Yakumi Takahashi took victory in the Molson Dry Race of Canada ahead of team-mate Nick Addison, giving the Toyota powered Morley team a 1-2 finish in Montreal. In a hectic race interrupted twice by rain with no fewer than 12 retirements, the two Australian-run cars managed to keep their noses clean and ahead of the competition. The drama happened from the start, when polesitter Hugh Dwyer and second-placed Marcus Thunder made heavy contact in turn 2, leaving Thunder with broken front-left suspension and eliminating him from contention. Meanwhile, Dwyer continued onwards, and the stewards judged it to be a racing incident. Takahashi was under pressure for third place, and Lewis Ellington eventually got ahead on lap 12 to take the spot at L’Epingle. Elsewhere, the opening stages were very clean, with the biggest mover being Daniel Bruner up to 8th.
On lap 24 the first rain shower fell with Drake Davies and Jamie Gerrard colliding at the final chicane. Both drivers ended up in the Wall of Champions in a very clumsy incident, eliminating them from 22nd and 23rd respectively. However, this also brought out the safety car, which proved crucial. When the field was released on lap 30 - with the rain stopping, the track was wet enough to be tricky but not wet enough to switch tyres - the leading pair of Hugh Dwyer and Lewis Ellington were as one, and into the first left hander, Ellington made an audacious move which was never on, smashing into the front left side of Dwyer’s car. Both cars limped back to the pits to retire, but the incident was covered by local yellows meaning the race could continue unhindered. This all left Nick Addison in the lead after he pulled off a clean move on Takahashi, while Hiroto Nakumaya and Mikko Heininen hit trouble on lap 35 fighting over 13th when they came together at the hairpin. Nakumaya’s right driveshaft broke in the incident, while Heininen’s steering arm snapped, meaning both retired immediately. Further back, Rodrigo Sanchez’s Jaguar engine expired on lap 42. At half distance, Brock Kidd was making waves through all the carnage on track – he moved up from 7th to 3rd in swift fashion, but he was cruelly denied by a brake failure along the back straight, forcing him to abandon the chicane and limp home to retire, as another rain shower hit the circuit. Keith Murphy smashed into the Wall of Champions on lap 51 as a result of the conditions, but the strength of the chassis meant that while the car was damaged beyond repair, he could drive it to the turn 1 marshal’s post, again ensuring a safety car wasn’t required. Pedro Costa and Alex Wright raised further concerns about the reliability of the Jaguar engine after retiring from 12th and 15th respectively, while up front, Addison and Takahashi started to battle as the rain abated again, just as teams were preparing wet tyres. The pair were within 2 seconds for the best part of 20 laps before Takahashi made a bold move into the hairpin on lap 64 and didn’t look back. In the final stages of the race the gaps between the leading cars started to grow, with Takahashi leading Addison, Michal Kubat a surprise third, Felipe Cesar in 4th, Bruner 5th and Luke Stokey in 6th, but the battle for 7th was fierce. Will Taylor was ahead until lap 84, when the chasing Keith Boston made an excellent move into the second chicane to take the position. Enzo Domenicalli made up 2 spots on at the expense of Didier Arnaud and Dino Palma to take 9th, but it was Takahashi who took the honours in great style to win the race.
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April 2018
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