BOWMANVILLE, ON, CA — Patrick Long and Sascha Maassen teamed to capture 3rd place at the ultra-quick Mosport International Raceway on Sunday, in doing so solidifying 3rd place in the LMP2 class championship with three races left to run. Maassen, the German Porsche veteran, qualified the car in 6th place, but Patrick Long was called on to start. At the drop of the green flag, Long passed Simon Pagenaud in the De Ferran Acura for position entering the first turn, and set about a trouble-free stint. Long was called into the pits at roughly the one hour mark of the race during the first caution period, and handed over to his teammate Maassen. Sascha battled with the Acura contingent until the 2nd caution period of the race was called. Unfortunately, a piece of debris from incident that caused the caution period became lodged under the #6 Porsche RS Spyder, rendering Maassen unable to turn. Thankfully, he was able to maintain pace under yellow and nurse the car back to the pits for removal of the debris. The extended caution period gave the #6 team the chance to capitalize and top off the fuel load, which gave the Sascha the ability to run until the end of the race. The creativity started a trend for some competition o follow suit, and to dive in to refuel just before going back to green. Other competitors choose to stay out and had to pit for a splash of fuel close to the end of the race, a few even choosing to gamble and ran out near the end of the race.
Patrick said, “All in all, it was great to be back on the podium—what a wild race! At the end, it got pretty eventful, and it really was decided on fuel strategy more than anything, but my congratulations and thanks go to our strategy and team guys on the 6 car. We made some great progress in championship and put some distance between us and our closest competitor, and we’re ready to push on to final three races. Detroit, Road Atlanta and Laguna are three tracks that I love as a driver, and I’m excited to take them on in the Spyder. My job this race was pretty straightforward—just keep my nose clean and advance. I was happy with my start and my stint, but Sascha was really on his game today. He was able to run at an impressive pace while saving a tremendous amount of fuel, which was what made the difference at the end. As an aside, I’d really like to congratulate our sister Penske team in the IRL—to recover from their devastating fire en route to Sonoma and then go 1–2 in the race is really a testament to Penske’s work ethic and team spirit.”