Taylor Quickest in Shortened First CTMP Practice

Photo: Brandon Badraoui/IMSA

Ricky Taylor was quickest in opening practice for this weekend’s Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, in a session that ended ten minutes early due to an accident by a GTD car.

The Cadillac factory driver, subbing for the Brazil-bound Harry Tincknell, reeled off a chart-topping 1:08.080 lap time in the No. 52 Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca 07 Gibson.

Taylor’s time was 0.098 seconds quicker than second-placed Sebastian Alvarez in the No. 8 Tower Motorsport Oreca, with 1:08.287 by Alex Quinn good enough for third quickest overall in the LMP2 headline race this weekend.

Ben Hanley and Tom Dillmann completed the top-five for United Autosports and Inter Europol Competition, respectively.

Philip Ellis was quickest of the GT cars in his No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, which was faster than the entire GTD Pro field.

The No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Antonio Garcia was quickest in class with the second best time amongst the GT3-based machinery.

Ben Barnicoat was second in GTD Pro aboard his No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, ahead of Neil Verhagen and Tommy Milner, who third and fourth in class, respectively for Paul Miller Racing and Corvette by Pratt Miller.

The session saw two red flags, the first for an accident by the No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo of Lorenzo Patrese, who hit the barriers at Moss Corner just past the halfway mark.

After assistance from the IMSA recovery team, Patrese, whose co-driver Albert Costa set the second quickest time in GTD, managed to bring the car back to the pit lane with minor right-front bodywork damage and later rejoined the action.

Callum Ilott then had a considerably larger impact at the same corner in the final 15 minutes, which brought out the second red after Ilott’s No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo made heavy contact with the tire barriers.

Ilott got out of his car from the passenger’s side door, although the session did not resume due to the considerable barrier repair required.

Both cars are expected to lose their quickest times in qualifying due to bringing out red flags in practice.

The second and final practice session of the weekend is on tap for Saturday at 10:35 a.m. EST, prior to qualifying at 4 p.m., which will be streamed live on Peacock as well as IMSA’s YouTube channel.

RESULTS: Practice 1

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