IMSA CTMP race day news and notes

Ganassi Cadillac paces warmup Renger van der Zande was quickest in the morning warmup for this afternoon’s Chevrolet Grand Prix for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park. Van der Zande posted a 1m07.969s lap …

Ganassi Cadillac paces warmup
Renger van der Zande was quickest in the morning warmup for this afternoon’s Chevrolet Grand Prix for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park. Van der Zande posted a 1m07.969s lap in the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R to lead Alexander Sims in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac and polesitter Tom Blomqvist in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06.

Wayne Boyd led LMP3 in the No. 17 AWA Racing Duqueine, while Loris Spinelli led GTD in the No. 78 Forte Racing Powered by USRT. Lamborghini Huracán. Katherine Legge made the No. 66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 look strong with the second fastest time in GT overall, followed by Ross Gunn in the No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 to lead GTD PRO.

Energy saving a challenge
A 2h40m race likely means two pit stops for the GTP cars. But how those pit stops and the stints in between are managed could play a big role in the outcome of the Chevrolet Grand Prix. However, saving energy to extend a stint or reduce pit stop time is tough at CTMP.

“It’s quite a difficult track to to save energy, because there’s no heavy brake zones, and when you’re doing a lot of lifting and coasting, it’s quite lap time sensitive,” says polesitter Tom Blomqvist, who missed out on victory last year due to a hard-charging Renger van der Zande in the Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac. “The most important thing here really is just stay with people so there’s not a huge benefit to … I mean, there’s always a benefit to saving energy compared to the opposition, but only if you stay with them. So around here it’s it’s a little bit more sensitive to that and also the lap’s so short that if you if you’re trying to save energy and lose too much of a gap, you’re also going to lap down.”

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Blomqvist and Brain make a strong pairing at CTMP
The No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 looks to be in a pretty good position for today’s race. Not only did Tom Blomqvist put the car on pole, and not only has Acura proven the dominant marque so far this weekend at CTMP, but Blomqvist’s teammate Colin Braun is good at this track. Really good – Braun has five victories at CTMP, including last year in LMP3, more than any other driver in the field.

Keeping it clean… so far
Through two practice sessions and qualifying, not a single car in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship group had contact with a Canadian Tire Motorsports Park wall nor another car, only a few single-car spins interrupting the proceedings. While that was not true of the other series running this weekend, and likely won’t carry through the 2h40m Chevrolet Grand Prix, the lack of incidents is somewhat surprising to Canadian native and CTMP denizen Roman De Angelis, who won GTD here last year and scored the pole for today’s race.

De Angelis will start up front in his class, but expects the action to get a lot hotter in the race. Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images

“At a track that’s high commitment, I think you have to have a lot more respect than, let’s say at COTA where if you have a mistake, you can open your hands and drive off,” De Angelis said. “I think as a driver you realize that, so you approach driving here a lot differently than you do at a track like COTA, which is a parking lot with lines on it, basically. So I think a lot of a lot of people have that respect, especially in practice. I’m sure when the when the race comes, it’ll be a bit of a different story for some but I plan on keeping it on on the track as long as I can, and hopefully being there at the end.”

Teammate advantage
De Angelis is starting on the outside of the second row, alongside his Heart of Racing teammate Alex Riberas in the No. 23 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 that starts third in GTD PRO. With another GTD PRO car between him and next GTD qualifier Frankie Montecalvo (No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3), he thinks it’s a pretty good position to be in.

“If you’re anywhere near your your teammate, whoever’s in a position that they need help and you’re able to do so, you do it,” he explains. “Whether that means being a car between themselves and another PRO car, or them letting us through, where we work together, when one car does well we both do well.”

First Michelin Pilot Challenge victory for Toyota, Thompson
Billy Johnson and Parker Thompson, making his first IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge start, won the GS category in Saturday’s MPC Canadian Tire Motorsports Park 120 in the No. 50 Hattori Motorsports Toyota Supra GT4 after the No. 95 Turner Motorsport BMW M3 GT4 of Robert Megennis and Cameron Lawrence was moved to the rear. The No. 95 had a refueling time less than the minimum permissible and was also found to be underweight.

It’s the first victory for Toyota in the series, and gives Thompson a 100-percent win record in MPC. It was the 24th win for Johnson in the series. Mikey Taylor and Chris Miller won TCR in the No. 17 Unitronic/JDC-Miller MotorSports Audi RS3 LMS TCR.

Tire allocation
GTP teams have three sets of Michelin tires for the race, including any used in qualifying. The other classes have seven sets total for the weekend.

