MSR Acura Stretches Energy to CTMP Victory

Photo: Rick Dole/IMSA

Meyer Shank Racing has become the first repeat winner in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP class, with Colin Braun holding on to take top honors in Sunday’s Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

Braun took the No. 60 Acura ARX-06 to the win after a heavy crash by Renger van der Zande, who was pushed into the grass by Augusto Farfus, resulted in the two-hour and 40-minute contest ending under yellow in the final five minutes.

Braun completed the final 1 hour and 16 minutes on a single replenishment of energy, although it came amid three full-course cautions that slowed the pace dramatically.

While having led from pole, a slow pit stop while under the first full course caution dropped Braun to third, behind the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura of Filipe Albuquerque, who took over the lead at the time, with the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Alexander Sims in second.

The No. 10 WTR Andretti Acura appeared to be in control following a green-flag stop, just moments before the race’s second yellow, but didn’t regain the lead when the No. 60 Acura gambled on fuel and stayed out.

Braun shared top honors with pole-sitter Tom Blomqvist, marking their first win since the controversial Rolex 24 at Daytona that saw the Ohio-based team docked 200 points and issued other penalties due to tire data manipulation.

Albuquerque and co-driver Ricky Taylor were forced to settle for second on Sunday, ahead of the No. 25 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 of Connor De Phillippi and Nick Yelloly, which went off-sequence on strategy early in the race to lead for several laps.

JDC-Miller Motorsports recorded a season-best fourth place result, with Tijmen van der Helm holding off both Porsche Penske Motorsport drivers Nick Tandy and Matt Campbell to be the highest-placed Porsche 963 in the race, courtesy of also making a green flag pit stop.

The No. 31 AXR Cadillac was seventh, ahead of the No. 24 BMW, which had a late-race driver change back to Farfus, who was handed incident responsibility for the contact with van der Zande.

The Dutchman climbed from his wrecked Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac under his own power, after slamming into the Turn 8 barriers after an apparent brake lock-up through the grass.

Garcia, Taylor End Corvette Winless Streak in GTD Pro

Corvette Racing broke through for its first GTD Pro win since Sebring 2022, with Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor taking top class honors.

Garcia benefitted from both the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Patrick Pilet and Ben Barnicoat’s then class-leading No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 going off-course to take the top spot with 1 hour and 7 minutes to go.

Barnicoat then pitted his class championship-leading Lexus with overheating problems, sending the car behind the wall for 20 laps.

Garcia edged out Pilet for the class win, with the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Jules Gounon and Dani Juncadella completing the GTD Pro podium in third.

It came despite a drive-through penalty for Gounon due to incident responsibility after contact with the No. 23 The Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Ross Gunn that eliminated Gunn from the race just prior to halfway.

The class win for Garcia and Taylor came on the same day the Pratt Miller-run team clinched the FIA World Endurance Championship GTE-Am championship in Monza.

Top honors in GTD at CTMP went to the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 of Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow, who extended their points lead as a result of their third class win of the season.

Sellers held off the No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 Evo of Frederik Schandorff, who made a late charge in the car that was started by Bronze-rated Brendan Iribe.

The No. 32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes of Mike Skeen and Mikael Grenier was third, ahead of the class pole-sitting No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston of Roman De Angelis and Macro Sorensen in fourth.

Riley’s Felipe Fraga and Gar Robinson, meanwhile, picked up the LMP3 class win despite late-race contact by Fraga and the then class-leading No. 30 Jr III Racing Ligier of Garett Grist.

The incident, reviewed by IMSA race control, resulted in no further action.

It demoted Grist to second in class, ahead of the No. 17 AWA Duqueine D08 Nissan, which completed the class podium.

RESULTS: Chevrolet Grand Prix

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