Wright Motorsports Battles Through Challenging Canadian Tire Motorsport Park Sprint Round

Wright Motorsports fought through a challenging event at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park on Sunday afternoon, bringing the No. 120 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) home in ninth place in the GTD class during the 2-hour, 40-minute IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship sprint round. 

Full-season drivers Adam Adelson and Callum Ilott started from 10th on the grid, with Adelson taking the opening stint around the fast and flowing 2.459-mile circuit. A full-course caution interrupted the opening 15 minutes of the race before the field returned to green just five minutes later. Adelson briefly lost a position to another entry but quickly reclaimed the spot before going on to gain more ground, settling into ninth as the race found its rhythm again.

Another caution period arrived with just under two hours remaining, presenting the opportunity to complete the team's driver change as the majority of teams opted for a similar strategy call. Wright Motorsports executed a strong pit stop, gaining two positions as Ilott climbed aboard the Porsche and rejoined the track in seventh.

However, as the field accelerated back to green with 1 hour and 47 minutes remaining on the clock, a competitor jumped the restart and blocked Ilott's momentum, leaving him boxed in on the outside and dropping the Porsche down the running order.

The team recovered a position when another competitor was assessed a drive-through penalty, and as battles unfolded throughout the field, Ilott climbed back up a couple more spots before Wright Motorsports made its final pit stop with just over one hour remaining. From there, he ultimately went on to cross the finish line in ninth place.

“It just was not a great day for us,” said Adam Adelson. “We have the performance to fight for a better result than what we ended up getting. After the first restart during my stint, there was a massive checkup as they threw the green flag way too late. Unfortunately, I lost a lot of time trying to get around a slower car. Then Callum got unlucky with getting jumped on his restart, which put him in a bad position.” “It's so difficult to pass around this place once you lose positions,” he added. “There's nothing you can really do to get them back, at least now with our current performance compared to others. We'll look at what we could've done better, what positions we could've put ourselves in to get a better result, and just focus on Road America next.”

“It was a bit of a tough race,” echoed Callum Ilott. “We had good pace in clear air. We tried to do everything strategy-wise to get a bit more of that, but it just didn't quite work. I had a restart after a full course caution where the driver behind me jumped the start and blocked me, and I just got trapped on the outside and lost a few positions.” 

“It’s so hard to overtake here,” he concluded. “We didn't quite have enough speed on the straight to ever really get a nose into Turn 8. We’ll take some championship points and go on to Road America where I think we'll do a better job.” 

Wright Motorsports will look to rebound when the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship returns to action at Road America for the six-hour Motul SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix, scheduled for Sunday, August 2nd. Broadcast coverage in the United States will be available on Peacock, as well as internationally via the IMSA YouTube channel.