Drive time
Minimum drive time in the Pro-Am classes is 45 minutes for the 2h40m race. Minimum time for GTP and GTD PRO is 10 minutes.

How to watch
The Chevrolet Grand Prix will air live on NBC, as well as streamed on Peacock. Audio can be found on IMSA.com, RadioLeMans.com and on SiriusXM 207 or on the SiriusXM Web/app 992.

Blomqvist wins CTMP pole with Meyer Shank Racing Acura

Qualifying for the Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park turned into a repeat of the second practice, with Meyer Shank Racing and Wayne Taylor Racing fighting for the top spot and making Acura the star of the show. This time, however, it was Tom Blomqvist putting the No. 60 MSR ARX-06 on pole with a 1m5.653s lap, 0.081s ahead of Ricky Taylor in the No. 10 WTR ARX-06 as Acura locked out the front row. For Blomqvist, it was a repeat pole after setting a blistering record lap in qualifying for last year’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race.

“It’s always a hell of a commitment around here, regardless of what car you’re in,” Blomqvist stated. “When you put new tires and then take the fuel out, around here, your minimum speeds pick up drastically. This year the GTP car carries about 100 kilos of fuel, so it’s just night and day difference. When you take it for a qualy run, it’s such a good feeling. Last year was a lot more of a wild ride. We’ve got a good car this year, it’s a bit more forgiving; nonetheless, I wasn’t actually happy with my personal performance in that session, just a little bit messy from from my side. I wasn’t super happy with where I was on track. But I can’t complain, I’m still sitting here. It’s just testament to the job the team’s done in preparing the car.”

The second row will be the two Cadillac Racing V-Series.Rs, Pipo Derani qualifying third in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac at 1m5.829s. Sebastien Bourdais, after spending the first part of the session scrubbing the three set of tires allotted for qualifying and race, will start on the outside of the second row in the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac.

“I think we did a good job from free practice two to qualifying,” said Derani, who with Alexander Sims is leading the GTP points and looking for their second win of the season. “The car was really good yesterday and we tried a couple of things that didn’t go as planned for practice two. We were able to turn the tables around again and come back to qualifying with a strong car. To be that close to the Acuras after what they displayed in practice two, I think it shows that we are on the right path. So, thanks to the team for providing me a good car. Starting on the second row is good, especially on a track that is difficult to pass.”

Gar Robinson posted a dominant qualifying time in LMP3, his 1m12.946s lap in the No. 74 Riley Motorsports Ligier more than 0.4s ahead of Orey Fidani in the No. 13 AWA Duqueine. Ari Balogh marked his return to the cockpit, having sat out the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen after a qualifying crash, by putting the the No. 30 Jr III Racing Ligier third.

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Jack Hawksworth claimed the GTD Pro and overall GT pole in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, his second of the season after taking the top spot at Long Beach, where he and Ben Barnicoat went on to take victory. Hawksworth posted a new track record – beating his own GTD record from 2018 by half a second and Mathieu Jaminet’s GTD PRO mark from last year – with a 1m15.029s lap to beat Jules Gounon in the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes AMG by 0.074s.

“It’s been, obviously, a perfect start to the weekend so far,” said Hawksworth, who hasn’t raced at CTMP since 2018, having missed last year’s race due to a back injury. “The car’s always been strong here. If we have a track on the calendar that we have circled that we feel like we’ll be good at, this is that track. The minute we rolled off the car felt good, and we executed a good clean weekend so far.”

GTD PRO teams occupied the first three spots, as Alex Riberas put the No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin vantage GT3 on the inside of the second row with a 1m15.341s lap. The rest of the GTD PRO cars will line up right behind Riberas — Jordan Taylor in the No. 3 Corvette Racing C8.R qualifying fifth overall and Mosport rookie Klaus Bachler in the hometown favorite Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R qualifying seventh.

It will be an all Heart of Racing second row for the GT start, as Canadian driver Roman De Angelis took the GTD pole, the second in his career, on home soil with a 1m15.478s lap. That lap will stand as a new GTD track record as De Angelis looks to repeat the victory Heart of Racing scored at CTMP last year when the team won both GTD and GTD PRO.

“I’ve definitely had a had a lot of weekends here over my racing career. My first time ever in a car was at the driver development track and also tons of racing here in Formula Ford and Carrera Cup,” De Angelis recounted. “Tons of track time here, so hopefully I would perform decently. It’s been difficult for the last few years to put qualifying together for myself, that’s definitely been my weak point. I tend to overdrive, so really focusing on the last few rounds trying to talk with my co drivers and stuff and figure out what I what I needed to change and it’s been good so far this year. So happy to to get a pole in general and obviously to do it at home was great, with my family and friends at a circuit that I really enjoy being at.”

