The 2018 SportsCar Grand Prix was a sports car race sanctioned by the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA). The race was held at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada, on July 8, 2018. The race was the seventh round of the 2018 IMSA SportsCar Championship.
International Motor Sports Association's (IMSA) president Scott Atherton confirmed the race was part of the schedule for the 2018 IMSA SportsCar Championship (IMSA SCC) in August 2017. [1] It was the fifth consecutive year the event was held as part of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the thirty-sixth annual running of the race. [1] The 2018 SportsCar Grand Prix was the seventh of twelve scheduled sports car races of 2018 by IMSA, and was the fourth round not held on the held as part of the North American Endurance Cup. [1] The race was held at the ten-turn 2.459 mi (3.957 km) Canadian Tire Motorsports Park circuit on July 8, 2018. [1]
After the Sahlen's Six Hours of the Glen 1 week earlier, Filipe Albuquerque led the Prototype Drivers' Championship with 169 points, ahead of Eric Curran and Felipe Nasr with 168 points, and Dane Cameron and Juan Pablo Montoya with 156 points. [2] With 147 points, the GTLM Drivers' Championship was led by Joey Hand and Dirk Müller with a one-point advantage over Ryan Briscoe and Richard Westbrook. [2] In GTD, the Drivers' Championship was led by Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow with 155 points ahead of Katherine Legge with 154 points. [2]
On July 4, 2018, IMSA released the latest technical bulletin outlining Balance of performance for the event. [3] In P, the Cadillac DPi-V.R received a 0.3 mm larger air restrictor while the Mazda RT24-P and Nissan Onroak DPi received an increase of turbo boost. Additionally, the Cadillac, Mazda, and Nissan received an increase in fuel capacity. In GTLM, the Chevrolet Corvette C7.R received a 0.9 mm larger air restrictor while the BMW M8 GTE received a reduction in turbo boost. In GTD, the Audi R8 LMS and Porsche 911 GT3 R received air restrictor increases of 1 and 3 millimeters, respectively.
A total of 32 cars took part in the event split across 3 classes. 13 cars were entered in P, 8 in GTLM, and 11 in GTLM. [4] In P, United Autosports were absent. Spirit of Daytona Racing skipped due to a lack of funding. [5] Tequila Patrón ESM scaled down to a single entry due to a lack of spare engines following the previous round at Watkins Glen. [6] Ryan Dalziel joined Pipo Derani in the #22 Tequila Patrón ESM entry. In GTD, CJ Wilson Racing, Squadra Corse Garage Italia, Montaplast by Land-Motorsport, HART, Park Place Motorsports, and P1 Motorsports were absent. Scuderia Corsa scaled down to a single entry while the #16 Wright Motorsports made its since appearance since Belle Isle. SunEnergy1 Racing skipped the event after ending their partnership with Riley Motorsports. [7] Bill Auberlen and Robby Foley returned to the Turner Motorsport entry.
There were three practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Saturday, two on Friday and one on Saturday. The first two 75 minute sessions were on Friday morning and afternoon. The third session on Saturday morning lasted an hour. [8]
The first practice session took place at 11:30 am ET on Friday and ended with Colin Braun topping the charts for CORE Autosport, with a lap time of 1:07.155. [9] Kyle Masson crashed the #38 Performance Tech Motorsports Oreca in turn 1 against the tire barriers. [10] Performance Tech Motorsports later withdrew its entry from the event. [11]
| Pos. | Class | No. | Team | Driver | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | P | 54 | CORE Autosport | Colin Braun | 1:07.155 | _ |
| 2 | P | 6 | Acura Team Penske | Dane Cameron | 1:08.071 | +0.916 |
| 3 | P | 5 | Mustang Sampling Racing | Filipe Albuquerque | 1:08.088 | +0.933 |
| Source: [12] | ||||||
The second practice session took place at 3:50 pm ET on Friday and ended with Colin Braun topping the charts for CORE Autosport, with a lap time of 1:06.902. [13]
| Pos. | Class | No. | Team | Driver | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | P | 54 | CORE Autosport | Colin Braun | 1:06.902 | _ |
| 2 | P | 6 | Acura Team Penske | Dane Cameron | 1:06.939 | +0.037 |
| 3 | P | 7 | Acura Team Penske | Hélio Castroneves | 1:07.881 | +0.979 |
| Source: [14] | ||||||
The third and final practice session took place at 8:30 am ET on Saturday and ended with Colin Braun topping the charts for CORE Autosport, with a lap time of 1:06.712. [15]
| Pos. | Class | No. | Team | Driver | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | P | 54 | CORE Autosport | Colin Braun | 1:06.712 | _ |
| 2 | P | 6 | Acura Team Penske | Dane Cameron | 1:07.026 | +0.314 |
| 3 | P | 31 | Whelen Engineering Racing | Felipe Nasr | 1:07.336 | +0.624 |
| Source: [16] | ||||||
Saturday afternoon's 65-minute qualifying session was divided into three groups. [8] All three categories had 15-minute individual sessions, and regulations stipulated teams to nominate a single driver to qualify their cars. The competitors' fastest lap times determined the starting order with the grid arranged to put the Prototype and GTLM cars ahead of all GTD entries. [17]
Pole positions in each class are indicated in bold and by ‡.
