Van der Zande Leads First Practice at CTMP

Renger van der Zande went fastest as track action kicked off with the first practice session of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s Chevrolet Grand Prix weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park on Friday.

With the GTP class absent from the championship’s Canadian round, LMP2 competitors paced the field overall, with the Dutchman taking the No. 8 Tower Motorsports Oreca 07 Gibson he shares with John Farano to the top of the times with a 1:08.402 lap recorded on his tenth attempt.

The Ricky Capone-run squad finished the 90-minute practice session 0.104 seconds faster than the No. 2 United Autosports entry of Ben Hanley and three-tenths up on AO Racing’s Dane Cameron, who was third fastest overall.

Tom Blomqvist put a second United entry into the overall top-five, after laying down the fourth best time on Friday afternoon in the points-leading No. 22 Oreca he will share with Daniel Goldburg this weekend.

Inter Europol Competition completed the top five with Tom Dillmann’s best lap aboard the No. 43 LMP2 machine.

Pfaff Motorsports paced the GTD Pro field with Andrea Caldarelli’s 1:15:580 benchmark lap in the No. 9 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 breaking the class track record around the 2.46-mile circuit in the process.

Nicky Catsburg was second-fastest in the No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R he shares with Tommy Milner, 0.460 seconds off of Caldarelli’s time.

Jack Hawksworth was the fastest of the GTD class competitors and the third-quickest driver in GT3 machinery in the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3.

The red flag came out after only three minutes when Steven Thomas went off course at Turn 1 on his first flying lap, sustaining damage to the left-rear of his No. 11 TDS Racing Oreca.

Running resumed 12 minutes later, with Thomas having been cleared and released from the infield medical center.

While it was initially determined that the TDS machine would be stripped of its fastest qualifying time on Saturday for bringing out the red flag, the team’s penalty was later rescinded via a message from race control.

Nearing the halfway point, Daniel Serra temporarily stopped his No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 on track at Turn 5 before continuing.

In the final half hour, the No. 66 Gradient Racing Ford Mustang GT3 took to the Turn 5 runoff before continuing on without incident. Aside from the early red flag, first practice ran without interruption.

Practice 2 is scheduled for Saturday morning at 10:35 a.m. EST ahead of qualifying for the Chevrolet Grand Prix at 4 p.m. EST.

RESULTS: Practice 1