Koch, P1 Motorsports Dominate PC Race 1 at CTMP

Kenton Koch started on pole and led flag to flag for a dominant win in Race 1 of the IMSA Prototype Challenge presented by Mazda weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

Koch crossed the line 6.497 seconds ahead of Colin Thompson, picking up his second race win of the season in the No. 8 P1 Motorsports Ligier JS P3.

The second place finish for Thompson was good enough to get the Kelly-Moss Road and Race driver into the championship lead, leapfrogging past Andres Gutierrez ,who is not competing this weekend due to family commitments.

It was an impressive recovery for Thompson and the Kelly-Moss crew after a practice crash on Friday and subsequent repairs made for a busy night.

The crew was able to get the Norma M30 in fighting shape, and Thompson set the race’s fastest lap in the repaired car in the final minutes of the 45-minute event.

Kyle Masson finished third overall and first of the MPC class competitors, besting Michal Chlumecky by 16.161 seconds for Performance Tech Motorsports.

Chlumecky won the MPC Masters subcategory for Eurosport Racing, while Extreme Speed Motorsports driver Naj Husein secured a fifth-place overall finish and the win in LMP3 Masters.

The race was slowed twice by safety car periods, the first coming just as the initial green flag flew.

Contact back in the pack between JC Perez and Paul Fix triggered a melee on the front straightaway that ultimately involved six of the 18 cars that took the green in the race.

After 15 minutes of cleanup following that accident, the race resumed with 30 minutes remaining and ran green until Gary Gibson’s single-car accident in Moss Corner brought out the safety car for the second and final time.

Race 2 for the series of the weekend is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. ET on Sunday with live coverage available at IMSA.tv with commentary from IMSA Radio.

Delayed television coverage will air July 27 at 8 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 2.

RESULTS: Race 1