| Pos. | Class | No. | Team | Driver | Time | Gap | Grid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | P | 54 |  CORE Autosport | Colin Braun | 1:06.315 | _ | 12 1 |
| 2 | P | 6 | Acura Team Penske | Dane Cameron | 1:06.540 | +0.225 | 1‡ |
| 3 | P | 85 | JDC-Miller MotorSports | Robert Alon | 1:06.841 | +0.526 | 2 |
| 4 | P | 10 | Wayne Taylor Racing |  Renger van der Zande | 1:07.093 | +0.778 | 3 |
| 5 | P | 55 |  Mazda Team Joest | Jonathan Bomarito | 1:07.109 | +0.794 | 4 |
| 6 | P | 7 | Acura Team Penske |  Hélio Castroneves | 1:07.272 | +0.957 | 5 |
| 7 | P | 52 | AFS/PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports |  Sebastián Saavedra | 1:07.276 | +0.961 | 6 |
| 8 | P | 22 | Tequila Patrón ESM |  Ryan Dalziel | 1:07.524 | +1.209 | 7 |
| 9 | P | 77 | Mazda Team Joest | Tristan Nunez | 1:07.684 | +1.369 | 8 |
| 10 | P | 99 | JDC-Miller MotorSports |  Misha Goikhberg | 1:07.827 | +1.512 | 9 |
| 11 | P | 5 | Mustang Sampling Racing | Christian Fittipaldi | 1:08.009 | +1.694 | 10 |
| 12 | P | 31 | Whelen Engineering Racing | Eric Curran | 1:08.168 | +1.853 | 11 |
| 13 | GTLM | 911 | Porsche GT Team | Nick Tandy | 1:13.517 | +7.202 | 13‡ |
| 14 | GTLM | 67 | Ford Chip Ganassi Racing |  Ryan Briscoe | 1:13.831 | +7.516 | 14 |
| 15 | GTLM | 3 | Corvette Racing |  Jan Magnussen | 1:13.934 | +7.619 | 15 |
| 16 | GTLM | 912 | Porsche GT Team |  Laurens Vanthoor | 1:13.955 | +7.640 | 16 |
| 17 | GTLM | 4 | Corvette Racing | Oliver Gavin | 1:14.080 | +7.765 | 17 |
| 18 | GTLM | 24 | BMW Team RLL |  Jesse Krohn | 1:14.100 | +7.785 | 18 |
| 19 | GTLM | 25 | BMW Team RLL | Alexander Sims | 1:14.213 | +7.898 | 19 |
| 20 | GTLM | 66 | Ford Chip Ganassi Racing | Joey Hand | 1:14.228 | +7.913 | 20 |
| 21 | GTD | 15 | 3GT Racing | Jack Hawksworth | 1:15.581 | +9.266 | 21‡ |
| 22 | GTD | 14 | 3GT Racing |  Dominik Baumann | 1:16.020 | +9.705 | 22 |
| 23 | GTD | 48 | Paul Miller Racing | Bryan Sellers | 1:16.386 | +10.071 | 23 |
| 24 | GTD | 33 | Mercedes-AMG Team Riley Motorsport | Ben Keating | 1:16.417 | +10.102 | 24 |
| 25 | GTD | 16 | Wright Motorsports | Michael Schein | 1:16.545 | +10.230 | 25 |
| 26 | GTD | 86 | Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanin |  Álvaro Parente | 1:16.554 | +10.239 | 26 |
| 27 | GTD | 96 | Turner Motorsport | Robby Foley | 1:16.707 | +10.392 | 27 |
| 28 | GTD | 58 | Wright Motorsports | Christina Nielsen | 1:16.887 | +10.572 | 28 |
| 29 | GTD | 63 | Scuderia Corsa | Cooper MacNeil | 1:17.027 | +10.712 | 29 |
| 30 | GTD | 93 | Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanin | Justin Marks | 1:17.603 | +11.288 | 30 |
| 31 | GTD | 44 | Magnus Racing | John Potter | 1:17.610 | +11.295 | 31 2 |
| 32 | P | 38 | Performance Tech Motorsports | did not participate | 32 | ||
| Sources: [18] [19] | |||||||
As a result of winning the race, Bennett and Braun moved from seventh to fourth in the Prototype Divers' Championship. Curran and Nasr jumped from second to first while Cameron and Montoya dropped from third to fifth. [20] As a result of winning the race, Briscoe and Westbrook took the lead of the GTLM Drivers' Championship. Hand and Müller dropped from first to third while Gavin and Milner jumped from sixth to fourth. [20] The result kept Sellers and Snow atop the GTD Drivers' Championship with 183 points, 3 points ahead of Legge. [20] Cadillac, Ford, and Lamborghini continued to top their respective Manufacturers' Championships while Paul Miller Racing kept their advantage in the GTD Teams' Championship. Whelen Engineering Racing took the lead of the Prototype Teams' Championship while the #67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing entry took the lead of the GTLM Teams' Championship with five rounds remaining. [20]
Class winners are denoted in bold and ‡.
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