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Murillo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4 and Drivers Matt Fassnacht and Christian Szymczak Win Pirelli GT4 America SprintX Race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park

– BOWMANVILLE, Ontario, Canada

Matt Fassnacht and Christian Szymczak co-drove the No. 34 Murillo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4 to victory in Saturday’s Pirelli GT4 America SprintX race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (CTMP). The win followed a SprintX pole-winning performance on Friday by Fassnacht in the No. 34, and was a highlight in a competitive showing at the SRO Americas CTMP weekend by Mercedes- AMG Motorsport Customer Racing teams. In the weekend’s Blancpain GT World Challenge America races, DXDT Racing also earned a pair of podium finishes with its Mercedes-AMG GT3 entries.

Both Szymczak and Fassnacht led Saturday’s race. Szymczak survived an early contact incident with another competitor and pitted from the top three to hand the Mercedes-AMG GT4 off to Fassnacht.

Fast work by the Murillo Racing crew led the No. 34 back into the lead when pit stops were completed and Fassnacht took control. He steadily opened up a comfortable and controlled lead and took the checkered flag 7.5 seconds ahead of the second- place finisher.

The win was the third of the Pirelli GT4 America season for Fassnacht, Murillo Racing and the Mercedes-AMG GT4. Last month at VIRginia International Raceway (VIR), Fassnacht swept the weekend’s Pirelli GT4 America Sprint races in a Murillo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4.

In the CTMP weekend’s twin 90-minute Blancpain GT World Challenge America races, DXDT Racing turned in a repeat performance of their VIR race weekend, with a podium result each day in their Mercedes-AMG GT3 Pro-Am entries.

In Sunday’s second and final race, David Askew and Ryan Dalziel co-drove the No. 63 DXDT Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 to a season-best second-place Pro-Am finish.

This runner-up finish followed a third place Pro-Am showing Saturday by George Kurtz and Colin Braun in the No. 04 DXDT Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3.

The back-to-back double podium results for DXDT came in only the team’s second and third race weekends with its expanded two-car Mercedes-AMG GT3 team.

Previously run under the Pirelli World Challenge banner, the Blancpain GT World Challenge America features classes for both professional and professional-amateur driving duos in GT3 cars. The new Pirelli GT4 America series for GT4 vehicles follows a similar format in SprintX, in addition to the single-driver sprint series.

Next up for Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing teams in both Blancpain GT World Challenge America and Pirelli GT4 America is the Sonoma Raceway race weekend, June 7 – 9.

Matthew Fassnacht, Driver – No. 34 Murillo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4: "It really comes down to just being in the game. If you look at what has happened with the team, and Christian and I with the team, in the last year or so, it’s really about a lot of unforced errors. Now that we aren’t doing that we are staying in the game and getting the results that we should be getting. Christian was unbelievable Saturday and the team did such a great job with the Mercedes-AMG GT4. I just got in and drove it to the end pretty easily. I got in the car and was able to run the kind of lap times I wanted to run. I maintained the lead but there was more there. The Mercedes-AMG GT4 does have some long legs for sure."

Christian Szymczak, Driver – No. 34 Murillo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4: "It was a lot of fun. We have a great car for the whole season and this result is hugely important. We feel like a weight has been lifted from our shoulders with the first SprintX win. Now we can kind of just continue what we are doing with the first win out of the way. The Mercedes-AMG GT4 has a lot of strengths. It felt great the whole stint, the balance stays consistent, and it’s really stable the entire time. A lot of other cars out there seem to have their pace fall off quite a bit but the Mercedes-AMG GT4 really holds it together for the whole stint. It’s great to drive the entire time."

David Askew, Driver – No. 63 DXDT Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3: "I don’t have a lot of experience at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, and none in a GT3 car before this weekend. So, I had to get up to speed quickly and without a lot of track time. I kept working with Ryan, kept chipping away at it, and he kept the car in good track position on Sunday. When I got in I was kind of able to go to the next step with what I had to do on the track. I had a bit of a battle with the winner but made a little mistake and he got by me. Then I had the second-place car chasing me down and the crew came on the radio and said, ‘we need another half a second.’ So, I worked a little harder and found that half a second. I figured out where I was able to hold him off and extended a little bit. I worked really hard on not making any more mistakes and I felt really confident in the car. The Mercedes-AMG GT3 is the kind of car that builds confidence in a driver, especially for us amateur guys."

Ryan Dalziel, Driver – No. 63 DXDT Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3: "It was a great day Sunday for the No. 63 DXDT Racing team. We showed all weekend the Mercedes-AMG GT3 had good pace around Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. We were a little disappointed with a fourth-place finish Saturday after a little mistake on the pit stop, but we definitely had one of the fastest cars in the field in both races. I got to run in the top four overall in my stint Sunday and stretched a pretty good lead on some of the other Pro-Am cars. The team did a great pit stop, and David got in and had another career drive. For a guy who has only been doing this a couple of years,
he did an unbelievably good job with some big names all around him. We are all super happy to get a second-place finish for DXDT Racing and Mercedes-AMG."

Colin Braun, Driver – No. 04 DXDT Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3: "Overall, it was a solid weekend for the CrowdStrike team at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park. George had a fantastic stint on Saturday, and we were able to finish on the podium in third place! Sunday was a little more challenging for us. We finished just shy of the podium in fourth but learned a lot for the next race. Can’t thank CrowdStrike and the DXDT Racing guys enough for all they do to prepare great Mercedes-AMG GT3 cars for us."

 

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