AO Racing owner/driver PJ Hyett turned a lap at 128.504 mph Saturday (July 12) to win the overall pole for Sunday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. It is Hyett’s second straight pole at CTMP and his sixth career class pole.
“It’s a wonderful thing,” Hyett said afterwards. “These P2 cars and I just get along really well. I absolutely love driving this car and I love putting it on pole for the team who works so hard behind the scenes to make it fast like that.”
Hyett won the pole by .098 seconds over United Autosports’ Dan Goldburg. TDS Racing’s Steven Thomas will start third, followed by Inter Europol Competition’s Jeremy Clarke. CrowdStrike Racing by APR’s George Kurtz was fifth.
In the session, Riley Motorsports’ Gar Robinson was quickest early on before Clarke put his yellow and green ORECA 07-Gibson on top. Hyett was able to overtake Clarke and put himself on top.
Goldburg was able to drop the quick time down into the 68-second bracket with eight minutes to go. At the time, he was a third of a second ahead of Hyett and thought that he couldn’t be beat. So, he pitted with six minutes to go and let the other 11 drivers try to beat him.
Clarke’s session came to an end early when he spun in turn 2 and backed lightly into the tires. The red flag did not come out, but Clarke’s car was damaged.
Later on, Tower Motorsports’ John Farano spun and hit the tires exiting turn 10 after contact from United Autosports’ Phil Fayer. He was able to pull away as well, but suffered rear wing damage.
Hyett chose to pit for a fresh tires of tires, potentially compromising his race since LMP2 teams only get four sets of tires for qualifying and the race. Despite Farano’s spin right at the start of the lap, Hyett was a
GTD Pro saw Paul Miller Racing’s BMWs come to the front. Dan Harper put himself on top five minutes into the session. That time was quickly beaten by Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports’ Antonio Garcia.
Shortly afterwards, Harper’s teammate Neil Verhagen put down a lap at 117.960 mph, the fastest GT lap of the weekend. From then on, everyone tried their best to beat Verhagen, but could not keep the BMW racer from taking the class pole.
Verhagen’s lap was .263 seconds faster than Vasser Sullivan’s Aaron Telitz. Garcia will start third in class, followed by teammate Tommy Milner. Harper was fifth.
In GTD, Gradient Racing’s Jenson Altzman was fastest early on before Wright Motorsports’ Elliott Skeer usurped him. Skeer ended up topping out six minutes into the session with a lap at 115.881 mph, but the times continued to tumble.
Winward Racing’s Russell Ward dropped the pole into the 75-second bracket and improved to a lap at 117.532 mph. Then, Jack Hawksworth entered the picture.
Over the past few years, Hawksworth has been one of the fastest GT drivers in single-lap pace. On Saturday, he was able to wring out a lap to take the provisional pole with six minutes to go.
A couple of laps later, Hawksworth set a lap at 117.873 mph. That lap held up for the class pole.
Hawksworth ended up .218 seconds ahead of Ward. DXDT Racing’s Robert Wickens will start third in his Corvette, while The Heart of Racing’s Casper Stevenson was fourth. Wayne Taylor Racing’s Danny Formal was fifth.
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Chevrolet Grand Prix Qualifying Results
The Chevrolet Grand Prix is scheduled to go green at 2:05 p.m. ET Sunday afternoon. Coverage will air live at 2 p.m. ET on USA Network and on Peacock.
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.