Will Owen closed out the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic in 8th place with Juncos Racing in the fifth round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Teammate Victor Franzoni qualified the No. 50 Juncos Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R in 9th place and started the 100- minute race on the 2.3-mile Belle Isle Park street circuit. Franzoni was aggressive but clean on the start and began challenging for positions on the narrow circuit. Despite being his first time in a sports car, and new to the venue, the Brazilian learned quickly that fuel saving would be significant throughout the race. Franzoni was able to keep pace with the cars ahead of him, but unfortunately had a small encounter with a wall that caused damage to the No. 50 Juncos Racing Cadillac.
Franzoni pitted under the yellow flag and allowed the crew of Juncos Racing to repair the car and hand it over to Owen with less than an hour left. Owen entered the field a lap down and had good speed that favored Juncos Racing to construct a strategy that would gain the lap back. Another yellow allowed Owen to get caught back up to the pack and the last 30-minutes of the race was spent pressuring Filipe Albuquerque in the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac DPi where he ultimately crossed the finish line in 8th place.
Owen now turns his focus to the European Le Mans Championship where he finds himself in France for the 24 Hours of Le Mans that will run on June 15-16th.
Will Owen – Driver
“We finished 8th and had a pretty good showing. We had pretty good pace but had to go a lap down in the beginning and do some repairs to the car, but then at the end, we got the lap back and were able to race in the end. We had the pace to compete with the other Cadillac’s and manufactures ahead of us. The race was a lot of fun, and it’s typical with these things that I learn so much and then look back and immediately see all the things that I could have done better. I struggled to get up to speed quickly, and I know I need to work on that. These races teach you all that, but the amount of time is so limited on street courses.
It was really fun, and I enjoy racing the prototypes. The Juncos car was good, and there’s a lot of things we can do to improve quickly. We are just going to take it step-by-step and give it a couple more races to be right there.”
Source. Speed Group
Comments
