Qualifying for Sunday’s two-hour, 40-minute Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (CTMP) concluded Saturday, with Jeremy Clarke setting the fastest LMP2 time and shattering the track record to earn overall pole in the No. 43 Inter Europol Oreca.
GTD saw championship leader Eduardo “Dudu” Barrichello continue his strong season, claiming class pole with a lap of 1:15.130 in the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo. Barrichello is joined this weekend by fellow Canadian Roman De Angelis, who steps away from his usual driving duties in the team’s GTP Valkyrie program to co-drive the GTD entry, as the duo looks to continue Barrichello and Heart of Racing’s pursuit of the GTD driver and team championships at season’s end.
Lining up alongside on the front row is the No. 36 DXDT Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R after Mason Filippi turned a lap of 1:15.373. Filippi will share the car with Canadian Robert Wickens as the team continues its resurgence after a transporter fire destroyed much of its equipment in May, with DXDT having only recently returned to competition at Watkins Glen in June.
GTD Pro qualifying featured a constant shuffle at the top of the leaderboard as multiple teams battled for class pole. Ultimately, Neil Verhagen laid down a stellar lap of 1:14.382—just fractions shy of the track record—to secure the top starting spot for himself and Connor De Phillippi in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO. Max Esterson also capitalized on a strong qualifying effort to secure a front-row starting position alongside Nikita Johnson in Team RLL’s No. 59 McLaren 720S GT3 EVO.
The same intensity carried over into the LMP2 session, with multiple lead changes atop the timing charts throughout qualifying. In the end, Jeremy Clarke paced the field aboard the No. 43 Inter Europol Oreca, setting a track-record lap of 1:07.904 to earn pole for himself and Tom Dillmann. Clarke will lead both the overall 32-car field and the LMP2 class to the green flag Sunday, while Misha Goikhberg, co-driving with Wayne Taylor Racing GTP driver Ricky Taylor, secured the outside of the front row in the No. 52 Bryan Herta Autosport w/ PR1 Mathiasen Oreca with a lap of 1:08.077.
The green flag for the Chevrolet Grand Prix at CTMP is scheduled to wave at 2:05 p.m. ET. The race will stream live on Peacock in the United States, while international viewers can watch on IMSA.tv and IMSA’s official YouTube channel.
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