PJ Hyett continues to be the in-form LMP2 Bronze driver in the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship. Hyett confirmed his status by putting the #99 AO Racing Oreca LMP2 07 on the pole for tomorrow’s Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, his third straight pole of the season.
Hyett managed to set a best lap of 1:09.582 in an LMP2 qualifying session that was interrupted by two accidents. Dennis Andersen was the first to end up in the tyre barriers when he slid off at Clayton Corner, and his #20 MDK by High Class Racing car snapped to the right and crashed.
Just after Hyett took provisional pole, Luis Perez Companc went wide at Quebec Corner and buried the nose of the #88 Richard Mille AF Corse car into the tyres.
Anderson and Companc were both able to walk away from their respective crashes, but they’ll have to start at the rear of the LMP2 field.
Lining up alongside the #99 of Hyett and Louis Deletraz will be the #22 United Autosports USA Oreca of Dan Goldburg, who set a 1:09.672, just 0.090s back of Hyett’s pole-winning time.
Gar Robinson was third-fastest in the #74 Riley Oreca, followed by Nick Boulle for Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen, Steven Thomas for TDS Racing, and George Kurtz for CrowdStrike Racing by APR.
Era Motorsport’s new Bronze driver Stuart Wiltshire qualified 11th in the #18 Oreca, just a couple hundredths behind the #33 Sean Creech Motorsport Ligier JS P217 of Lance Willsey.
The #3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R of Alexander Sims won the pole in GTD Pro with a new track record of 1:14.373 – smashing the previous mark set by Jack Hawksworth last year.
It’s the second pole of the season for the #3 Chevrolet Corvette, after co-driver Antonio Garcia won the pole at Detroit two rounds ago, and the third for the new Z06 GT3.R this season – Nicky Catsburg won the pole at Laguna Seca in the #4 Corvette.
Hawksworth qualified second aboard the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, a quarter of a second away from Sims’ pole time. The two British drivers traded the top spot until three minutes left in the 15-minute GTD/GTD Pro session when Sims set a blistering 1:14.405 – and improved on his final flying lap.
The #4 Corvette of Tommy Milner qualified third, ahead of the #64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustang GT3 of Harry Tincknell, which spent much of Practice 2 behind the wall but recovered to qualify fourth in GTD Pro.
GTD Pro points leader Seb Priaulx could only manage eighth-fastest in the #77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R, and he’ll be starting in the middle of the combined 22-car GTD grid after his best time was deleted due to a track limits infringement.
In GTD, the #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus won its fourth pole of the year – not via Parker Thompson this time, but via Frankie Montecalvo who won his first pole of the year.
Montecalvo’s top time of 1:15.060 was just four-tenths slower than Hawksworth’s time in the #14 Lexus, and it was also a new GTD course record by four-tenths, breaking the previous mark set by Roman de Angelis.
De Angelis’ co-driver for the weekend, Spencer Pumpelly, was second in GTD aboard the #27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3. Patrick Gallagher was third in the #96 Turner Motorsport BMW, and GTD points leader Russell Ward was sixth in the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3.
There was some drama at the start of GTD/GTD Pro qualifying when the #34 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 of Manny Franco stopped at the pit exit before ever going out on track and brought out a red flag. But the rest of GTD qualifying continued with no further issues.
Tomorrow’s two-hour, 40-minute race starts at 11:05 AM EDT.
Images © Jake Galstad / IMSA
