Heading into the 5th round of the European Sports Car Championship, the WorxSimRacing.com LMGT3 Mustang was in hot pursuit of the leaders of the championship, who were one win away from clinching the title and leaving the rest of the field to fight for the remaining championship points for the final round of the season.  The team started on the back foot having to work around a 2-man lineup, something that had not been done up until this point in the season. Without Corbin Lenaway, the team’s platinum driver for the series, it was up to Liam Kilton and Feyzan Sheikh to continue the fight for the lead of the championship and prevent the current leaders from clinching the championship.  

The race day started with a wet practice session, which left the team trying to find a steady pace around the track for the qualifying session which was shortly after the practice concluded.  With tricky conditions around the track for qualifying, Liam Kilton put the Mustang in P5, starting towards the back of the pack for the beginning of the race.  As conditions improved throughout the rest of qualifying for the remaining LMP3 and LMP2 classes, the track had reached a mostly dry condition by the time the green flag was waved in the Tuscan countryside.  With a focus on keeping the car in a competitive form around the track, Liam Kilton opted for a more conservative start to the race, rather than trying to snag early positions which could potentially lead to damage and lost time.  However this strategy would be paused as a full-course yellow was implemented shortly after the first lap of the race was completed, an incident between two faster class cars was the culprit of the holdup.  After a few minutes of FCY protocol, the green flag was once again brought out, and racing resumed, with the LMGT3 class all within touching distance of each other.  During the first lap after the restart, Liam Kilton was in pursuit of the car in P4 and was trying to capitalize on the clear track early, an effort which would shortly leave the Mustang losing the back-end due to cold tires from the slow-paced FCY,  sending the #16 into the gravel after the high-speed “Arrabbiata 2” turn and costing the team 10 seconds to the car ahead.  After rejoining the track, Liam’s stint was relatively event-free, with the exception of an LMP2 car that attempted to overtake in a tight section of the track, briefly making contact with the #16 and leaving minimal damage.  At the end of the 35-lap stint, Liam had struggled to catch P4’s silver driver and had only narrowed the gap down to 7.5 seconds before handing off the Mustang to the Fezyan Sheikh.

As Feyzan started his first of two stints in the #16 Mustang, he re-entered the track in P4 and was in a conservative spot with distance gaps to both the cars ahead and behind, allowing him to comfortably settle into his first race in the LMGT3 class.  As his stint progressed, Feyzan continued to plug away consistent lap times, and other than a few brushes with faster class cars sending the #16 the wrong way around, Feyzan was able to bring the #16 back into the pits after 34 laps in the same position that he started his stint in.  After a full service, Feyzan returned to the track to finish out his doubleheader with hopes of climbing up to a podium step.  Feyzan continued to drive diligently, making no critical errors and only scoring a handful of off-tracks, something that proved to be very difficult around Mugello.  As his stint progressed Feyzan was able to come into a consistent rhythm, and with over 60 laps completed by the end of the stint, he had played a major role in the success of the #16 LMGT3 for the penultimate round of the European Sports Car Championship.  As rainy weather loomed over the horizon with chances of rain increasing by the minute, the team had to determine the best time to bring the car in for its final service and driver swap, with a crucial emphasis on timing the switch from dry to wet tires perfectly.  As Feyzan’s stint wound down, the rain began to fall on the track with a little over an hour remaining in the race, and once reaching the final pit window, Feyzan brought the car into the pits to complete the final service and switched seats with Liam Kilton who would finish out the race.  

As Liam Kilton rejoined, he inherited P4 from another team that had found their way into the pits with substantial damage putting the #16 at a net-neutral position for the race up until that point.  As the rain continued to fall and the conditions worsened, it became increasingly difficult for all competitors to keep their cars on track and out of the barriers, as well as away from other drivers,  something that the championship leaders had succumbed to, giving P3 to the #16.  With just under half an hour left in the race, the team that held P2 had found their way into trouble as well, sending the car into the pits with damage that allowed the #16 to pick up yet another position as the treacherous conditions continued.  Unfortunately, the luck of the #16 was also on borrowed time, as a handful of off-tracks gave the #16 a drive-through penalty with had to be served before the end of the race, which had just under 15 minutes remaining.  In order to avoid an automatic 55-second penalty after the race, Liam served the penalty right away, but as the gap depleted to P3 and P4 to under 5 seconds on the pit exit, Liam made a critical mistake in an attempt to make a defensive move to protect P2 from the drivers behind, and after crossing the pit exit line too early, the #16 had received yet another drive-through penalty on the final lap of the race, a heartbreaking blow to the team’s potential P2 finish.  As the team went around for the final time around Mugello, the #16 finished in the pit lane to clear the second penalty, resulting in a P4 finish.  

Despite the disappointing finish, the team gained great experience from the race, and while the result wasn’t what they had hoped for, the #16 WorxSimRacing.com was able to finish ahead of the championship leaders, keeping the title fight alive and leaving a glimpse of hope for the final round, which will happen early November.