Clarke Storms to CTMP Pole in New LMP2 Track Record

Photo: Brandon Badraoui/IMSA

Jeremy Clarke stormed to pole for Sunday’s Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, breaking a seven-year LMP2 track record.

Clarke reeled off a best lap of 1:07.904 in his No. 43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca 07 Gibson to edge out The No. 52 Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca of Misha Goikhberg by 0.173 seconds for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship LMP2 headline race.

Clarke, who was also on pole for last month’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen, will share driving duties with Tom Dillmann in tomorrow’s two-hour and 40-minute contest.

PJ Hyett will start third in the No. 99 AO Racing entry, despite having been in the purple sectors on one of his final flyers in the closing moments of the 15-minute session.

The No. 22 United Autosports Oreca of Daniel Goldburg and George Kurtz, in the No. 04 CrowdStrike by APR entry, completed the top-five.

The remainder of the nine-car LMP2 field was completed by Phil Fayer (United Autosports), Chris Cumming (Pratt Miller Motorsports), Tobi Lutke (TDS Racing) and John Farano (Tower Motorsports).

Verhagen Takes Second Career GTD Pro Pole; Esterson Second in Class

Neil Verhagen claimed his second consecutive CTMP class pole, with the Paul Miller Racing BMW driver edging out RLL Team McLaren’s Max Esterson for top qualifying honors in GTD Pro.

The BMW factory driver reeled off a 1:14.382 lap time in the No. 1 BMW M4 GT3 EVO to edge out Esterson, in the No. 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo by 0.185 seconds.

The impressive run by Esterson, in his CTMP debut, came after the McLaren was at the bottom of the class time charts in both practice sessions.

Alexander Sims came 0.002 seconds from a front row start in the No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, which will roll off third on the grid, with Nicky Catsburg fourth in the sister Corvette in fourth.

Scott Andrews completed the top-five in class in the No. 68 YRB Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo.

Andrews, in the team’s GTD Pro class debut, beat the likes of Jack Hawksworth, Harry King, Sandy Mitchell, as well as both factory Ford Mustang GT3 EVOs, which brought up the rear of the ten-car class field.

Heart of Racing Takes Third Pole of Day

GTD class pole honors went to Eduardo Barrichello for Heart of Racing, despite his No. 27 Aston Martin being parked by IMSA for one-third of the session due to a technical penalty.

The Brazilian reeled off a chart-topping 1:15.130 to outpace the No. 36 DXDT Racing Corvette of Mason Filippi by 0.243 seconds.

Barrichello’s pole came despite only completing five laps in the 15-minute session after getting a five-minute hold at the start due to failure to perform the torque sensor offset test.

It marked the third GTD pole of the season for Heart of Racing and came just an hour after Barrichello’s sub for the FIA World Endurance Championship race in Sao Paulo, Kobe Pauwels, took top qualifying honors in LMGT3 for the team.

Benjamin Pedersen will roll off third in the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, ahead of Russell Ward and Danny Formal, who completed the top five in class for Winward Racing and Wayne Taylor Racing, respectively.

The No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 of Lorenzo Patrese initially slotted in fifth but will start eighth after two penalties were applied in the session.

His fastest lap was initially thrown out due to bringing out a red flag in Friday’s practice session, which was followed by laps 4-7 being invalidated due to failure to adhere to controlled powertrain parameters.

The Chevrolet Grand Prix gets underway Sunday at 2 p.m. EST with live coverage on Peacock and IMSA’s YouTube channel internationally.

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