Mario Farnbacher has seldom experienced such a helter skelter of good and bad times as in the Canadian Bowmanville race. The 24-year-old and his teammate Alex Riberas dominated the entire weekend in the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park near Toronto. However, a broken wheel suspension dashed all hopes for a second win of the season and a possible top of the standings.
“A very bitter setback for the whole team. We fought very hard at the weekend and gave our all. Unfortunately, this time technical problems messed up our plans. A big thank you goes to the whole crew for such fantastic work. We’d love to have rewarded everyone with a victory”, said a disappointed Mario Farnbacher, looking back at the weekend.
For a while, everything was running smoothly in favour of the Alex Job Racing Team. With a lap time of 1:18,245 minutes, the German-Spanish duo had secured pole position. Mario Farnbacher and Alex Riberas were also well on the fast side during the race and after Riberas had turned the pole start into a comfortable lead and left the field behind him, Farnbacher continued the strong performance without a hitch.
Up till the suspension damage in the last third of the race, the racing driver from Lichtenau in Frankonia did a brilliant job in the lead. ” Suddenly the car started vibrating and I could only drive straight on in a bend”, Farnbacher explained. One of the Porsche 911 GT3 R’s wheels had loosened and although the 24-year-old managed to struggle back to the box, he could only finish twelfth.
The damaged suspension is especially bitter for Mario Farnbacher and Alex Riberas, because a possible victory on the traditional circuit in southeast Canada would have seen the experienced duo top of the standings in the fiercely competitive GTD class. “Our opponents from Ferrari were finding the going tough this weekend and that would have given us the chance to take over the lead”, the Franconian explained.
After two consecutive races in North America, there’s still no sight of a summer break for Mario Farnbacher. The ambitious motorsport driver goes straight on to the Nürburgring, where the next round of the VLN Langstreckenmeisterschaft takes place on 16th July. In this popular endurance series, the 24-year-old shares a Lexus RC F GT3 with his brother Dominik Farnbacher.