News
15 JUNE 2008
CANNEY AND PLUMB SCORE MOSPORT PODIUM
Bowmanville, Ontario (15 June, 2008)—Sharing
the No. 60 Sunset Hills Vineyard Ford Mustang FR500C,
Mike Canney and Hugh Plumb combined to score second
place in the Grand-Am KONI Challenge race at Mosport
International Raceway this weekend as part of the traditional
Fathers Day Doubleheader race event. The race result
moved the duo up to second together in the KONI Challenge
Driver Championship standings and marked the first
KONI Challenge podium appearance of the season for
the two after three rounds of competition.
Despite it being his first KONI race outing at
the daunting track, Canney made it look like he was
an old visitor as he showed his enthusiasm for the
facility, moving up to twelfth early in the 2.5-hour
event after starting from seventeenth on the grid.
“Mosport is a really exciting track, and
it requires a lot of commitment from the driver to
get a fast lap time,” said Canney. “The
penalty for getting it wrong and going off this track
is pretty harsh, so I just worked on building my speed
all weekend long and was really happy with how the
race opened up. My crew chief Quinn (Conda) was great
on the radio and even though it was just my first time
there, Mosport is one of my favorite tracks now!”
Canney, Plumb, and Conda spent a good deal of
time before the race working out as many possible race
developments as they could conceive, looking to be
prepared no matter how the event unfolded. And with
rain a threat through the entire race weekend, the
pre-race preparations looked to make the most of all
possible situations.
“We wanted to be as fast as we could be
if the race went full dry, but we also didn’t
want to be completely committed to a dry set up just
in case the rain did come once the race started,” said
Canney, who went faster with every session through
the weekend. “So we kept that in mind with our
set-up, and even though the race was ultimately not
really effected by the weather, I was still happy with
the compromises we made on the set up, and our pit
strategy was a big part of our move forward. Hugh just
did a great job to put us up front from there and it
was a thrill to be up on the podium.”
The event defied pre-race predictions by opening
up with nearly an hour of green-flag running, but a
series of late-race yellows saw Plumb’s lead
erased and left him as prey to another Mustang racer
in local hero and race winner Maxwell.
“It was great to get back up front and
run in the lead like we did at Daytona,” said
Plumb. “The car was really good, but I just didn’t
have anything for Maxwell on that second restart so
I didn’t try to block him or anything because
that would have let third and fourth in on the fight.
So we just tucked in and broke away from the field
to the finish. Mike did a great job at the start, and
getting on the podium is great for our momentum. This
was a whole team effort this weekend and hopefully
we can keep that going at Watkins Glen.”
The GS Class of Grand-Am’s KONI Challenge
will race again at Watkins Glen as part of the IndyCar
Series Fourth of July event weekend.
Contact: Matt Cleary, Sunday Group Management
media@sundaymanagement.com
(317) 908-2975 Mobile