Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports took its first win of the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship season, holding on by means of a 9m dash end to win the Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
Nick Boulle began the race and gained the early benefit as soon as polesitter PJ Hyett was given an early drive-through penalty for shifting out of line firstly of the race. From there, Tom Dillmann took over and maintained the inexperienced and yellow No. 52 Oreca LMP2 07’s benefit, retaining the No. 11 TDS Racing Oreca of Steven Thomas and Scott Huffaker behind.
With lower than 20m left, Ryan Dalziel crashed within the Esses to deliver out a full course yellow — simply after Felipe Fraga within the No.74 Riley Oreca had overtaken Huffaker for second place.
Fraga closed to inside a second of Dillmann with two laps left, however Dillmann’s masterful maneuvering by means of site visitors allowed him to carry Fraga at bay for the victory — the primary win for Inter Europol Competitors in IMSA, and the primary IMSA win for each drivers.
Fraga and Gar Robinson completed second, simply 0.658s away from their first win of the 12 months, whereas the No. 11 TDS Oreca of Thomas and Huffaker accomplished the general podium in third.
Behind them have been the 2 United Autosports USA Orecas, the No. 2 (Ben Keating/Ben Hanley) and the No. 22 (Daniel Goldburg/Filipe Albuquerque) in fourth and fifth; the No. 8 Tower Motorsport Oreca (John Farano/Renger van der Zande) got here house sixth.
The No. 99 AO Racing Oreca of Hyett and Louis Deletraz dropped to eighth after Deletraz spun following contact with the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR Oreca (George Kurtz/Colin Braun), which completed simply forward of them in seventh.
Robinson and Fraga now lead the LMP2 championship with three races remaining of their season, however solely by 12 factors over Boulle and Dillmann. Robinson additionally took the lead within the Jim Trueman Award standings, with Boulle simply 20 factors behind him within the race for the golden ticket to subsequent 12 months’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The brand new Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R took its long-awaited maiden victory in IMSA competitors — by way of a 1-2 end for Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports in GTD Professional.
The No. 3 Corvette of Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims scored the victory, simply forward of the No. 4 of Nicky Catsburg, and Tommy Milner, who beforehand gave the Z06 GT3.R its first win in GT World Problem America earlier this 12 months.
Sims and Garcia led virtually the whole 2h40m race, solely surrendering the lead in the course of the first spherical of routine pit stops. This got here simply after Dennis Andersen crashed his No. 20 MDK by Excessive Class Racing Oreca at Flip 9, which led to the primary full course yellow of the race.
Michael Levitt/Lumen
Whereas the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Laurin Heinrich and Seb Priaulx simply held on for third place, the 2 have been the winners when it comes to the GTD Professional championship battle — after the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 (Jack Hawksworth/Ben Barnicoat) retired with 30m left resulting from a suspected engine failure.
The No. 64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustang GT3 (Harry Tincknell/Mike Rockenfeller) and the No. 23 Coronary heart of Racing Group Aston Martin Vantage GT3 (Ross Gunn/Mario Farnbacher) rounded out the highest 5 in GTD Professional, with the crimson plaid No. 9 Pfaff Motorsport McLaren GT3 Evo (Oliver Jarvis/Marvin Kirchhofer) sixth within the staff’s house race.
For the second time in three years, Ontario native Roman de Angelis gained his house race within the GTD class. This time, veteran driver Spencer Pumpelly was his co-pilot because the No. 27 Coronary heart of Racing Aston Martin lastly received its first win in 2024, in what has been a troublesome season for them.
Pumpelly took the lead simply after half-distance, profiting from a spin from Turner Motorsport’s Patrick Gallagher, and he and de Angelis by no means relinquished the benefit.
The No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Russell Ward and Philip Ellis prolonged their large GTD championship factors lead with a second-place end in school, whereas the No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren of Brendan Iribe and Frederik Schandorff placed on a late cost to take third place from the No. 96 Turner BMW of Gallagher and Robby Foley.
Rounding out the highest 5 in GTD was the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus (Frankie Montecalvo/Parker Thompson).
The IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship returns with all 4 courses in motion at Street America on August 4.
