CTSCC: New Shelby Mustang takes pole on debut

Rolling out a brand-new Ford Shelby GT350R-C at Watkins Glen International, Scott Maxwell wasn’t sure to expect in Friday’s Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge qualifying. But, the veteran Canadian driver’s worries were quickly put to rest. 

Maxwell showed the potential of the new car, capturing the TOTAL Pole Award for Saturday’s Continental Tire 150 with a lap of 2:01.358 (100.859 mph) in the No. 15 Ford Performance/Multimatic Ford Shelby GT350R-C co-driven by Billy Johnson.“We knew we’d be in the ballpark, but with the Grand Sport (GS) field being as competitive as it is, I wasn’t sure where we’d stack up,” Maxwell said. “I felt good yesterday when we third in opening practice, but didn’t feel quite as confident when we were eighth in this morning’s session. So it was nice to win the pole – and it would be nicer to back it up with a win.“The Shelby feels like a completely different car. We had a frustrating time when we came here last month to test, but we learned a lot. You need to have everything working to succeed in GS.”Doran Racing took two of the next three positions. Brad Jaeger was second, running 2:01.483 (100.755 mph) in the No. 14 NISMO GT Academy Nissan 370Z co-driven by BJ Zacharias, while Steven Doherty was fourth at 2:01.973 (100.350 mph) in the team’s No. 41 entry co-driven by Nicholas McMillen.The Nissans split the No. 13 Billfish Foundation/Rum Bum Studios Porsche 911 of Hugh Plumb, who ran 2:01.542 (100.706 mph) in the car co-driven by his brother Matt.Matt Bell, who was seeking his third straight GS pole, qualified fifth in the No. 9 Stevenson Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro Z/28.R with a lap of 2:02.043 (100.293 mph).

Piscitell Captures Fourth Straight ST Pole For Mazda Still without a full-time ride, Justin Piscitell captured his fourth consecutive TOTAL Pole Award in the Street Tuner (ST) class as a substitute driver. He ran a lap of 2:08.044 (95.592 mph) in the No. 34 Alara Racing Mazda MX-5 co-driven by Christian Szymczak.“Today was the toughest one yet,” Piscitell said. “I really had to be on my ‘A Game.’ On my first flying lap, I went in too deep and really messed up on the Inner Loop. Then my second flying lap did it. Chad McCumbee was right behind me the whole time, putting a lot of pressure on me.”He will be joined on the front row by Kevin Boehm, who ran 2:08.353 (95.362 mph) in the No. 93 HART Honda Civic Si. McCumbee was third, running 2:08.611 in the No. 5 CJ Racing ModSpace Mazda MX-5 co-driven by Stevan McAleer. Saturday’s race will take the green flag at 12:25 p.m. ET. The race will be streamed live on IMSA.com.