New Ford Shelbys Carry Historic Paint Schemes

Subtitle:Notes and Quotes from the Continental Tire 150

A pair of brand-new cars carrying throwback colors debuted in Saturday’s Continental Tire 150.

Multimatic Motorsports rolled out a pair of new Ford Shelby GT350R-Cs – the No. 15 for Scott Maxwell and Billy Johnson and the No. 158 for Jade Buford and Austin Cindric.

In the interest of promoting both Multimatic's Canadian and Ford's American ties, the two Multimatic Shelbys carried different colored stripes. The No. 15 is white with forest green stripes. Maxwell explained that this was the scheme carried by the famed Comstock Racing Team in the 1960s, which are now the unofficial Canadian racing colors. The No. 158 Shelby is white with dark blue stripes – the American racing colors carried in competition at Watkins Glen, Le Mans and other international races by Briggs Cunningham’s team.Maxwell quickly demonstrated the potential of the new Shelby by winning the TOTAL Pole Award. It was his 10th career pole in the series and second of the season – backing up his pole in a Mustang Boss 302R at the season opener at Daytona.The race turned into the first test for the new car in wet conditions. “This was the first time the car’s ever seen rain, so it’s just like every session we’ve had so far,” Johnson said. “Every time we have the car out is a learning experience; learning more about the car, working on it to make it faster and faster. The rain just throws in so many different, complex challenges to racing and the inherent preparation of the car that you can’t really perfect until you actually run it. “All the cars we’re racing against have raced in the rain multiple times, so we definitely didn’t have that log book on what works and what didn’t work. We’re building that log book and we’ll be even stronger the next time out.”Johnson and Maxwell finished seventh, four positions behind their teammates.“It’s a good day to be disappointed in fourth,” Buford said.” The debut of these cars, Scott (Maxwell) getting the pole and us running up front, even in the rain. Our pace was very good. We probably would’ve been in competition for the win had it gone back to green.”DeMan Motorsport Runs Up Front: DeMan Motorsport ran up front in its return to the Continental Tire Challenge with the No. 11 Porsche Cayman.Car owner Phil Bloom used pit strategy to lead eight circuits following eventual winner Chad McCumbee’s pit stop. When Bloom pitted on lap 30, the lead cycled back to Stevan McAleer – who led the rest of the way to give the No. 5 CJ Wilson Racing Mazda MX-5 30 laps led.The strategy came with a cost, though. The green-flag stop cost valuable track position, resulting in a 22nd-place finish for Bloom and Rick DeMan – who found it virtually impossible to gain back any positions.“Our defroster gave out, and I had a car with virtually zero visibility,” DeMan said. “Our chances were shot after that.”For its next Continental Tire Challenge race, the Blauvelt, New York-based team plans to cross the Hudson River to compete at Lime Rock Park on July 25.Another Podium For Nissan: BJ Zacharias and Brad Jaeger scored their second consecutive third-place finish in the No. 14 Doran Racing Nismo GT Academy Nissan 370 ZXT.“I would have liked a shot at [restarting the race], but it was pretty messy out there,” Zacharias said. “It would have been fun to try to run down Liddell. I think we had the speed, but that’s how the cookie crumbles.”The No. 14 Nissan team has two podium finishes in a row, and is looking to reach the top step – which would give Doran Racing its first victory in the series. Team owner Kevin Doran was a proven winner in IMSA GTP and World Sports Car prototypes and the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series. In 1998, Doran Racing became the only team in U.S. history to win the Rolex 24 At Daytona, Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida and Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen in the same year.Learning experience for Szymczak: “Usually getting two week’s notice is a bad thing,” Justin Piscitell said after winning his fourth consecutive TOTAL Pole Award in the ST class this season. “But for me, that means I’ll get to race.”Called to co-drive the No. 34 Alara Racing Mazda MX-5 with Christian Szymczak for the third consecutive event, Piscitell won another pole for the team and joined the team in a second/third-place finish. That moved Piscitell into a tie for second in the ST points with Watkins Glen race winners Chad McCumbee and Stevan McAleer, only two points behind Andrew Carbonell and Liam Dwyer. Piscitell opened the year with Murillo Motorsports after Jeff Mosing sat out due to a family commitment.“I’m still not sure if I’ll be racing at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park,” he said after qualifying at The Glen.Meanwhile, the Continental Tire 150 proved to be a learning experience for his co-driver.“It was crazy out there, standing water in the Esses, excessive puddles and raining pretty heavily,” Szymczak said. “I’ve never raced here in the rain before, and it was a real challenge.”“If we didn’t have that yellow, there was a good chance we could get up front,” Gilsinger said. “But in these conditions, I’ll take third any day.”Good News, Bad News for MINI: Luis Perocarpi and LAP rebounded from a practice sustained in Friday’s final practice to put the No. 52 MINI John Cooper Works of Remo Ruscitti and Cody Ellsworth on the grid for the start of the race. The car sustained major left-front damage when Ruscitti went off course in Turn 7 and impacted the tire barrier.Perocarpi and the team went to work. After finishing preparations on the team’s No. 37 MINI for Zack Meyer and Stephen Simpson, the team’s entire attention focused on the damaged No. 52. Onlookers wondered if they were beginning preparations for the upcoming round at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in two weeks. Asked if there would be any chance that the car would be ready for the following day’s race, Perocarpi would smile and nod yes.The next morning, with the competition looking on, Perocarpi unveiled what appeared to be a brand-new MINI.“We were lucky with the crash. It didn’t damage anything on the structure or pick-up points. Everything was as straight as it could be,” Perocarpi said. “The car was exactly as it was set up in the shop.”The major work involved changing the lower control arm, and installing a new axle as a precaution. “We knew everyone was watching us,” Perocarpi said. “That was a big motivation to get it done. “That job probably would take two or three weeks at a body shop.”Unfortunately, the team now will have to repeat that performance. Ellsworth was caught up in an incident in Turn 1 on only the second lap of the race, badly damaging the front end of the MINI. Now, Perocarpi and the team have less than two weeks to get the car ready for the next race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park on Saturday, July 11.