The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship traveled to Ontario, Canada to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (CTMP) last weekend, in a race that included the LMP2 prototype class as well as the GTD Pro and GTD classes. BMW teams had a strong weekend, finishing third in both classes.
Paul Miller Racing came into CTMP with the lead in the GTD Pro championship, after a second-place finish at Watkins Glen two weeks ago. They couldn’t have started the CTMP weekend any better, as Neil Verhagen put in a storming 1:14.382 lap to take the pole for the second year in a row. “Both poles have now come from Mosport (CTMP’s former name) which is kind of funny now,” Verhagen said. “I guess this is kind of my track. The commitment level here is so high. On my first run I’d actually gone off in Turn three, and it was sketchy. I was bouncing all over the dirt on the outside, just pushing a little bit too much, but was able to get it reined in.” The top six cars in GTD Pro were within half-second of each other. In the GTD class, Patrick Gallagher qualified the #96 Turner Motorsport M4 GT3 EVO in sixth, around six-tenths of a second behind the pole-sitting time set by Dudu Barrichello (son of ex-Formula 1 driver Rubens Barrichello) in an Aston Martin.
Neil Verhagen celebrates his pole position.
In the race, Verhagen held the point in GTD Pro until pit stops, when the BMW then fell back into fourth. Drivers Connor De Phillippi and Verhagen then clawed their way back into third but didn’t have the pace to match the #14 Lexus that won the race or the #77 AO Racing Porsche that finished in second.
The Turner Motorsport team put in a solid performance with drivers Gallagher and Robby Foley and great strategy and pit work to finish third behind the winning #57 Mercedes-AMG and the second place #12 Lexus. “We executed a perfect race, which feels really good, said Foley after the race. “We’ve had some decent races, but this one went basically as good as it could have gone. We did a nice strategy to undercut some cars, saving a lot of energy, and we had a great car today. We definitely improved over Watkins Glen in these high-speed corners. Hopefully we can take what we learned to Road America in a few weeks.”
Turner Motorsport finished third in the GTD class.
Auto Technic Racing Second in Michelin Pilot Challenge
Turner Motorsport drivers Dillon Machavern and Luca Mars came into CTMP with the lead in the GS class driver’s championship, but that lead took a big hit at Watkins Glen when they had their car damaged by a piece of curb that hit the car and dropped them back to 17th. The lead they did have dissolved completely at CTMP, but another BMW team rose in the points.
Qualifying was red-flagged so many of the teams never set a representative qualifying time. The top BMW on the grid at the start was the #92 Random Vandals Racing M4 GT4 EVO of Nicky Hays in ninth. The #95 Turner entry of Mars and Machavern started in eleventh with Mars at the wheel and was caught up in a first lap pileup in the tight Moss Corner that damaged the car. Mars made it back to the pits but the time required to fix the car cost the team several laps and resulted in a 23rd place finish.
Auto Technic Racing drivers Austin Krainz and Stevan McAleer are now third in points.
Meanwhile, the #27 Auto Technic Racing M4 GT4 EVO of Austin Krainz and Stevan McAleer was running in the top six with Krainz at the wheel and then moved up into the top three by the end of the race with McAleer driving. He held that position until the end, though he never got close enough to the winning #12 Toyota Supra to challenge for the win. The only other BMW to finish in the top ten was the #96 Turner Motorsport entry of Robby Foley and Vin Barletta, in 10th.
Turner drivers Vin Barletta and Robby Foley finished in the top ten.
That first lap incident at CTMP impacted other cars besides the #95 Turner BMW and the points were dramatically different after the Canada race than before. Mars and Machavern went from first to fourth and are now 140 points behind leaders Nate Cicero and Robert Noaker, who drive the #13 McCumbee McAleer Racing Ford Mustang GT4 that finished third at CTMP. The second-place finish for Stevan McAleer and Austin Krainz put them into third in the points, just 40 points behind the leaders.
In the pair of VP Racing SportsCar Challenge races that were also held at CTMP, Courtney Crone had a solid weekend in the #35 CarBahn Motorsports M4 GT4 EVO, finishing fourth in the GSX class in race one and on the podium in second in race two. The next IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and Michelin Pilot Challenge races take place at the Road America circuit in Wisconsin on the weekend of July 30th – August 2nd.
Courtney Crone finished fourth and second in the two VP Challenge races.
—David Haueter
[Photos by LAT Images]
