Yacaman Grabs CTMP Pole in Thriller

Photo: IMSA

OAK Racing scored its second consecutive TUDOR United SportsCar Championship pole following a thrilling two-way battle for top honors in qualifying Saturday at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

Gustavo Yacaman and Ryan Dalziel fought tooth-and-nail throughout the heated 15-minute qualifying session, which saw the two drivers exchange provisional pole no fewer than four times.

Despite a last-gasp attempt by Dalziel, who improved his time after returning to the track, the Colombian still came out on top, posting a 1:09.167 in his No 42 Morgan-Nissan.

It marked Yacaman’s first career IMSA pole. He will share driving duties in Sunday’s Mobil 1 Sportscar Grand Prix with Frenchman Olivier Pla.

OAK, which is coming off a second-place result in last month’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen, will be searching for its first victory of the season tomorrow.

Dalziel’s 1:09.456 lap time, which came on his 11th lap, was good enough to put the No. 1 Extreme Speed Motorsports HPD ARX-03b second on the grid, marking the first-ever sweep of the front row for P2 cars in TUDOR Championship competition.

The No. 90 Spirit of Daytona Corvette DP of Richard Westbrook qualified third with a 1:09.642 lap, while Johannes van Overbeek was fourth in his No. 2 ESM HPD, thanks to a 1:10.136 time.

Christian Fittipaldi completed the top-five overall and in the Prototype class, wheeling his No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP to a best lap of 1:10.298.

A total of 10 P class cars recorded times, following the withdrawals of both the Marsh Racing Corvette DP and DeltaWing coupe, which were involved in separate incidents in Friday’s practice.

The Mobil 1 Sportscar Grand Prix takes the green flag Sunday at 2:05 p.m. ET, with live coverage on FOX Sports 1.

RESULTS: Qualifying

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