Acura Quickest During Friday Practice at CTMP
Images and words by Matthew Boyce
Colin Braun set the quickest time during Friday's opening IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship practice session at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park. With a lap of 1:07.341, Braun was able to set the quickest time ahead of the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Pipo Derani. The second Acura fielded by Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport was third at the hands of Filipe Albuquerque and was followed in fourth by the No. No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac of Renger van der Zande. Rounding out the top five in the opening session of the weekend was the No.24 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Augusto Farfus.
Vasser Sullivan followed up their superb Watkins Glen weekend by claiming first overall in the GT class lap times with the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 of Frankie Montecalvo setting the quickest time. The McLaren 720S GT3 Evo fielded by Inception Racing and driven by Frederik Schandorff was second overall and second in GTD, while the first GTD-Pro entry wound up third overall. Corvette Racing's No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD of Antonio Garcia was first in GTD-Pro behind the Lexus and the McLaren.
With the LMP2 class off this weekend, the LMP3 class takes over as the second fastest prototype class. The No. 30 III Racing Ligier JS P320 Nissan of Garett Grist was the fastest in the class, even after missing a portion of the session due to an electrical issue. Second in class was the No. 74 Riley Motorsports Ligier JS P320 of Gar Robinson and Felipe Fraga.
The session was stopped twice due to cars stopping on course. The first, which didn't occur until there was 30 minutes in the session, was due to the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Philip Ellis stopping on course. The second red flag flew with less than 15 minutes remaining as the No. 4 Ave Motorsports Ligier of George Staikos stopped on track as well.
The second session for the Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park is set for 8am ET Saturday morning.
