Qualifying for the Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park featured an outstanding three-driver battle for overall pole position between LMP2 Bronze standouts Jeremy Clarke, Misha Goikhberg, and PJ Hyett.
But it was Clarke and the #43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA 07-Gibson that prevailed at the chequered flag; Clarke and Inter Europol took their third pole position of the year, ahead of Goikhberg and Hyett.
Both Clarke and Goikhberg were among the drivers that changed tires during the 15-minute LMP2 qualifying session, and that new rubber was to their benefit. Clarke took provisional pole from the #99 AO Racing ORECA of Hyett, then improved at the end, setting a 1:07.904, the only driver under the one-minute, eight-second barrier.
Canadian driver Goikhberg’s 1:08.077 lap put the #52 Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Mathiasen ORECA on the front row of the grid in second. Hyett, on a single set of Michelin tyres, qualified third with a 1:08.186. But the #99 AO Racing ORECA failed post-qualifying technical inspection and has been sent to the rear of the nine-car LMP2 grid; the car did not meet the minimum height requirement for components located ahead of the front axle.
That moves Daniel Goldburg in the #22 United Autosports USA car up to third on the grid, followed by LMP2 points leader George Kurtz in the #04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR car in fourth.
A quartet of Canadian drivers rounded out the LMP2 running order, led by Phil Fayer (#2 United Autosports USA) ahead of Chris Cumming (Pratt Miller Motorsports), Tobias Lütke (TDS Racing), and John Farano (Tower Motorsports).
It was a frantic scramble for pole position in the last few minutes of GTD Pro qualifying, but with a best lap of 1:14.382, Neil Verhagen in the #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO held off strong competition at the very end to take his and the team’s first pole of the season.
It’s also Verhagen’s second consecutive CTMP pole position, and his lap time was just nine milliseconds off the existing GTD Pro qualifying lap record.
With less than three minutes left on the clock, Verhagen displaced the #4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R of Nicky Catsburg from the top spot. But Catsburg and teammate Alexander Sims still had enough time to fight back, pushing their cars to the ragged edge on their last flying laps.
Ultimately, they qualified third and fourth, with the #3 Corvette of Sims (1:14.569) just edging out the #4 of Catsburg (1:14.605).
Ahead of both of them, in a great surprise, was rookie Max Esterson in the #59 RLL Team McLaren 720S GT3 (1:14.567). Esterson will share the front row of the GTD Pro grid after what had been a tough two practices for the RLL McLaren crew. Just 0.038 seconds covered the collective margin between Esterson, Sims, and Catsburg.
Scott Andrews was a solid fifth in the #68 Car Blanche Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, making its first GTD Pro appearance of the season. Jack Hawksworth was sixth-fastest in the #14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3.
And in GTD, the #27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage took its four pole position of the year, despite serving a five-minute hold at the start of the session for not completing its required torque sensor offset test.
But GTD points leader Eduardo Barrichello needed less than the ten minutes on track he was provided to stick the #27 Aston Martin on pole, setting a 1:15.130s to grab the pole by over two-tenths of a second. It’s Barrichello’s second pole individually, following the Twelve Hours of Sebring, and one which stretches out his lead in the drivers’ standings. He’ll share the front row with the #36 DXDT Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, which qualified second via a 1:15.373s from Mason Filippi. Co-driver Robert Wickens is expected to finish the race in the #36 Corvette tomorrow.
Just behind Filippi, Benjamin Pedersen qualified third in the #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus, followed by Russell Ward in the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO, all three cars covered by just 0.023 seconds. Last year’s GTD class winning car, the #45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 (Danny Formal), qualified in fifth.
Lorenzo Patrese in the #34 Conquest Racing Ferrari wound up eighth in the end; his fastest lap in Qualifying, which would have been good enough for fifth, was deleted as his penalty for crashing in practice yesterday.
He was then demoted from seventh to eighth when four of his laps were deleted for failure to adhere to the car’s controlled powertrain parameters.
The Chevrolet Grand Prix at CTMP starts tomorrow at 2:05 PM ET, airing in over 200 countries on the official IMSA YouTube channel and IMSA.tv, and in the United States on the Peacock streaming platform.
Images © IMSA
