Johnson Leads Ford Front Row Sweep at CTMP

Photo: Ford Performance

Billy Johnson will start Saturday’s Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge race from the pole, having led a 1-2 sweep for the new Ford Shelby GT350R-C in qualifying at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

Johnson gave the No. 15 Multimatic Motorsports entry its second consecutive top qualifying effort, having reeled off a quick lap of 1:26.461, a time that was more than seven-tenths quicker than teammate Jade Buford.

It marked Johnson’s second career series pole in the car he’ll share with Watkins Glen polesitter Scott Maxwell in tomorrow’s two-hour and 30-minute race.

“To be the second pole in a row for the Ford GT350R-C is just storybook in the making,” Johnson said. “Multimatic and Ford Performance have done a fantastic job in building the car, prepping it, testing it and this is their home track.

“There were a few things we continued to develop and work on during the practice sessions, then there were some things we wanted to try.

“We were reasonably fast, but for qualifying, Multimatic had a great idea and it definitely worked, so we have both of our cars on the front row, and hopefully the race setup will be just as good.”

The pair of Shelby Mustangs were more than one-second clear of the competition, with the No. 13 Rum Bum Racing Porsche 911 of Hugh Plumb qualifying third overall and in the GS class with a 1:27.568 time.

Andrew Davis, who along with Robin Liddell seek their fourth consecutive win in the No. 6 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro Z/28.R, qualified fourth, with the No. 14 Doran Racing Nissan 370R of Brad Jaeger completing the top-five.

Devin Jones claimed top qualifying honors in ST, giving Alara Racing its fourth straight pole in the highly competitive class.

Jones pedaled the No. 34 Mazda MX-5 to a best lap of 1:32.626, edging out the No. 81 BimmerWorld BMW 328i of Andrie Hartanto by 0.179 seconds.

It marked the first top qualifying effort of the season for Jones, who broke Justin Piscitell’s four-race pole streak. Ironically, Jones replaced Piscitell at the wheel of the Alara entry for this weekend.

Chad Gilsinger and Steve Eich qualified the pair of HART Honda Civic Si entries in third and fourth in class, followed by Watkins Glen winner Chad McCumbee, who completed the top-five in his CJ Wilson Racing Mazda.

Of note, Jonathan Bomarito qualified his No. 25 Freedom Autosport Mazda sixth in class, as a last-minute addition to the race alongside fellow Mazda factory co-driver Tristan Nunez.

The Continental Tire Challenge round gets underway Saturday at 1:25 p.m. ET.

RESULTS: Qualifying

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John