Strategic Wealth Racing Race Report: Mazda Raceway

A promising race outing for Strategic Wealth Racing was hampered early in the race on Saturday after contact from another car cost the team time and track position in the Continental Tire Grand Prix of Monterey. 

The end result, a 22nd place finish for drivers Matt Dicken and Corey Lewis in the No. 36 Strategic Wealth Racing Porsche Cayman, reflected the size of the setback from the early stages of the race. But it didn’t reflect that the amount of progress made during the weekend, which is just the first for the duo to be racing together and only the third IMSA race weekend for series rookie Dicken.

The 2.5-hour race, which will be broadcast on Fox Sports 1 (May 17 9:00 AM), opened with Dicken behind the wheel for the opening stages. Despite being well enmeshed in the deep field of GS and ST Class runners with the Goldcrest Motorsports-prepared Porsche Cayman, Dicken was able to get off to a clean start. 

After a short caution period set the stage for a restart, Dicken was able to move up eight positions before the action was slowed once again for a safety car period, which then triggered an unfortunate series of events.

A GS class Camaro that had already been involved in a crash with his teammate earlier in the race came barreling through the field under caution, and managed to hit an unsuspecting Dicken who was following the pace car's lead, causing damage and forcing him into the pits.

The stop required repairs that cost several laps to the leader before the car was able to return to the field. The team replaced the Continental Tires and got the car back out on track with Dicken turning the car over to Lewis to make the most of the track time despite the injured machine as he returned the Strategic Wealth Racing Cayman to the fray. 

Lewis clicked off the laps through his stint before the Pennsylvania native returned to pit lane for a driver change to hand the car back over to Dicken to take to the finish as he closed the race out 22nd in the ST class. 

“It’s racing, but it is not what we hoped for today as a result,” said Dicken of the yellow flag incident. “But there were a lot of positives from this weekend. The team worked really hard and Corey is a great addition to the team. I’m looking forward to getting out to do more testing with him and being ready to go for Watkins Glen. I think he can really help me improve as a driver, I just wish we would have been able to turn the car over to him in a little bit better condition.” 

Making his first start with the team, Lewis worked with what he had in dealing with the damaged car but still kept his sights on the big picture. 

“Overall the weekend was really good,” said Lewis. “We made some big leaps and bounds with the car and Matt picked up a lot of pace. He shaved off several seconds this week, so it is a win in my eyes as far as the weekend overall. It is not the result that we wanted but there is a learning curve to go through for everyone and we just have to capitalize on what we learned this weekend and go from here and push forward for the rest of the season.”