The 2021 Sports Car Championship Canada made its Calabogie Motorsports Park debut on August 7/8 and, although it was a new venue for the series, it was business as usual for Marco Signoretti.
Driving the #22 Ford Mustang GT4, Signoretti took pole position and the win in both of the weekend’s 40-minute races, continuing his intense education in the ways of GT racing.
“Entering the weekend we knew it was going to be all about tyre management due to the characteristics of the circuit,” said Marco. “Throughout testing, our main focus was setting up a well-balanced car that didn’t abuse its tyres. The team provided me with a great car which gave me everything I needed to get the job done.”
As the cars rolled out for the start of Saturday’s race it began to rain and with the whole field on slicks, Signoretti had a job on his hands, trying to keep the hard-charging front-wheel-drive TC cars behind him as he worked to get his tyre temperatures up.
With regular updates on the conditions and some steadying words from the team, Marco soon settled into a good rhythm, keeping the tyres alive and taking a hard fought win.
An early stoppage in Race 2 shortened it to a 35-minute sprint. The strategy for this race was for Marco to get his head down and push hard for two laps to build up a buffer. Once that was achieved he went into tyre conservation mode on the famously abrasive track, ultimately taking the win.
“The team coached me through the stint and kept me informed about my pace and the gap to P2,” said Marco. “I’ve learned so much about tyre management from the team and I felt we did a solid job controlling the race to get the win. All in all it has been another great weekend for the team; I am grateful for the support from Multimatic Motorsports, who continually provide me with the best tools a driver could ask for.” Multimatic Motorsport boss Larry Holt said: “We were all worried about tyre life going into Calabogie. It’s where we do all of our test and development work and so know that running the Mustang flat out for 40 minutes wasn’t going to be an option. The balance of performance with the Touring cars is really close and they have the same challenges with their front tyres. But all that changed in the wet and the advantage went their way, Marco’s task immediately flipped from conserving tyres to keeping them in the operating zone. The first laps were fought in race one but Marco is really starting to develop his race craft and he performed like a veteran, with lots of help on the radio. As a driver development year, we couldn’t ask for more from the tracks, conditions and competitors, Marco is experiencing pretty every situation we could have conceived and rising to the challenges. Lots more to come from this young man.”
