Montour Enjoys First Series Experience with Racers Edge

Louis-Phillippe Montour made his Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge debut in the Microsoft Visual Studio 150, finishing 13th at Sebring International Raceway co-driving the No. 57 Racers Edge Motorsports Ford Mustang Boss 302R with Nick Galante.

“LP” worked his way up to fifth on two occasions. A green-flag pit stop dropped the team out of the lead pack and Galante encountered fuel starvation issues late in the race.

In 2013, Montour won four consecutive races and captured the pole in all eight events en route to capturing the SRT Viper Cup. His victory streak equaled the record set in 2012 by current TUDOR Championship GT Daytona (GTD) driver Ben Keating. He also won the 2013 NARRA USGT Championship in a Viper. Montour ran in his first championship in 2012, when he finished third to Keating in the SRT Viper Cup, winning at Watkins Glen in the race where Keating clinched his second consecutive Viper Cup title.

Montour, 20, is a full-time university student in business administration at Universite du Quebec en Outaouais, in addition to being the fourth generation involved in his family’s Montour Ltd., a food processing industry based in Blainville, Quebec, 30-minutes north of Montreal. A commitment with the family business will forced him to miss the upcoming Continental Tire Challenge race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on May 2, but Montour hopes to rejoin the series for the next round at Watkins Glen International on June 27 and at the remaining events.

LP, How was your experience in your first Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge race?

“I really enjoyed my first experience. We worked really hard on the car and the driver to make the whole package fast for the race. We were P-12 and P-13 during the practices, so we made a lot of changes on the car before qualifying, and I qualified P-8. We made a lot of changes to make the car faster for the race, and I made it to P-5, and we were seventh when I gave the car to my co-driver. I worked real hard during the race, and it was a real nice experience. I am hoping to do more races in the series this season.”

What are your thoughts on the competition?

“I enjoyed the level of competition. It was one of my first experiences with that kind of traffic, but everybody was clean with me. It was hard to move to P-5, but it was easier than I thought it would be. I really enjoyed that.”

What do you think of the Racers Edge Motorsports Ford Mustang Boss 302R?

The Ford Mustang is a fun car to drive, a nice car. Racers Edge Motorsports is a really fun team to work with. Both cars are well prepared, and they are working as hard as they can to make the cars faster and faster. I’m working with the team to improve my driving skills, too.  This is a completely different car from what I’m used to driving, but I’ve had no problems with this car.

How did you enjoy racing the Ford Mustang at Sebring?

“Sebring is one of my favorite tracks. With the bumps, it’s a challenge. Without the bumps, it would just be the same as other tracks. At Sebring, I had always raced high-horsepower cars, like Porsches GT3 Cup, Vipers or Ferraris. It’s still a really challenging track, even with less horsepower. The bumps make the track harder than it looks like.”

How do you like racing at Watkins Glen, where you have won in the Viper?

“Watkins Glen is my favorite track, because it’s a high-speed track. There’s no place for mistakes on that track. I’ll try hard to be there.”