Spike the Dragon on pole for IMSA at CTMP, BMW and Lexus take GTD PRO and GTD poles
- Aaron Carroll
- Jul 12
- 5 min read
Written by Aaron Carroll
PJ Hyett has taken pole in the No.99 AO Racing 'Spike the Dragon' LMP2 for the IMSA Weathertech race at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park. The No.12 Lexus took pole in GTD, and the No.1 BMW in GTD PRO
Qualifying for the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar championship at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park got underway 10 minutes later than scheduled, after some barrier repairs due to an incident in a support series.
There are no GTPs present for the only Canadian race on the calendar, meaning LMP2 headline a field consisting of both GTD classes. The first of which - GTD - went to the track first, at 16:10 local time.
GTD
The drivers went out for their single 15 minute session, and it was the No.120 Porsche of Elliott Skeer than went to the top in the first five minutes. A lot of the times at this stage though weren't totally representative, as some people still got their tyres into the temperature window.
Russell Ward in the No.57 Mercedes and Casper Stevenson in the No.27 Aston Martin both jumped the Porsche. The Mercedes was three quarters of a second quicker than anyone at the halfway point of the session.
Jack Hawksworth went marginally quicker in the No.12 Lexus, with Robert Wickens in the No.36 DXDT Corvette coming through to third. Then came Stevenson in the No.27 and then Danny Formal in the No.45 Lamborghini.
Ward in the No.57 opted to pit with five minutes to go for a new set of tyres, taking a gamble to see if he could warm them up in time to set a lap. With a few minutes left in the session, a few drivers came to the pits, no improvement left for them. This included the No.12, No.36 and No.27.
Meanwhile Ward was improving in the Mercedes on his new tyres, but set a lap 0.001 seconds slower than his personal best. He crossed the line with enough time to complete one more lap. He couldn't find time on his final lap either, the new tyre gamble not paying off.
So the No.12 Lexus of Hawksworth took pole, with Ward alongside him on the grid for the race tomorrow. Wickens in the No.36 Corvette was third, with the No.27 Aston Martin and the No.45 Lamborghini finishing out the top 10.
Then came the No.96 BMW, the No.120 Porsche, No.021 Ferrari, No.34 Ferrari, No.78 Lamborghini, No.70 Ferrari, No.66 Ford and finally the No.13 Corvette.
GTD PRO
Next it was the turn of the other GT class, with the 10 car GTD PRO field going out for their 15 minute session at 16:35 local time.
As these drivers warmed up their tyres over multiple laps, the No.14 pit for another set of tyres. The Vasser Sullivan squad likely scrubbing a set of tyres for the race, or running a heat cycle through the brakes to allow for more optimal warm up on the next set, the No.77 'Rexy' Porsche followed suit.
Dan Harper in the No.48 BMW went to the top early, a 1:15.6. That time was half a second down on the GTD pole time, so slightly off where we expected the cars to be. There was clearly still some preparation going on with nine minutes to go.
Harper was just beaten by Antonio Garcia in the No.3 Corvette, before Neil Verhagen went half a second quicker. Garcia and teammate Tommy Milner got slightly closer, but they slotted in, in second and third. At this point the two Fords came in for tyres too.
Aaron Telitz went third in the No.14 Lexus, four tenths off Verhagen with six minutes to go. On his next lap he improved to second, a tenth improvement.
Afterwards the only improvement came from Klaus Bachler in the No.77 Porsche, going from ninth to eighth ahead of the No.65 Ford of Fred Vervisch. The tyres seemed to have gone off slightly, with no major improvements coming through.
Harper in the No.48 improved right at the end to go fifth, but by then everyone else had gone to pit lane, spelling the end of the session.
So it was the No.1 BMW that took pole position, ahead of the No.14 Lexus. Then came the two Corvettes, No.3 ahead of No.4. Harper in the No.48 was fifth, then the No.9 Lamborghini, the No.64 Ford, No.77 Porsche, No.65 Ford and the No.81 Ferrari completed the grid.
Those 10 would be placed ahead of all 13 GTDs, despite some being slower than Hawksworth's pole time in that class.
LMP2
At 16:55 local time, the top class for this weekend took to the track to set the top 12 times for the grid tomorrow. All of the teams are running Oreca 07s, meaning LMP2 becomes effectively a spec class. In this session, the bronze drivers were mandated to take the wheel of the prototypes.
Lap times tumbled early on, as the tyres came into the optimum temperature range. PJ Hyett in the No.99 'Spike' car topping the session early, from Jeremy Clarke in the No.43 Inter Europol car.
Daniel Goldburg took over at the top with seven minutes left, a 1:08.9 to best Hyett by almost four tenths of a second.
Clarke in the No.43 had an off at turn two, colliding side on with the barrier. He lost the car on turn in, into the high speed left hander. He didn't hit the wall too hard, so he managed to get going again and back to the pits.
In a session last season, where LMP2 drivers consistently improved all session and set the best lap on their last laps, there was not a lot of improving for the drivers. With two minutes to go the order sat unchanged.
John Farano in the No.8 Tower Motorsports car collided with the barrier at the final corner, he got going again though. Crucially however, that ruined what could have been an improvement for Hyett in the No.99.
Farano was tagged by the No.2 United Autosports car, a clumsy incident that was blamed on the No.2 by race control.
The AO Racing driver/owner got another lap and he found the time he needed to go quickest by a tenth.
The No.99 'Spike the Dragon' car from AO Racing took pole, ahead of the No.22, and the No.11. Then came the No.43 despite the incident, the No.04, No.73 and No.2 in seventh. Rounding out the LMP2 field was the No.52, No.74, No.18, No.8 and the No.79.
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