CTMP Post-Race Notebook

Photo: Brandon Badraoui/IMSA

***Inter Europol Competition officially claimed its second IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship victory, its first since last year’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, although the Polish squad was also victorious at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park two years ago, in a car entered under the Inter Europol by PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports banner.

***Tom Dillmann was part of all three wins, while FIA Bronze-rated driver Jeremy Clarke notched his second career win after winning in his series debut at Sebring in 2025.

***The team’s No. 43 Oreca 07 Gibson led 93 of the 127-lap race, accounting for nearly 75 percent of the race.

***Inter Europol has now claimed class victories in the WeatherTech Championship, European and Asian Le Mans Series, as well as 24 Hours of Le Mans, all in the same year. All of its wins came in LMP2 machinery except for the 2025-26 Asian LMS campaign, which was in the LMP3 class.

***Team principal Sascha Fassbender said:  “Tom and Jeremy both did a fantastic job without making any mistakes, and the team operated very well throughout the race. The pit stops were smooth, everything was exactly as it should be, and we executed the race perfectly. After two difficult races following our Le Mans victory at Watkins Glen and Imola, it’s fantastic for the whole team to be back on the top step of the podium.”

***With its third class podium in four races, CrowdStrike by APR’s George Kurtz and Alex Quinn continue to lead the LMP2 standings, although their margin has been reduced to 70 points over Dillmann and Clarke with three races to go. AO Racing’s Dane Cameron and PJ Hyett are third in the title race, 81 points back.

***Quinn admitted track position and traffic played a role in the outcome of the race, as Dillmann made the eventual race-winning pass for the lead on him with 1 hour and 14 minutes to go.

***He said: “I think I’m critical of myself and maybe [I had] a slight mistake or [was] a bit unlucky in traffic and that’s when Tom got past. It was a fun race. Tom’s a great driver. It was intense and high commitment. You couldn’t make one mistake.”

***The No. 52 Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca 07 Gibson, which topped both practice sessions with Cadillac factory driver on-loan Ricky Taylor and started second in the hands of Misha Goikhberg, went on an alternate strategy which saw the drivers split the race 50/50 on drive time, despite Bronzes only needing a minimum of 60 minutes of drive time.

***Taylor, who got into the car with 1 hour and 20 minutes to go, was initially at a 50-second deficit but closed to 36 seconds at the checkered flag, thanks to late-race fuel-only stops for the top three cars, but was still classified in fourth. The finish, however, marked the team’s best result of the season.

***The Lexus RC F GT3 claimed its 20th WeatherTech Championship victory on Sunday and the 18th for Vasser Sullivan, which took over the program from 3GT Racing in 2019.

***Jack Hawksworth, Ben Barnicoat and the Jimmy Vasser and James ‘Sulli’ Sullivan-led team notched their first class win at CTMP, in what marked the ninth different track the team has won at in IMSA competition.

***With their third place class finish, Paul Miller Racing’s Connor De Phillippi and Neil Verhagen, who claimed class pole on Saturday, have extended their GTD Pro points lead to 108 markers over new second-placers Nicky Catsburg and Tommy Milner of Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports.

***The No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo of Nick Tandy and Harry King, meanwhile, equalled a season-best second place class finish, which the duo, along with Alessio Picariello replicated at Sebring in March.

***RLL Team McLaren had the most competitive outing to date with its McLaren 720S GT3 Evo program, which qualified an impressive second in the hands of Max Esterson, who held onto the position in his opening stint. The team, along with the Paul Miller crew, were among those to make two driver changes in the race, which saw Nikita Johnson get in for the middle stint, before Esterson closed out the race although faded to sixth in class with several off-course excursions.

***Multimatic Motorsports’ call to go off-sequence early on with its No. 64 Ford Mustang GT3 EVO of Ben Barker, who pitted on Lap 13, effectively back-timing the remainder of the race, didn’t pan out, with Barker and co-driver Dennis Olsen coming home seventh in class, behind the sister No. 65 car of Chris Mies and Fred Vervisch.

***Barker said: “We tried an alternative strategy compared to everyone else but that is always a gamble and it didn’t work out this time. We made up a few positions but it’s not ideal. We’ll keep our chins up though and head to the next round and try to get a podium there.”

***Winward Racing became the first repeat winner in the GTD category this year, with the two-time and defending class champions having triumphed in January’s season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona. Philip Ellis and Russell Ward combined to lead a race-high 65 laps in their Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

***With a runner-up class finish and challenging race for the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, Vasser Sullivan’s Aaron Telitz and Benjamin Pedersen have closed to within 92 points of Eduardo Barrichello, who salvaged a sixth place class result courtesy of Roman De Angelis’ flying final stint.

***The GTD pole-sitting Aston first lost 20 seconds with an airgun issue during its first pit stop, from the class lead, and then was forced to serve a drive-through penalty for having too many crew members over the wall during that stop. The race’s second yellow, however, put De Angelis back on the lead lap.

***The No. 45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 of defending CTMP class winners Trent Hindman and Danny Formal finished fifth in class after leading for 18 laps while on an alternate strategy to the front-runners.

***Hindman said: “The WTR guys absolutely killed the first stop and were able to get out to the lead. Everybody was on a pretty heavy fuel saving strategy, including us. Final stint, we knew we did not have the outright pace, so we had to take a risk with the strategy and run a little bit long. Unfortunately, the overcut didn’t work today but, in the end, we still punched way above our weight today.”

***DXDT Racing’s race turned upside down during the driver change to Robert Wickens when the throttle return spring came loose on Wickens’ Bosch hand control system, costing the team two laps. Wickens was unable to recover, finishing last in class.

***Program manager Bryan Sellers explained: “Unfortunately, during the driver change, the throttle return spring got kicked, or fell off at some time during the stint. By rule, as the driver changers, you can’t do anything. So, we had to have crew go in. It’s just unfortunate. It’s one of those things that we haven’t had yet with the hand control system until today.”

***All 32 cars finished the two-hour and 40-minute race, which featured two early race full-course cautions but ran caution-free for hte final 1 hour and 47 minutes. The No. 11 TDS Racing Oreca of Matias Beche returned to action some 48 laps down following Tobi Lutke’s accident in Turn 8 that brought out the second yellow.

***All four classes will return to action in three weeks’ time for the Motul SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix, the first-ever six-hour IMSA enduro at Road America, which will serve as the penultimate leg of the Michelin Endurance Cup on July 31-Aug. 2.

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