De Angelis will have a small buffer to the second-place GTD qualifier at the start, as Frankie Montecalvo (1m15.058) will be starting the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus directly behind him – Jordan Taylor qualified between them – and Madison Snow will line up behind on the outside of the fourth row, having qualified the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 third in GTD with a 1m15.595s lap. Mikael Grenier (No. 32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes AMG) and Patrick Gallagher (No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3) completed the top five in GTD qualifying.

Up next: A 20 minute warmup session takes place at 8:15 a.m. ET Sunday, ahead of a 12:05 p.m. race start.

RESULTS

Alongside Legge, Monk seeing the upside of IMSA GTD rookie seesaw

Sheena Monk is one of several drivers in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTD class in their first season racing GT3 cars, in her case having moved from Michelin Pilot Challenge GS. But among those, she and veteran Katherine Legge are higher in the points, sitting just outside the top five overall as the Canadian Tire Motorsports Park weekend began. Teamed up in the No. 66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo22, there have been a couple of top-five finishes, notably a fourth in the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona, where Marc Miller and Mario Farnbacher joined the party. But with some performances that Monk and Legge consider sub-par, they’re a bit surprised where they are in the standings.

“I think that we’ve had an up-and-down season so far,” said Legge (pictured at right, above, with Monk). “High point being probably Daytona and Watkins (Glen), low point being Sebring. I think we had a couple of bad races with Long Beach and Laguna, honestly, too. So the fact that we are sixth in points is incredible to me. I think we do salvage some finishes out of our bad fortune, for want of a better word. But I think the potential for us to be better is great.”

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Looking at the GTD rookies, Monk is at the top. Patrick Gallagher, teamed with Robby Foley, is two points ahead heading into CTMP, is also in his first full season of GTD, but has a fair amount of GT3 experience. And in the Trueman-Akin Award standings for the top Bronze driver in GTD, Monk is second behind Brendan Iribe. She is, however, quick to disavow full ownership of that position.

“There are a a lot of other factors at play,” she declares. “I drive with other people that … I say they play clean-up, but I have to give them the car in the first place. Unfortunately, at Laguna I didn’t do my job in that sense and we really had a chance. I guess I look at it like I’ve got a team of guys that have incredible pit stops. And we’ve been really solid on our driver changes; those things matter. So I can’t say, OK, yeah, I’ve been like the best of the newbies to show up.”

Monk says her qualifying could be better. “It’s something that I’m focusing on, because I feel that if I’m further up in the field from the qualifying, and the track position is better, I will be less likely to be around the incidents that happen early in the race,” she says while Legge nods in agreement. But she acknowledges that there are many things she’s still learning about driving a GT3 car, with all the aerodynamic grip the NSX adds over the GT4 cars she’s driven previously.

The first time she felt the compression in Turn 6 at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca was a revelation, Monk notes. That adds to the ever-growing knowledge base of what a GT3 car does differently than what she’s raced before. The accumulation of knowledge will certainly add to her pace, but there’s some mental components that will enable her to apply that knowledge, Legge says.

As well as the different characteristics of her Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo22, Monk is incorporating lessons about racing’s mental game from her veteran teammate. Perry Nelson/Motorsport Images

“I think Sheena’s tendency is to under-drive up to the (limit) rather than cross the line and bring it back, whereas a lot of newer drivers that that haven’t driven GT3 cars before have the confidence to go out there and go over the line and under the line and over the line — play with that line,” Legge explains. “We’ve been working a lot on how do we get her to go out and be up on the wheel, push straight away — even if you make mistakes, be confident, and comfortable being uncomfortable, and bringing it back to to where you want it to be. Because then you get there quicker rather than taking little bites out of it. She has the skill and the ability; it’s all mental.”

Monk acknowledges that she likes to build up in her time in the car, and with limited practice time on the weekends, that’s been holding her back. It’s also one of her issues with qualifying, where she has 15 minutes to get the job done. Asked to grade herself on her performance in the season so far, stuff like that has her being a pretty harsh self-judge.

“I’m not satisfied, frankly. But if if you’re here and if you’re not winning, I think everybody feels that way,” Monk says. “So I don’t know if that’s reflective of me specifically. I think everyone in here is so competitive that you have high expectations. You believe in yourself and you believe in the team that you’re with. So, that might seem negative, but I think it’s a healthy answer and a healthy response from somebody that’s competitive and just wants to win.

