A sign of motorsport returning to the “normal” that we knew before 2020, the entry list for this year’s Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park (Mosport) features 34 cars across four classes.
IMSA’s annual visit to the circuit in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada was twice cancelled due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, before returning in 2022. The 2022 race had a much smaller entry list, as certain teams and drivers opted not to cross the US/Canada border. Now that the border restrictions have been eased, the 34-car entry list for 2023 is back to the same number of cars that entered the 2019 event.
There’s no change to the nine-car GTP field. Sébastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande return as the defending race winners in the #01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R, but it’s the #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac of Pipo Derani and Alexander Sims that leads the GTP championship table after five races.
Proton Competition’s Porsche 963, set to join the GTP field this season, is not listed as it will make its first IMSA appearance at Road America. Instead, the German team will make its race debut with its new Porsche LMDh as part of the FIA WEC’s Hypercar class at the 6 Hours of Monza, which is being held on the same weekend.
As of publication, there has been no update regarding Porsche Penske Motorsports’ intended protest of their effective disqualification from the Six Hours of Watkins Glen which stripped Nick Tandy and Mathieu Jaminet of the victory due to a technical infringement.
LMP3 meanwhile, features just six cars, the lowest total of the 2023 campaign so far, down from 10 at last weekend’s six-hour race at Watkins Glen.
Of the teams that travelled to New York, the #36 Andretti Autosports, #38 Performance Tech and #54 MLT Motorsports Ligier JS P320s are sitting out the race at CTMP, as is the #85 JDC Miller Duqueine D08.
However, there are two Duquiene D08s from Canadian outfit AWA, which is based just 100 kilometres west of CTMP in Caledon, Ontario.
Ave Motorsports’ #4 Ligier JS P320 has a new, all-Canadian line-up featuring 2021 IMSA Prototype Challenge Class 2 champion George Staikos, and 2019 Thunderhill 25 Hours winner Antoine Comeau – both making their IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship debuts.
Another Toronto-area team, Pfaff Motorsports, looks to be a fan-favourite to take the win out of a five-car GTD Pro class as the new #9 Porsche 911 GT3 R of Klaus Bachler and Patrick Pilet aims to pick up where Mathieu Jaminet and Matt Campbell left off last year.
There are also 14 entries in GTD – far more than the pithy half-dozen of last year’s race.
As covered in our report on the WEC 6 Hours of Monza entry list, Heart of Racing Team has elected to honour its commitments to IMSA and defend its GTD class win with the #27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Roman de Angelis and Marco Sørensen. PJ Hyett will also honour his IMSA commitments with AO Racing in the #80 Porsche. In addition, Philip Ellis is set to return to the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 after pulling out of Watkins Glen due to personal reasons.
Feature image courtesy of IMSA
