May 22, 2016 (Bowmanville, Ontario) – Martin Fuentes strengthened his lead on the Pirelli World Challenge GT-A championship during this weekend’s pair of races at the Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in Bowmanville, Ontario, part of the Victoria Day Speedfest.

And after the races on the technical CTMP circuit, known for its number of challenging, high-speed corners and large amount of elevation change, Fuentes had built an even larger lead in the championship.

Driving the no. 07 Scuderia Corsa / HUBLOT Ferrari 458 Italia, Fuentes qualified in second position for Saturday’s race. From the drop of the green flag, Fuentes constantly battled for the GT-A lead. Looking to protect his championship advantage, the seven-time GTA winner settled for second position for the first time this season.

Sunday’s race was run under very different conditions, with rain falling on CTMP right before the start of the race and yellow flag during the first laps. With an abbreviated amount of green flag laps, Fuentes became embroiled in a multi-car battle with GT and GT-A class cars and battled back to retake second position with a daring maneuver around the outside of turn four, a move which earned him the Move of the Race Award. He then solidified the position by passing a GT-class car to give himself a buffer, and took the checkered flag in second position.

With one hundred percent podiums achievement this season, Fuentes has built upon his lead in the GT-A championship after nine rounds of 20 in the Pirelli World Challenge season. Now with 966 points, he holds a 160-point lead.

“Scuderia Corsa gave me a great Ferrari to fight with here in Canada,” said Fuentes. “We had two second-place finishes and that is a great result. I’m very happy for us because Canadian Tire Motorsports Park is a very challenging and technical track and the cars that do well here tend to have a lot of downforce. The Ferrari 458 Italia is a car that does not have as much downforce as the other cars, so two second-place finishes is great for us. We took the best points that we could here in Canada and we have a good car for the upcoming races at Lime Rock Park.”

The races from Canadian Tire Motorsports Park will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network on Thursday, June 2 at 7:00 PM ET. The next Pirelli World Challenge race will be this upcoming weekend at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Connecticut.