall. The hard-working Multimatic Motorsports/Miller Racing crew loaded the two damaged cars back into the transporter with the knowledge that they would have a very heavy workload before the next race, which will take place at Connecticut's historic Lime Rock Park on May 24.
"Obviously, ending up upside-down wasn't in my plans, but that's racing," Maxwell said. "Jade did a great job keeping the car inside the top 10, and with the late pit stop we had moved up into the top five. We had a problem at the pit stop when I got in, which dropped us down the order, but I wasn't too worried as it was a long race and I was just being patient while things sorted themselves out after the restart. However, an Aston Martin driver must have been told it was the last lap and just drove me off the road at the Corkscrew, head-on into the wall, and the car just took off and began rolling down the hill. Multimatic make these Mustangs strong and, despite the impact, I was fine; just a little miffed at what had transpired. Unfortunately, we now have a destroyed race car and a lot of work for our guys before Lime Rock in a couple of weeks."
"Laguna was not kind to us this year," said Buford. "Qualifying was tough, with other cars having a lot more speed in the tank than we do. But the Multimatic/Miller crew gave us the best cars we could have. The race was going well until Scott's on-track incident caused us to retire from the race. Thankfully Scott was uninjured and I'm looking forward to Lime Rock at the end of the month, where hopefully we can bring home a positive result."
"I'm never happy with 10th place," said James, "but after Billy had to go off-track to avoid a spinning competitor and did the full 'Dukes of Hazzard' jump, we were lucky to get to the end. No power steering and probably some other bent pieces meant we were just hanging in there until the end, so a top-10 is respectable. The team has a lot of work facing them to rebuild both cars for Lime Rock, but they will have them race-ready, I'm sure."
"We were probably the fastest Mustang all weekend," said Johnson, "but despite some benefits to our Balance of Performance for the weekend, we were still only a seventh-to-10th place car, while most of our competitors are still very strong despite attempts to slow them down. It was very impressive for Ian and I to still finish in the top 10 despite no power steering, which made our jobs just that much more difficult. While it didn't necessarily slow us down, we had to work a lot harder for it."
Following Round 3 of the championship, James and Johnson are tied for ninth in the driver championship standings in the No. 158 Ford Mustang Boss 302R, while teammates Maxwell and Buford are tied for 10th place. In the teams championship, the No. 158 is ranked 10thand the No. 15 11th.
The race from Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca will be broadcast on a tape-delayed basis on Fox Sports 1 at 10:00 a.m. ET on Sunday, May 11. Broadcast dates for the Lime Rock race have not been released. Live streaming of that event, as well as timing and scoring, will be available at www.IMSA.com. IMSA offers mobile apps for both iPhone and Android platforms, available at Google Play and the App Store, respectively, which also provide live timing and scoring among other features.
