In just its third IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge race, the brand-new No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro GT4.R found its way to Victory Lane in a two-hour battle at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
Robin Liddell and Matt Bell – two drivers who won Continental Tire Challenge races in the previous generation Camaro – did the honors for the No. 57 team. Liddell took over for Bell – who ran inside the top five throughout his opening stint behind the wheel – during the race’s only full-course caution, for a heavy crash involving Jared Salinsky in the No. 52 MINI just before 50 minutes had elapsed.
On the ensuing restart just past the halfway point, Liddell got a good run on race leader Jesse Lazare in the No. 69 Motorsports In Action McLaren GT4 going into Canadian Tire Motorsport Park’s famed Moss Corner and claimed the lead. Adding insult to injury for Lazare was a drive-through penalty he received for failing to slow to safety car speed as directed by race control when the full-course caution came out.
While Liddell wasn’t challenged from that point on in the race, Lazare did manage to battle his way all the way back to second over the last hour of the race and got to within four seconds of the Camaro in the final few minutes of the race before fading toward the finish. Liddell went on to win by 6.462 seconds over Dillon Machavern in the No. 28 RS1 Porsche Cayman GT4 MR.
“I’m delighted to get the win, but we weren’t really expecting it to be honest,” Liddell said. “We’re still in the early stages of development with the car and that’s not to say there’s a lot more potential pace in the car, but certainly there are little teething issues we are having with it that we’re working through. To get the first win globally in this new GT4 platform is great. It’s another generation of Camaro that we as a team with Stevenson have won in, with the GT car, the Z/28, and now in this car. It’s great to be a part of that. It’s really a building of modern history for Camaro fans”.
