DePew, Liddell miss podium by fraction for second-straight weekend

BOWMANVILLE, ONT Canada ( 7 July 2022) – Rebel Rock Racing came oh-so-close to finishing on the podium for the second consecutive weekend of IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge competition, taking fourth in Saturday’s Canadian Tire Motorsport Park 120.

Frank DePew drove a solid opening hour in the No. 71 Urban Grid Chevrolet Camaro, running ninth when he turned the car over to Robin Liddell. The Scotsman then worked his way up through the pack, matching the team’s best result of the season for the second-consecutive weekend at the historic Canadian circuit formerly known as Mosport Park.

With an intense final segment of the race seeing the top four finishers fighting within 1 second of the lead, Rebel Rock finished less than half of a second out of podium position. The strong run continued for the team, which missed out on a podium by just 0.179-seconds at Watkins Glen International last weekend.

Rebel Rock had been hoping to once again race to victory during the Canada Day Weekend classic as they had in 2019 but was still pleased with the outcome after another well-executed race firmly in contention.

DePew pitted 14 laps into the race during the first of only two cautions. With strong race day pace, DePew stayed out an additional 24 laps to position Liddell to be able to race to the finish without an additional fuel stop.

“This is such a high speed and high-risk track,” DePew said. “The pit box was basically telling me, ‘you’re good where you are. stay with it, don’t try anything risky because we’re pretty much where we want to be.’ So I just hung with those cars. Quite frankly, I don’t think I ever had an opportunity to get by them. I was in the car a long time, and did not take tires on my first pit stop and started on the qualifying tires. In the last 10 laps, my rear tires were going away badly. The rear was really not under so there wasn’t a whole lot that I could do other than hang on to the position and turn the car over to Robin in a decent position and just see what happens.”

“I just told Frank to get your eyes up and just drive the car,” Liddell said. “He struggled a bit in practice and qualifying, but as usual he was quicker in the race then he was in qualifying and he did a good job in the race.”

Liddell returned in ninth, and was running sixth – but 28-seconds in arrears – when the final caution waved with a half-hour remaining in the two-hour contest. Running in striking distance when the green waved with 20-minutes remaining, Liddell turned the fastest lap of the race and gained an additional two places and put heavy pressure on third position for the final five laps.

“In the end, we had a little bit too much to do,” Liddell said. “The yellow helped with about 20 minutes to go, so we’re able to get up to fourth and the final run. I’m a little frustrated because in the end, we’ve had two fourth place finishes and two fast laps in the last few weeks. So, I would have liked a bit more. I would have liked to have a trophy for the work this team has put in.”

“We won here in 2019 and it would have been nice to win it again,” DePew said. “I think we had a shot today. If we had another yellow, maybe another restart it would have been great. We didn’t get it, but we’re happy with the result.”

Due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, Rebel Rock was without several of its regular crew at the event.

“It’s been particularly difficult this weekend,” Liddell said. “I can’t say enough about the job that guys have done because, we’ve operated with minimal crew this weekend and a couple of extra people helping, they’ve done a super job and hats off to all of them without any drama and things. It’s been a tough two weeks, actually, but we’ve had two good weekends with two fourth places. We’re pretty happy with that and now it’s on to Lime Rock, where historically the cars also performed very well.”

The mid-season surge moves Rebel Rock Racing to 10th in the GS standings, gaining three positions in Saturday’s race.

The series takes a weekend off before visiting Lime Rock Park for Round 7 of the 2022 campaign, during the FCO Euro Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park on Saturday, July 16.