Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian’s Tom Blomqvist won the pole Saturday (July 8) for Sunday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park with a lap at 134.836 mph. It is Blomqvist’s second pole of the year and his second straight at CTMP.
“It was a bit of messy run, to be honest,” Blomqvist told NBC Sports’ Dillon Welch afterwards. “The car has been fantastic, but a bit difficult to drive. Colin [Braun] has been on it all weekend, but I can piece it together in qualifying. Had to have a bit more faith in the car today.”
Blomqvist won the pole by .081 seconds over Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport’s Ricky Taylor. Action Express Racing’s Pipo Derani will start third, followed by the Cadillac of Chip Ganassi Racing’s Sebastien Bourdais. Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Felipe Nasr was fifth.
Derani set the first representative time in GTP in qualifying at 133.115 mph. The remaining eight GTP teams took aim at it.
Ultimately, it was the Acuras that came to the front. Ricky Taylor was the first driver to set a lap under 70 seconds and none of the non-Acuras topped the chart for the remainder of the session.
Blomqvist set his best time with 12 minutes remaining in the session, then pulled in for the rest of the available time. Everyone else took their shots at it, but could not beat the pink and white No. 60.
LMP3 saw points leader Gar Robinson put his Riley Motorsports Ligier JS P320-Nissan on top early on. He then continued to improve to a lap at 121.356 mph.
Robinson’s lap held up to give him his second LMP3 pole of the season. Unlike Watkins Glen, he earned this point on the track.
Robinson won the pole by .409 seconds over Andrew Wojteczko Autosport’s Orey Fidani. Jr III Racing’s Ari Balogh will start third, then Anthony Mantella in the second AWA entry. Ave Motorsports’ Antoine Comeau was fifth.
In the GT ranks, The Heart of Racing was strong early on in both classes. Alex Riberas put himself at the top of the GTD Pro with a time that the rest of the class could aim for.
In recent years, VasserSullivan’s Jack Hawksworth has had the best one-lap pace in the class and Saturday was no exception. He was able to put himself on top with a lap at 117.986 mph with seven minutes to go.
Hawksworth’s lap held on to give him the GTD Pro class pole. He won the pole by .074 seconds over WeatherTech Racing’s Jules Gounon. Riberas ended up third, then Corvette Racing’s Jordan Taylor.
GTD saw Roman DeAngelis put himself on top early. He then improved to a lap at 117.285 mph. At that point, DeAngelis pulled into the pits and sat out the remainder of the session.
DeAngelis left the rest of the GTD class nearly six minutes to take shots at him. In that time, his competitors got close, but no one could take DeAngelis off of the class pole in his home race. For DeAngelis, it is his first personal pole position since Lime Rock in 2021.
DeAngelis won the pole by three-hundredths of a second over VasserSullivan’s Frankie Montecalvo. Paul Miller Racing’s Madison Snow will start third in his BMW, followed by Turner Motorsport’s Patrick Gallagher. USRaceTronics’ Misha Goikhberg was fifth in his Lamborghini.
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Chevrolet Grand Prix Qualifying Results
The Chevrolet Grand Prix is scheduled to go green at 12:05 p.m. ET Sunday afternoon. The race will air live on NBC at Noon ET Sunday. For those markets whose NBC affiliate choses not to air the race, you can either tune in on Peacock or check your local listings for an alternate channel.
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.