“But I’m also cognizant of the fact that that takes some time. So I don’t think, especially for how long I’ve been racing — I haven’t been in this for so long that by no means I expect to show up and win; I understand how wildly competitive this field is. I just think that for myself, maybe a little less incidents, maybe a smidge more pace and consistency. Maybe I’m being a little hard on myself. But I think with time we’ll be there.”

Braun tops CTMP first practice for MSR Acura

Colin Braun pulled out a late flyer to take the top spot in the first practice session for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park. Braun posted a time of 1m07.341s in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 to take over the top spot that had been held by Pipo Derani in the No 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R.

Braun’s time was 0.78s quicker than Derani’s best of 1m08.121s. The rest of the GTP field was in the 1m08s range as Acura and Cadillac alternated in the first four positions, Filipe Albuquerque third in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ahead of Renger van der Zande in the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac. Philipp Eng completed the top five in the No. 24 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8.

Garett Grist posted the top time in LMP3 at his home track, a 1m12.270s lap in the No. 30 Jr III Racing Ligier, followed by Felipe Fraga in the No. 74 Riley Motorsports Ligier, 0.212s off Grist’s best. Matt Bell was third for AWA in the No. 13 Duqueine.

Frankie Montecalvo, who nabbed the GTD pole at CTMP last year, was quickest in the class in the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 at 1m16.558s, 0.112s quicker than Frederik Schandorff in the No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S. Those two headed the GT field overall, with Antonio Garcia third among the GTs and first in GTD PRO in the No. 3 Corvette Racing C8.R. Ben Barnicoat was right behind Garcia, only 0.02s off the Corvette’s time in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus.

Alex Riberas was third in GTD PRO in the No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3. Robby Foley (No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3) and Loris Spinelli (No. 78 Forte Racing Powered by USRT Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo22) split Barnicoat and RIberas to round out the top four in GTD.

The session was interrupted by two red flags. The first was for the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes AMG stopped on course in Turn 8. The second was for George Staikos in the No. 4 Ave Motorsports LMP3 stopped on course at Turn 5.

UP NEXT: Practice 2, a 1h45m split session beginning at 8am ET.

RESULTS

Racing on TV, July 7-9

All times Eastern; live broadcasts unless noted. Friday, July 7 British GP practice 1 7:25-8:30am British GP practice 1 7:25-8:30am British GP practice 2 10:55am- 12:00pm British GP practice 2 10:55am- 12:00pm Mid-Ohio qualifying 4:00-5:30pm …

All times Eastern; live broadcasts unless noted.

Friday, July 7

	British GP practice 1	7:25-8:30am
	British GP practice 1	7:25-8:30am
	British GP practice 2	10:55am- 12:00pm
	British GP practice 2	10:55am- 12:00pm
	Mid-Ohio qualifying	4:00-5:30pm
	Mid-Ohio	6:00-8:00pm

Saturday, July 8

	British GP practice 3	6:25-7:30am
	British GP practice 3	6:25-7:30am
	British GP qualifying	9:55-11:00am
	British GP qualifying	9:55-11:00am
	CTMP Race 1	11:40am- 12:25pm
	Mid-Ohio	12:30-1:30pm pre-race 1:30-4:00pm race
	CTMP qualifying	12:40-1:55pm
	Southwick	1:00-3:00pm
	Road America TA	1:30pm
	CTMP	4:00-6:00pm
	Atlanta qualifying	4:00-5:30pm
	Atlanta qualifying	5:30-7:00pm
	Atlanta	7:30-8:00pm pre-race 8:00-11:00pm race

Sunday, July 9

	Monza – start	6:00-7:30am
	British GP	8:30- 9:55am pre-race 9:55am- 12:00pm race
	British GP	8:30- 9:55am pre-race 9:55am- 12:00pm race
	CTMP Race 2	9:30-10:15am
	Monza – finish	11:30am- 1:00pm
	Watkins Glen	11:30am- 1:30pm (D)
	CTMP	12:00-3:00pm
	Road America TA2	1:30pm
	Atlanta	6:30-7:00pm pre-race 7:00-10:30pm race

Key: SDD: Same day delay; D = delayed; R = Repeat/Replay

A variety of motor racing is available for streaming on demand at the following sites:

MAVTV.com

MotorTrendOnDemand.com

SRO-america.com
SCCA.com
Ferrari Challenge
The Trans Am Series airs in 60-minute highlight shows in primetime on the MAVTV Network. For those wishing to tune in live, the entire lineup of SpeedTour events will stream for free on the SpeedTour TV YouTube page. SpeedTour TV will also air non-stop activity on Saturday and Sunday (SVRA, IGT and Trans Am). You can also watch all Trans Am event activity on the Trans Am YouTube page and Facebook page.