How DragonSpeed used dragon stealth at CTMP

Bold? Desperate? Lucky? However you wish to classify the tactics that DragonSpeed used to win the last IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, it definitely worked.

It was a season-defining victory for the No. 81 Ferrari 296 GT3 and its lead driver Albert Costa, who turned a last-place start in GTD PRO into a win that has put him within touching distance of the championship with Road America up next.

Costa and co-driver Giacomo Altoe did this after qualifying 10th and last in class, by running 51 laps – or, more than an hour and 20 minutes on a single tank of fuel – and only making two pit stops while the other contenders in their class made at least three.

"It's a strange one, because at the last race, we won while being the slowest car on track, because the strategy worked," Costa said, looking back on the win at CTMP alongside Giacomo Altoe. "During the weekend, we were expecting nothing.

"When we finished the qualifying, we were in a meeting, all the people in the team, and we said, Okay, we have only one chance: A lot of Full Course Yellows, and the only chance [we had] was to stop late, one stop, and go to the end. Giacomo did, last year at Road America. And I never trust in this type of strategy. But in the end, when I jumped in the car, I said, 'okay, let's go!'"

DragonSpeed's final pit stop came around half-distance when George Kurtz's Crowdstrike by APR ORECA LMP2 crashed. With 40 minutes left, Costa overtook the No. 4 Corvette Racing Z06 GT3.R of Nicky Catsburg for the lead on track. But it was reasonably presumed that both cars, on similar strategies, would have to make one more stop to make it to the end, and that Laurin Heinrich in the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche would cycle to the lead.

It was the first time Costa can recall, in the last 20 years of his racing career, that he spent a race managing the fuel instead of pushing all-out, trying to be the fastest driver on track. When Costa obliged, his team asked him if he could save even more. "More than this? 'Yeah! we want to go to our target, we need you to save more fuel,'" he recalled of those conversations to the pit wall.

About 10 minutes later, it was the penultimate Safety Car, caused by a collision between the TDS Racing LMP2 of Hunter McElrea and the Forte Racing Lamborghini of Mario Farnbacher, which made this 'hail mary' from the DragonSpeed team viable.

"We were on the limit, but that crash helped us go to the end," Costa recalled.

The victory was sealed under bittersweet circumstances after Tom Dillmann crashed out of the LMP2 lead shortly after the race restarted. Dillmann sustained a back injury that has put the Inter Europol Competition driver on the sidelines for this weekend's race.

"Actually, before the Tom Dillmann crash, we were actually pulling away a little bit from the Corvette and Rexy because they were fighting. In that moment, we were safe," Costa said.

"When I was talking to Catsburg on the podium, I said to him, 'if I was knowing that my overtake to you was the winning overtake, maybe I should have gone a little bit more aggressive'. But we were fighting for last and second-last position! I was like, okay, I will not risk a lot. But that overtake was the winning overtake – and this is quite crazy to think about!

"At the end, when we were on the podium, we were shocked, because it was a big surprise for us to win the race. And I think we started to realize, two or three days later, we won.

"I'm very happy, very proud. We are fighting, we are 'P3' still, so we are ready – and I hope we can win again."

DragonSpeed is now 53 points behind the leading No. 3 Corvette Racing Z06 GT3.R of Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims, with up to a 154-point maximum points swing (including qualifying points) available this weekend. Defending champions AO Racing, Heinrich, and Klaus Bachler are only 14 points ahead of Costa, in second place.

The good news is that Costa will be in the same model of car that won GTD PRO last year at Road America – last year, it was Conquest Racing that won with a one-off entry driven by Altoe and Daniel Serra.

But DragonSpeed hasn't tested in the weeks leading up to Sunday's two-hour, 40-minute sprint around 'America's National Park of Speed'. Not an unfamiliar situation, given that DragonSpeed and new technical partner Risi Competizione didn't test before the Roar Before The 24 at Daytona and the Rolex 24 itself, but certainly not ideal.

So what does Costa expect, given all these factors?

"I got the same question from my trainer this morning, and I think that the plan is to fight for the podium," he said. "We will see, because again, we are coming without testing. I saw on my Instagram stories, many drivers testing – and I was at home!

"This is making our life a little bit harder, but I trust the team. I trust in our possibilities. You can ask me the same on Friday, and I will tell you where we are."