Scot Robin Liddell grabbed his third Grand-Am GT Championship win of the season in dramatic style in Canada. The 34-year-old from Edinburgh started the final lap third but powered home to win in stunning fashion at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal.
Having taken over at the wheel of the Pontiac GXP.R from co-driver Andrew Davis in fourth, his Stevenson Motorsport team then made a decisive decision to bring him in for fuel during a second full course yellow period shortly after mid-distance.
Resuming down the field in 11th, the Scot had recovered to ninth with 30mins to run, then moved through to sixth with five minutes remaining. But as his rivals slowed to conserve fuel, Liddell charged to fourth with two laps to run before starting the final 2.71-mile lap third.
A fortnight after suffering the cruel blow of losing the lead on the final lap of the previous round when his car suffered tyre problems, this time Liddell powered through to win by over three seconds.
“It’s going to take me a long while to come back down to earth after this victory,” Liddell, now just 16-points behind the GT leaders with two races remaining, admitted after completing the 200-mile race.
“I felt pretty crummy about 10 laps from the end because I started to wonder if we’d done the right thing by pitting for fuel. But as we got closer to the chequered flag, our rivals were either dramatically slowing to save fuel or coasting to a standstill completely out of gas.
“The team did an excellent job today with the strategy and during the pit stops. This victory now really opens up the championship and we’re right up for the fight.”
Liddell returns to action in four weeks for the penultimate round of the Grand-Am GT Championship at the 2.25-mile road course at New Jersey Motorsports Park in Millville.
JM