PJ Hyett clinched his third consecutive pole position for ‘Spike the Dragon’ during qualifying for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s Chevrolet Grand Prix at the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
Two sessions hosted a thrilling qualifying affair at the championship’s sole round in Canada at an exciting venue for both drivers and onlooking spectators.
A combined GTD and GTD Pro field of 22 cars took to the circuit prior to the 12 LMP2 cars which fought out for outright pole position.
As usual in IMSA, the qualifying order of each GT3 car dictated their exact starting position regardless of their Pro, or non-Pro status.
Just minutes after the GTD and GTD Pro session commenced, the #34 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 stopped at pit exit with Manny Franco at the wheel.
A red flag was called just before he continued, proceeded by him coming to a halt again, nevertheless eliminating his qualifying attempt any further.
Back underway, the fight was on as ‘Rexy’ looked eager for the top spot with Seb Priaulx at the wheel of the #77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3.R, before Alexander Sims’ #3 Corvette Z06 GT3.R and Jack Hawksworth’s #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 followed in strong form.
In the end, Sims took GTD Pro pole position to front the combined field with a 1:14.373 lap time, ahead of Hawksworth who produced a 1:14.640 lap time.
Third place overall, and top of the GTD class, was claimed by the other Vasser Sullivan Lexus as Frankie Montecalvo drove the #12 to a 1:15.060.
Tommy Milner claimed fourth overall, third in GTD Pro, in the #4 Corvette with a 1:15.105 as Harry Tincknell asserted an impressive effort in the #64 Ford Multimatic Mustang with a 1:15.177.
Spencer Pumpelly was second in GTD, yet a long way behind the #12 at ninth in the combined order for the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR.
As for the LMP2 shoot-out, as normal in the category, the Bronze-rated drivers carried out the task on securing a strong grid spot for Sunday’s 2-hour and 40-minute sprint race.
A red flag was drawn after five minutes after Dennis Anderson in the #20 MDK by High Class Racing Oreca 07 suffered an impact into the tyre barrier at Turn 3 which looked to be caused by a brief lock-up of the rear wheels.
Anderson lost his two fastest and only laps completed, thus putting him at the back of the LMP2 field.
The session resumed with six minutes remaining, putting pressure on the drivers to conduct the appropriate tyre and brake warm-up before setting competitive and fast lap times.
This was before Luis Perez Companc under-steered his #88 Richard Mille AF Corse Oreca into the tyre barrier at Turn 3 which triggered a red flag.
Since the session had not reached a minimum of 10 minutes, it resumed with 1-minute on the clock which would not enable the drivers to complete their outlap, let alone put a hot lap together.
PJ Hyett secured his third consecutive LMP2 pole position in the #99 AO Racing ‘Spike the Dragon’ Oreca 07, with the previous efforts achieved at LMP2’s two preceding outings – Sebring and Watkins Glen, with a time of 1:09.582.
Dan Goldburg put the #22 United Autosports USA Oreca 07 in second place after he was narrowly 0.090 seconds behind with a 1:09.672.
Third position was claimed by Gar Robinson’s #74 Riley Oreca 07 which had set a 1:09.690, as Nick Boulle took fourth in the #52 Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Oreca 07 (1:09.756).
Steven Thomas rounded out the top-five in LMP2 in the #11 TDS Racing Oreca 07 after he drove a fastest time of 1:09.824.
The 160-minute sprint race will take place tomorrow (Sunday 14 July) at 11.05am local time or 4.05pm BST – see here for the full qualifying results.
