Inter Europol by PR1 Victorious at CTMP

Inter Europol by PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports won the Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, which also saw Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports take a 1-2 in the GTD Pro class.

Tom Dillmann, sharing the No. 52 Oreca 07 Gibson with Nick Boulle, overcame a late-race restart to beat the No. 74 Riley Oreca to victory by 0.658 seconds.

That caution, the third to occur during the two-hour 40 minute contest, was triggered by Ryan Dalziel finding the tire barrier at Turn 9 with under 20 minutes remaining.

Fraga’s No. 74 Oreca had found its way around both TDS Racing driver Scott Huffaker and the No. 2 United Autosports machine of Ben Hanley just before the caution and took the final restart in second place.

However, while the Brazilian pressured Dillmann in the final minutes, he was unable to prevent the Frenchman from winning the only LMP2 headline race on this year’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship calendar.

Inter Europol, which embarked on its first full season of WeatherTech Championship campaign at the start of the year, captured its first win in the series, as did Dillmann.

PR1/Mathiasen, meanwhile, returned to the top step of the podium for the first time since last year’s round at Road America.

The groundwork for the No. 52 crew’s victory was laid in the opening stages of the race, when Boulle fought his way up to second place after starting from fourth.

That left him in the optimal position to move to the lead when pole sitter PJ Hyett was given a drive through penalty for changing lanes at the start in the No. 99 AO Racing Oreca.

From there, Boulle and Dillmann controlled the race at the front to beat Fraga and Gar Robinson to victory.

Scott Huffaker and Steven Thomas finished third for TDS Racing, with the pair of United Autosports Orecas completing the top five led by the No. 2 machine of Ben Hanley and Ben Keating.

Renger van der Zande crossed the line sixth to wrap up his cameo appearance aboard the No. 8 Tower Motorsports Oreca, ahead of the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR machine of George Kurtz and Colin Braun.

Braun became involved in a late-race tangle with Louis Deletraz that saw the No. 99 AO Racing machine spin at Turn 2 before going on to finish eighth.

Pipo Derani and Luis Perez Companc came home in ninth for AF Corse, with the Sean Creech Motorsport Ligier JS P217 Gibson completing the overall top ten.

Sims, Garcia Lead Corvette 1-2 in GTD Pro; Heart of Racing Wins GTD

In GTD Pro, Alexander Sims and Antonio Garcia led a 1-2 finish for Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports, finishing ahead of teammates Tommy Milner and Nicky Catsburg.

The Anglo-Spanish pairing converted pole position to victory aboard the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, although Garcia had to fend off pressure from Catsburg after the final restart to secure the win.

The two cars were separated by just 0.408 seconds at the line as Chevrolet’s new-for-2024 GT3 challenger secured its first win in the WeatherTech Championship.

The result follows just a few months after the car’s maiden victory in global competition, which came as part of a weekend sweep for DXDT Racing at the Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS round at Circuit of The Americas.

GTD Pro championship leaders Laurin Heinrich and Sebastian Priaulx finished third in the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R, which was a significant result as nearest championship rivals Vasser Sullivan failed to finish.

The No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3 pulled off the circuit with Ben Barnicoat at the wheel with half an hour to go, suffering reported powertrain issues.

Mike Rockenfeller and Harry Tincknell finished fourth in the No. 65 Ford Mustang GT3, with Ross Gunn and Mario Farnbacher completing the top five in class for Heart of Racing.

Their stablemates Spencer Pumpelly and Roman De Angelis took GTD class victory in the No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, finishing ahead of the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Russell Ward and Philip Ellis.

A front runner throughout, the No. 27 Aston Martin captured the lead of the race when the No. 96 Turner Motorsports BMW M4 GT3 of Patrick Gallagher spun out of first place at Moss Corner just after the halfway point.

Gallagher and co-driver Robby Foley remained on course for a podium finish and held third at the final restart, only to be surpassed by the No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 Evo in the final minutes.

As a result, Brendan Iribe and Frederik Schandorff completed the class podium, with Gallagher and Foley in fourth.

Frankie Montecalvo and Parker Thompson rounded out the top five aboard the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus.

RESULTS: Chevrolet Grand Prix