AO Racing’s Louis Deletraz set the pace in opening practice for the IMSA SportsCar Championship at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
Deletraz beat Renger van der Zande (Tower Motorsports) and Ben Hanley (United Autosports) in the 90-minute session, which featured a 34-car entry.
The premier class GTP hybrids have taken a break from the fearsome 2.459-mile, 10-turn road course near Toronto, formerly known as Mosport. Although those cars weren’t here, some of the top drivers still made the trip north of the border to drive the LMP2 machinery.
The warfare for the top spot between the moonlighters saw Wayne Taylor Racing Acura regular Deletraz setting the pace at 1m07.895s in AO Racing’s Oreca, 0.003s quicker than van der Zande in Tower’s similar car, who’s usually seen piloting Chip Ganassi Racing’s Cadillac.
Those early lap times were never bettered during the session. Hanley was third at 1m08.382s, ahead of another GTP refugee, Filipe Albuquerque, in the second United entry.
Colin Braun, who’s always been rapid around here, was fifth fastest in his regular Crowdstrike by APR machine. Tom Dillmann (Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports) was next up, ahead of Filipe Fraga (Riley), Ryan Dalziel (Era Motorsport) and Pipo Derani (AF Corse).
The session was briefly red flagged for an off at Turn 10 by Daniel Goldburg in the #22 United Autosports entry. He was able to continue, as was Ben Keating in the sister #2 car, who went off at Turn 3.
In GTD, there was an early Corvette Racing 1-2, as Nicky Catsburg led stable-mate Antonio Garcia by 0.168s, with a lap time of 1m15.714s in his Z06 GT3.R.
Alexander Sims took the #3 car ahead of the #4 with 10 minutes to go in the session with a 1m15.696s, eclipsing Catsburg’s time by 0.018s.
Ross Gunn was third fastest in the #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage, while the quickest pro-am class driver was Robby Foley in Turner Motorsport’s BMW M4.
Bryan Sellers (Paul Miller Racing BMW), Seb Priaulx (AO Porsche) and Ben Barnicoat (Vasser Sullivan Lexus) were next up, each in all-Pro entries.