Rock Show

The Ford Performance Shelby GT350R-C races at Lime Rock Park

By Steve Turner
Photos courtesy of Ford Motor Company

There is no doubt about it; the Ford Performance 2015 Shelby GT350R-C is making quite a name for itself on the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge circuit. After the Multimatic Motorsports-backed teams had a strong showing a rain-soaked Watkins Glen, they won their second race at the team’s home track, Canadian Tire Motorsports Park. Tomorrow morning this two-car team rolls into Lime Rock Park in Connecticut.

If you have been following the saga of the Shelby GT350R-C, you know that the victory in Canada didn’t come without cost. While 16-year-old Austin Cindric was able to pilot car 158 to the win, his teammate Scott Maxwell had an on-track altercation that ended with a hard crash into the tire barrier, which totaled the Number 15 race car.

If you missed the crash, you can see it right here from his in-car camera…

“After the bittersweet result at Mosport, I’m hoping we can bounce back in the No. 15 car and try to make it two wins in a row for Multimatic Motorsports and Ford Performance,” Scott. “Our team did an amazing job getting a new car ready for Lime Rock, so hopefully Billy and I can reward them with a good result. Lime Rock will be a bit crazy—40 cars on a 1.5-mile track—so anything can, and likely will, happen.”

That’s right, in about a week, Multimatic Motorsports built a new GT350R-C race car from a body in white and it will be racing tomorrow.

“Lime Rock is North America’s road-course equivalent of a NASCAR short-track bullring, and combining the two classes in one race this year is surely going to make for an interesting and exciting race,” Scott’s co-driver Billy Johnson said. “Our team is amazing and really hard-working for pulling long days to build Scott and I a brand-new car after ours was destroyed at Mosport. Hopefully we can bring back the big trophy for the guys at the shop who make this all possible.”

While Scott and Billy are looking for a bit of redemption at this race, their teammates Austin Cindric and Jade Buford are hoping to sustain positive momentum.

“Coming off a win at Mosport, hopefully Austin and I can continue to carry momentum at Lime Rock and make it two in a row for our No. 158 Multimatic/Miller Racing/Ford Performance GT350R-C,” Jade said. “The championship is still very much in play, and I’m looking forward to closing the gap to first place.”

“I think Jade and I this year, we really hit the jackpot as far as teammates go,” Austin Cindric said. “Jade and I have been able to push each other really well and we’re great teammates. Our feedback is almost identical when we get out of the car, so that makes it really easy to make adjustments.”

Currently Austin and Jade are in in fourth place in the drivers’ standings, while Scott and Billy are tied for fifth place with two other drivers, while cars 158 and 15 reside in the fourth and sixth spots in the team championship race.

The tape-delayed Lime Rock race will be broadcast on Fox Sports 1 at 12:00 p.m. EDT on Sunday, August 2, and eventually the full race will show up on IMSA’s YouTube channel. If you missed the first victory in Canada, you can watch that race right here…

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