Mowlem, AutoCon Team Take Podium Finish At Mosport International

Johnny Mowlem and his AutoCon teammates recorded a podium finish, taking third place overall in the Mobile 1 presents the Grand Prix of Mosport American Le Mans Series race at Mosport International Raceway here.

The event marked only the second time Mowlem has raced the AutoCon Lola B06 10 LMP 1 car and, as on the first occasion a week earlier at Road America, the team was a major player in the race.

“It was good, really very good,” Mowlem said. “We ran again with the leaders and had some good battles at different times during the race. The car was spot on and it ran very quickly.”

Mowlem had again qualified the Lola P1 race car but this time co-driver Tony Burgess would take the start in fourth place, running well in third place initially and then running very consistent times to stay in a strong fifth place. When Mowlem took the wheel, the pit stop put the AutoCon effort a lap down to the leaders but Mowlem drove the car back onto the lead lap. He was positioning himself to challenge for second when a major crash forced organizers to stop the race with a red flag. The event was not restarted.

“Tony did a terrific job to keep us in contention,” Mowlem said. “After the pit stop, we fought our way up to third. Initially I was able to catch the Highcroft Accura in second place and brought the gap down to 10 seconds at one point, but then I started getting high oil temps and the team asked me to start short shifting and also to turn the engine down. Then for my first splash for fuel I lost the clutch so when Tony got back in at the end he did well to get out of the pits, but then he never ran any green laps as the crash that caused the yellow for me to pit eventually caused the race organizers to red flag the race and so the results stood! I have to thank the whole AutoCon team for a great job all weekend in the face of some difficult mechanical issues on occasion. They also called a great strategy and the yellows fell for us perfectly. It was great to help to give them and Tony such a well deserved podium at such a high level international race event. ”

In his AutoCon debut at Road America, Mowlem led most of the first hour before a mechanical issue put the team out of contention. The podium finish on the 2.459-mile Mosport course gave the team tangible evidence of a job well done and a result to go with it.

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