Canadians Seeking Success on Home Soil This Weekend

Most Canadians racing on home soil at this weekend’s IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Canadian Tire Motorsport Park 120 have had strong, steady or sneaky good seasons across the GS and TCR classes.

The Canadian contingent has particularly starred in TCR, due to both the volume of competitors and their respective successes for three different manufacturers: Honda, Hyundai and Audi.

Honda has both a team and driver Canadian connection with the No. 93 Montreal Motorsports Group Honda Civic FL5 TCR of Karl Wittmer (from Saint-Lazare, Quebec) and LP Montour (from Blainville).

MMG enters on a hot streak, having won the last two Motul Pole Awards with Wittmer and Montour on Honda’s home soil at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course and then in the appropriately named LP Building Solutions 120 at Watkins Glen International, just five miles from the village of Montour Falls, N.Y.

Wittmer, Montour and Dai Yoshihara finished third in the O’Reilly Auto Parts 4 Hours of Mid-Ohio endurance race and then Wittmer and Montour won at Watkins Glen, with the victory stopping Hyundai’s six-race TCR win streak the last two races of 2024 and the first four of 2025.

They enter Canadian Tire Motorsport Park third in points, 230 behind championship leader Harry Gottsacker.

While Hyundai lost its win streak at Watkins Glen, they’ve still been strong with Canadians at CTMP.

Mark Wilkins of Mulmur is a 2022 TCR winner at the track and shared his winning No. 33 Bryan Herta Autosport Hyundai Elantra N TCR that day with his countryman Robert Wickens in Wickens’ first of two TCR wins at CTMP.

Additionally, Montreal’s Denis Dupont seeks to join the list of BHA Hyundai TCR champions in the No. 76 Hyundai. Dupont and Preston Brown are second in points heading into CTMP, only 30 behind Gottsacker in the similar No. 98 Herta Hyundai.

Wilkins and Gottsacker’s regular co-drivers, Bryson Morris and Mason Filippi, are back for CTMP after a runner-up finish in class for Hyundai at the Nürburgring 24 that took place on Watkins Glen weekend.

At Audi, the Baker Racing entry has been one of the quiet stars of the season, even if their results haven’t fully shown it.

The team ran sporadic Pilot Challenge races the last couple years with four starts but has grown into a full-season outfit in 2025.

Through Round 4 at Mid-Ohio, the team was the top non-Herta Hyundai in the TCR title ranking fifth in the championship, with two top-five and four top-10 finishes in as many starts. A fuel pump issue late at Watkins Glen negated a potential second-place finish.

IMSA veteran James Vance of Toronto has ascended to the team’s lead pro driver aboard the No. 52 Audi RS 3 LMS TCR but has also served as a coach and mentor for Bowmanville, Ont.’s Sam Baker and his father Dean, both of whom have grown in pace and performance as the year has gone on.

The team added a second car for the first time at Watkins Glen, with Dean Baker sharing the No. 56 Audi with Indy car and sports car veteran Bruno Junqueira.

Another Audi that has flown under the radar but steadily improved is the No. 37 Precision Racing LA Audi, featuring the father-daughter lineup of Ron and Megan Tomlinson, both from Ottawa. The Tomlinsons have started the year five-for-five in terms of top-10 finishes with a best finish of seventh twice.

While the TCR field features nine Canadians, the lone GS Canadian in the field is Daniel Morad in the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT GT4 he shares with Bryce Ward. His passes at Mid-Ohio were highlight reel material en route to a runner-up finish there.

The 34-car field for Saturday’s race is split between 20 GS and 14 TCR entries.

The GS points-leading No. 28 RS1 Porsche 718 GT4 RS Clubsport of Jan Heylen and Luca Mars has a 340-point lead over Jenson Altzman, who will return to double duty action between Pilot Challenge and WeatherTech Championship races over the weekend.

The Nos. 39 and 95 BMW M4 GT4 EVOs from CarBahn by Peregrine racing and Turner Motorsport have a win apiece this year and are tied for third in points, albeit 390 points back of the lead.

Pilot Challenge competitors have two one-hour practice sessions on Friday with qualifying first thing Saturday morning and the race Saturday at 1:25 p.m. EST, streaming live on Peacock and globally, ad-free, on YouTube courtesy of Michelin.