Long Leads Wright to Pole Sweep at CTMP

Photo: Brian Cleary/BCPix.com

Less than two weeks ago, Patrick Long was on the sidelines but today the Porsche factory driver has claimed pole for Saturday’s Pirelli World Challenge round at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

The former series champion, in his PWC debut weekend with Wright Motorsports, reeled off a pole-winning lap of 1:15.481 in Friday’s GT/GTA/GT Cup qualifying session.

Long edged out the No. 87 Bentley Team Absolute Bentley Continental GT3 of Andrew Palmer by 0.074 seconds for his second top qualifying effort of the year.

It marked a sweep of the GT and GTA poles for the John Wright-led squad, with Michael Schein taking top qualifying honors in GTA.

“This just adds to a wild month of ups and downs,” Long said. “It’s a great shot in the arm for the Wright Motorsports Group. This just gets us closer and sooner. We can continue to move forward.”

The No. 43 RealTime Racing Acura TLX GT of Ryan Eversley qualified a season-best third, as one of the stars in the second qualifying group.

Friday’s practice pace-setting No. 88 Bentley of Adderly Fong and the No. 05 Always Evolving Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 of Bryan Heitkotter completed the top-five in the GT class.

Of note, GT Championship points leader Johnny O’Connell qualified 12th. The top 12 cars in the class were separated by just over 1 second.

Schein, meanwhile, scored his first career GTA pole with a fast lap of 1:16.688 in Wright’s No. 16 Porsche 911 GT3.

He outran the class championship-leading No. 07 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 of Martin Fuentes by 0.247 seconds.

GT Cup saw another first-time pole-sitter in Chris Green, who took his No. 09 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car to the top spot in his series debut.

Green, the defending Ultra 94 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by Yokohama champion, edged out the No. 17 GMG Racing entry of Alec Udell by 0.069 seconds.

The first GT/GTA/GT Cup round of the weekend gets underway Saturday at 1:15 p.m. ET.

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