GEBHARDT Interlogistics Motorsports’ Valentino Catalano was able to run down and take the lead away Saturday morning (July 12) from MLT Motorsports’ Jonathan Woolridge less than 10 minutes into the race. From there, he was able to hold on to IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge Race No. 1 at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. For Catalano, it’s his fourth win of the season in seven races.
Catalano won by 2.331 seconds over Woolridge. Turner Motorsport’s Jake Walker was third, then Forte Racing’s Brian Thienes. Wright Motorsports’ Adam Adelson was fifth.
Woolridge started from the overall pole in his Ligier JS P320-Nissan. With home track knowledge in his back pocket, he managed to pull away early from GEBHARDT Interlogistics Motorsports’ Valentino Catalano and Oscar Tunjo.
However, the pace advantage over the two GEBHARDT-entered Duqueines was short-lived. As soon as Woolridge caught the back of the field, Catalano and Tunjo ran him down in a hurry.
Catalano was able to make the move to the outside on the Mario Andretti Straightaway a little under 10 minutes to take the lead from Woolridge. Once out front, Catalano slowly began to pull away.
Tunjo was eventually able to get past Woolridge for second, then ran down his teammate from a couple of seconds back. By halfway, the duo were running nose to tail.
However, just as soon he got to Catalano, disaster struck. The left front wheel decided that it didn’t want to stick around anymore. The wheel came off on the pit straight and went down the hill and hit the tire barrier in turn 1. Tunjo pulled to a stop right next to it to bring out the safety car.
The green came back out with less than 10 minutes to go. From here, Catalano opened up a comfortable advantage and held on to take the win.
Turner Motorsport’s Jake Walker started from the GTDX pole in his BMW M4 GT3, but he came under almost immediate pressure from AF Corse’s AJ Muss. Muss tried on the first lap to get past, but just couldn’t do so.
It turned out that the first lap was his only real opportunity to get it down. Once everyone got into a rhythm, Walker was roughly a second a lap faster than Muss. As a result, it didn’t take long for Walker to have a lead of over 10 seconds.
Further back, Walker’s teammate Vin Barletta had contact with the GSX Porsche of Angus Rogers in Moss Corner, spinning Rogers out. That resulted in a drive-through penalty for Barletta that ultimately cost him a lap
The caution brought everyone back together, but Walker had a number of slower GSX cars between himself and Muss. Muss had to deal with Wright Motorsports’ Adam Adelson instead. The two battled hard for second and even made contact on the pit straight, resulting in debris coming off of Adelson’s Porsche.
That contact did not go unpunished. IMSA stewards determined that Muss was at fault for the contact and assessed him a 10-second post-race penalty.
Meanwhile, Walker drove away from the pack to take the win. It is his fourth win in the last five races.
Walker’s margin of victory was 12.440 seconds over Adelson. Yes, Muss beat Adelson to the line, but the penalty knocked him back to third. ST Racing’s Samantha Tan was fourth.
RAFA Racing Team’s Kiko Porto started from the GSX pole. He was able to open a small gap on the rest of the class. Meanwhile, BSI Racing’s Steven Clemons was able to get past Ian Porter for second.
Even with the caution bringing everyone back together, Porto was never seriously threatened en route to his fifth win of the year.
The margin of victory was 8.597 seconds over Clemons. Twoth Autosport’s Chris Walsh was third, then Justin Di Benedetto. Rebel Rock Racing’s Frank DePew was fifth.
Porter was running third in class, but had a mechanical problem on the final lap of the race. He ended up finishing eighth.
IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge: CTMP Race No. 1 Results
Race No. 2 for VP Racing SportsCar Challenge is scheduled for 11:10 a.m. ET Sunday morning. The race will be streamed live on both the IMSA Official YouTube channel 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.