Alex Sedgwick brings home a third and a fourth-place finish in a Porsche Carrera Cup North America doubleheader marred by heavy rain and multiple incidents.
PT Autosport with JDX Racing survived a wet and chaotic weekend to bring home its best weekend finish so far this season, in round three of the Porsche Carrera Cup North America – the doubleheader part of the Formula 1 AWS Grand Prix of Canada at the historic Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal.
25-year-old Warwickshire, UK native Alex Sedgwick kept the No. 98 PT Autosport Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Car out of trouble through the pair of rain-soaked races, bringing home a podium in race one and a fourth-place finish in race two.
Going into the weekend, Sedgwick believed his ability to quickly get up to speed would serve him well, with no pre-race testing happening at the 14-turn, 2.71-mile Circuit Gilles Villeneuve – and with his JDX Racing teammate Zachary Vanier the only driver to have raced at the circuit before. That belief proved out, as Sedgwick set the quickest time of the session on his penultimate lap in the first practice – one of only three drivers to pace under 1:39. He followed up that performance with a P4 in Friday afternoon’s session.
In Saturday morning qualifying, Sedgwick set one of the quickest lap times midway through the session, but found his time eclipsed by drivers who took new Yokohama tires late in the going. Starting sixth, he knew he would have work to do in the race and hoped for dry conditions, but Mother Nature had other ideas.
Race organizers knew that storms were most likely incoming, so the race started under yellow – but with the race clock starting. When the expected weather did not materialize, the green flag was flown four minutes into the race time. Sedgwick, knowing weather was indeed on the way, pushed his advantage immediately, making two solid passes to take fourth position on the first green lap. Sedgwick was proven correct immediately, as it soon began to rain.
Organizers posted a yellow flag, then red flagged the race with 26 minutes to go. Once restarted, the field paced for three laps under yellow but with conditions continuing to deteriorate, the checkered flag was flown, with Sedgwick coming home P4 – though later awarded third position when a competitor ahead was penalized.
“Race one was the best the car was all weekend, so I’m disappointed we didn’t get more of a chance to move forward,” said Sedgwick. “The conditions weren’t that bad early in the race but I’m figuring they decided to err on the side of caution. It took a while to get the field onto rain tires, which was unfortunate. We’d set the car up for mixed conditions so I think we would have been in good shape.”
With the second race grid order set by the driver’s second fastest lap in qualifying, Sedgwick took the green flag in third position – on rain tires, in very wet conditions. As the field took the green, Sedgwick stuck to the rear wing of the pole sitter and held his position through the slick first corners. Sedgwick was forced to take evasive action into The Hairpin’s paved runoff but kept his foot on the gas and cleared the cars behind as he held his position. Unfortunately, several cars behind were not so lucky, with a full course caution called for two separate incidents.
The race went back to green as hard rain continued to fall. Sedgwick timed his launch perfectly, pressuring the two leaders though engulfed in spray from both. But just as Sedgwick lost the battle for third position, a car made contact with the Tecpro high speed safety barrier at pit in, bringing out a second yellow.
Unfortunately, the barrier was so substantially damaged that it could not be repaired in the race time allotted. Stewards threw the checkered flag, with Sedgwick earning his second top four of the abbreviated weekend.
“It wasn’t that wet at the start, so we went closer to a dry setup,” said Sedgwick. “And of course, it rained right away. If we’d had the time late in the race, I think we could have made something of it, but that didn’t happen. Super frustrating, because I feel as though we never went racing.”
PT Autosport team principal Jason Myers was equally frustrated with the situation but understood that weather was the one factor out of control of the race organizers.
“What a strange weekend, both weather and racing wise,” said Myers. “When the weather hit, it totally changed the setup on the car, added in the need to adapt for rain tires, and affected the track’s surface grip. Alex did great and really kept the pace. The weather really impacted the running time of both races, which is super unfortunate given that Porsche prides itself in being an all-weather sports car. Turn the page, now we’re really looking forward to the Glen. Alex was quick there last year, and I think this year he’ll be quicker still.”
Next up for PT Autosport and the Porsche Carrera Cup North America will be the doubleheader in support of the IMSA Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen at Watkins Glen International. The races will be broadcast live in the U.S., on IMSA.tv, the NBC Peacock streaming app and PorscheCarreraCup.us.
PT Autosport would like to thank partners STEAM Sports Foundation, Classic Car Club Manhattan and New Jersey Motorsports Park, as well as JDX Racing partners Byers/Porsche Columbus, and Renier Construction.
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