Tower Motorsports led Friday afternoon’s first practice session for the Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
While Sebastien Bourdais is unavailable this week due to commitments in the FIA World Endurance Championship, his substitute – former Cadillac Racing co-driver Renger van der Zande – was the quickest driver in the 90-minute session. Van der Zande set a 1:08.402 in the orange and black #8 ORECA 07-Gibson to lead the way in LMP2.
United Autosports USA’s two cars finished second and fourth with the #2 of Ben Hanley timing in three-tenths ahead of the #22 of substitute driver Tom Blomqvist. Dane Cameron in the No. 99 AO Racing car was third-quickest.
TDS Racing’s Steven Thomas had only completed two laps when he went off at turn one and crashed into the tyre barriers, bringing out a red flag. The car was towed back to the paddock with heavy left-rear damage, though Thomas was uninjured.
Before the event, PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports also confirmed a driver change for this weekend: Nick Boulle, who won the 2024 IMSA LMP2 title in the #52 PR1 Mathiasen car (jointly entered by Inter Europol Competition), will join Daytona podium finisher Benjamin Pedersen. They replace Rodrigo Sales and Mathias Beche, respectively.
Sporting a red and black one-off livery, the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 set the pace in GTD PRO.
Andrea Caldarelli set a 1:15.580 early on, putting him almost half a second up on the #4 Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Nicky Catsburg in second. This was despite the Lamborghini receiving a significant weight increase and power reduction in the latest Balance of Performance adjustments.
Vasser Sullivan Racing’s Lexus RC F GT3s were next in the order, with the #12 car of Jack Hawksworth leading the GTD class, and the #14 of Ben Barnicoat sitting third in GTD PRO. Their quickest times were separated by just five-thousandths of a second.
Rounding out the top three in GTD were the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3, and the #70 Inception Racing Ferrari 296 GT3.
Practice 2 starts tomorrow at 10:35 AM ET (local time).
Images © Jake Galstad / IMSA / Lumen
