The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship returned to Canadian Tire Motorsports Park – nee Mosport – final 12 months after a COVID hiatus to a heat welcome from the Canadian followers. The sequence heads again to the the Ontario favourite once more this weekend, this time two weeks faraway from the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen, so the groups shall be a bit extra rested for the Chevrolet Grand Prix.

CTMP is quick and flowing, and is all the time a favourite of drivers in addition to an amazing place for followers to look at.

“Mosport is among the most weird and superb tracks on the planet – not solely within the IMSA calendar – and my recollections have all the time been very good there,” says Dutch driver Renger van der Zande, who shall be driving with Sebastien Bourdais within the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Sequence.R from Chip Ganassi Racing.

“I believe final 12 months was the primary time that I gained there. However I’ve been attempting very arduous there. And if you wish to win there, you have to attempt actually arduous as a result of it’s a type of tracks the place I inform (folks) how weird it’s, how briskly you go there, how a lot danger you are taking, how blind the corners are. Additionally, the site visitors isn’t simple. Plus, you want a really quick automobile; for those who don’t have a quick automobile on the again straight, you’re not going to win the race. So the entire bundle wants to suit. It’s really a type of tracks the place it’s extra fascinating from an engineering perspective than you assume if you take a look at it.”

Final 12 months’s occasion featured a few standout performances. The primary was Tom Blomqvist’s beautiful pole lap within the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura of 1m4.394s, a mean of 137.472 mph across the 2.459-mile, 10-turn highway course. It was not solely a brand new observe file, however stands because the quickest official lap of any WeatherTech Championship observe. The second was within the race itself, when Bourdais handed van der Zande an “undriveable” automobile and he drove it proper to the entrance of the sector.

“Sebastien got here in after one stint when the facility steering was locking,” van der Zande mentioned. “He mentioned, ‘Hey, I don’t wish to drive anymore.’ And I I simply gave it a go and I mentioned let’s attempt anyway. At that time, I began utilizing some some energy that I’d by no means by no means identified earlier than. We made it by means of to the top and I even had a shot at discovering discovering my well beyond some automobiles, which was fairly weird, to be trustworthy.”

CTMP’s signature flip is Moss Nook, which is de facto two closely-spaced 90-degree turns. Coming into the nook, the automobiles undergo a dip that may unsettle them, making it a dramatic spot but additionally an excellent place to go coming off the quick and tough Flip 3. However for most of the drivers, the favourite part comes earlier than that.

“I’d say the the most effective half about might be the circulation between Turns 1 and a pair of,” mentioned Jordan Taylor, who on the lookout for the primary victory of the season for Corvette Racing within the No. 3 C8.R he shares with Antonio Garcia.

“That’s a tremendous sequence of corners – blind entries on each of them, a number of elevation change. And I believe simply the followers generally at Mosport are all the time one thing particular. I went out in 2017 or ’18 to Flip 3 and Flip 4 to look at and simply the followers and the blokes that camp, they simply love sports activities automobile racing. In order a sports activities automobile driver, not all of the tracks have genuine followers like that. It’s all the time cool to see guys which were going there since again within the day.”

Taylor and Garcia shall be attempting to shut a 172-point hole from their third-place place within the GTD PRO factors to leaders Ben Barnicoat and Jack Hawksworth for Vasser Sullivan Lexus. Jules Gounon and Daniel Juncadella (WeatherTech Racing Mercedes AMG) sit in between, 113 factors out of first. Paul Miller Racing’s Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow carry a 104-point margin within the GTD factors into CTMP over Aaron Telitz and Frankie Montecalvo (Vasser Sullivan Lexus), with Coronary heart of Racing Aston Martin duo Marco Sorensen and Roman De Angelis sizzling on the second-place crew’s heels.

With the penalty for the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsports squad from Watkins Glen upheld, Pipo Derani and Alexander Sims maintain the GTP lead for Cadillac Racing/Motion Specific Racing, 64 factors forward of Glen winners Connor De Phillippi and Nick Yelloly (BMW M Workforce RLL). PPM drivers Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy fell to 3rd, solely 9 factors behind the BMW squad. Having gained the one two LMP3 points-paying races to date, Felipe Fraga and Gar Robinson maintain a reasonably stout lead for Riley Motorsports, 730 factors to Anthony Mantella and Wayne Boyd. LMP2 isn’t in motion this weekend.

The 2h40m Chevrolet Grand Prix begins at midday ET with stay protection on NBC. Qualifying shall be Saturday afternoon at 12:45 p.m. ET, streamed stay on IMSA.television. Accompanying the WeatherTech Championships would be the Michelin Pilot Problem with a two-hour race on Saturday afternoon at 4 ET and a pair of VP Racing SportsCar Problem occasions. The help races shall be streamed stay on Peacock.