Clarington, Ontario. After coming off an amazing win at Watkins Glen just one week prior, the #52 MINI would suffer a tragic end during a tough race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
Driver Jay Salinsky would qualify the car in 10th position, giving the #52 a very good shot at making the podium again. Teammate Derek Jones earned his #73 car the pole position, with Mike Lamarra putting his #37 MINI in fourth to start the race. Team MINI looked like a force to be reckoned with at the beginning of the race.
Early in the race Jay was able to get a solid start picking up several positions on the first lap. Unfortunately the #73 would fall back due to a slow GS car in front of him holding him up. All 3 MINIs looked great and were quite the focus of the announcers during the live stream. Everyone was looking strong until a string of unfortunate events began to take place. The #73 suffered a flat tire and needed to pit early for repair. This would result in losing precious minutes in the 2 hour race. Around the one hour mark, all 3 cars would be preparing for their driver changes. Jay was looking strong & attracting attention from the announcers, pushing his car up to 4th early on but falling back to 7th when tragedy struck. A car from a different class had just done their driver change & tire change and sent their new driver on track. Jay saw the faster approaching GS class Porsche in his mirrors and gave him plenty of room to make his pass on turn 3. Unfortunately that driver did not make the pass correctly and punted Jay off track into the tire wall on the exit of turn 3. This catastrophic event was captured on video by the many cameramen situated throughout the track. Looking at the replay the announcers made the same conclusion that most did, that the Porsche did not complete his pass and forced Jay off into the tire barriers. Fortunately he only suffered some minor bumps and bruises thanks to a very well made & safe car by LAP Motorsports. And without his HANS device (a neck restraint designed to prevent neck injuries in crashes just like this), the outcome could have been much worse.
Jay was able to get out of the car himself with the safety team right there if he needed them. The car was too badly damaged however to finish the race. His co-driver Nate Norenberg would not get his chance to take the car to the podium.
We didn’t want our race to end that way and were really looking forward to continuing the winning streak from the week before. At least the #37 MINI driven by Mike Lamarra and James Vance was able to take 3rd after an epic battle till the very end.