Two races at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park, two wins for Patrick Long as he again led from flag-to-flag in the second race of this weekend’s Pirelli World Challenge doubleheader. In so doing, Patrick took over the championship lead, with 11 races remaining. The race was started behind the safety car, due to rain, but quickly dried. On the opening lap, cars fighting for position at the front of the field contacted, with a lengthy yellow following cleanup. In the remaining 27 minutes of the race, Long was able to maintain a one-second gap ahead of the field, staying clear of the action behind.
Wright Motorsports had a perfect weekend, with both Long and his teammate Michael Schein in the GTA class sweeping the weekend.
“It’s really the perfect weekend for the team, myself and Patrick,” said Schein. “Double pole, double win. The race was interesting with the rain. It was hairy at the start it was really wet in the beginning coming out of turn five. You really had to be smooth on the throttle application and make sure you didn’t light the tires up and spin the car. Once it settled in a little bit and it dried out and the dry line formed, I was able to stick with the guys in front of me and I saw behind me that the cars were kind of dropping away from me. Maybe three quarters into the race I mellowed out a bit I saw the rain coming back. I didn’t want to make any mistakes and bring the car home in one piece. We have a short turnaround with Lime Rock coming up. It was a good race, I’m happy for sure.”
