2025 IMSA Chevrolet Grand Prix at CTMP | Race Recap | WeatherTech Championship | Ontario, Canada

Lights are out on the pace car, that means we are coming to green. Michelin starting grid on your screen right there, we say congrats to the man behind the wheel of that purple LMP2 car, that's Spike the Dragon for AO Racing, PJ Hyatt gets back-to-back poles, Watkins Glen, and here at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. What a monster lap he put together, late in qualifying, the last lap, Flyer. Start's going to be so important, you're going to tip it into Turn 1 at over 100 miles an hour, there's a little argy-bargy there, touching on the run to the green. Dan Goldberg is all fired up in that United Autosport car, the blue and red one, the Chevrolet Grand Prix is underway here at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, great jump from PJ Hyatt from the pole position. Now you're going to keep an eye out for the BMW of Neil Verhagen on the left of your screen, down the bottom there, as he gets the jump on Aaron Tielitz. Great start by our two pole sitters, you see the action as the LMP2 cars steam down the hill, that's Turn 3 you're looking at right there on screen, the GTD field hit Turn 2. Already some early positional changes, but certainly not for the overall, PJ Hyatt has taken off. Touch there between the Corvette and the BMW, that was really dicey there at high speed, and the tyres aren't completely in their window right yet in terms of pressures or temperature. Here comes the FAF Lamborghini, they're also in the mix, so they stretch their legs, the P2 prototypes up the back part of this circuit, this two and a half mile circuit, and it's PJ Hyatt over Dan Goldberg, and Stephen Thomas, then Jeremy Clark, and then George Kurtz. About 165 miles an hour as you tip into Turn 8, beautiful sequence of corners here to finish off the lap, it's a fast, it's a quick lap here at CTMP. It is crazy to think that this AO Racing LMP2 program is yet to win in IMSA WeatherTech competition, the team manager Gunner Jeanette said hopefully we can convert this pole to a win today, the Lamborghini and Corvettes go at it at the end of the opening lap. Caldarelli for the home squad here, FAF Racing is making some early, oh there's a problem, a spin in the middle of the field, looks like Danny Formale has got tipped around coming out of Turn 9, and the Triasi Ferrari, it is not a good scene for John Ferrano in the Tower Events Number 8, this is another Canadian driver in this field, one of the nine in this race today. I'm not sure he did touch him, I think maybe John Sorum just tightened his hands a little bit as he tried to accelerate off the corner, I'm not sure if he thought that maybe PJ was to his right flank and didn't want to widen the corner and open his hands up at the same time as he went to power, it's certainly tight, I'm sure the IMSA race control will be taking multiple looks at that before they make the call. He comes through the traffic, here is the incident for the United Autosport driver, whoa, yeah I think he's trying to get down the inside of maybe Brendan Arrive there and maybe the room ran out for him, he had to pinch it a little bit, problem is you're cresting those hill Lee, if you suddenly get on the brakes or you lift off the gas pedal abruptly it throws all of the weight forward in the nose, pins the downforce as well and you can go for a quick spin like that, look at this, look no further than the AWA, look no further here than a four car pile up at Moss Corner, big stack up, George Kurtz who was running in the top three was involved in that, Stephen Thomas gets by there, Brendan Arrive in the yellow Ferrari and the orange and blue P2 car is the Riley Motorsports Ranch 74 of Gar Robinson, here's Chris Cumming, his car damaged, Canadians in the field yeah, see how this one developed, big traffic, that's Arrive up ahead, that's George Kurtz and then Chris Cumming dives down to the inside, I'm not sure if George was not able to turn in because Chris was to his right or whether he just misjudged it, he tips Cumming around and then, excuse me, tips Arrive around then Cumming and Gar Robinson had nowhere to go, a big winner in that deal was Nick Buhl as he was able to get by everybody, I think what happened there, I think George was trying to be patient and wait for Reid to clear the second part of Moss Corner, then he suddenly saw coming to his inside and maybe just tried to squirt the gas pedal and see if he could dive to the apex of his time there, let's take a look from the onboard, yeah I think he just felt the pressure from the inside there, I think Cumming was taking advantage of George, just kind of holding station there a little bit, just want to let Ferrari get through the corner and then tackling going up the straight away, but it all just went wrong in a heartbeat and so now George is doing the best he can to stay on the lead lap, he does not want to be overtaken and there's contact there either side of the Triasi Ferrari, that was scary, that is crazy stuff there at these sort of speeds, I mean George just flicked around, I thought he almost got touched by how quick the maneuver was around that GT car and then they almost came together when they were, had that GT car as the meat in the sandwich, leader of Triasi, watch George come across a little bit too early, PJ just keeps his foot in it, a big head of steam up the Marie Andretti straight away and just clears him there as they go side by side through Turn 8. Nice guys do win, look at this because it is on in GTD Pro between Corvette and BMW, they have built their history this year and it hasn't necessarily been great history, there is a lot of emotion between these two racing organizations. There really is the number one car now with Madison Snow behind the wheel taking over from the pole sitter Neil Verhagen, putting the pressure on Alex Simms, Simms won here in a BMW one year, he won here in Corvette delivery last year of course, defending class champion here but he was really really hanging on there, he knew he couldn't afford to let that position up and now he's got a little bit of traffic to take the pressure off. And speaking of this racetrack, we've got a full course caution, Lee. It's nasty, it is nasty, that's George Kurtz and the crowd strike with APR entry, George had been having a good day, he was involved in an incident earlier on but at the low speed Moss Corner, this is incredibly high speed and that is a severely damaged P2 prototype. Guys, a problem down here on pit lane with a 48, a bad entry, the car is cocked in the box, very difficult to try to get the right front impact gun on to get the lug and get the wheel off and replace it with the new one, certainly lost a number of seconds here on pit lane, small mistakes can hit you big. Yeah and there's a lot of flexibility, Matty, to short fill, I mean we're basically about a stint and a quarter in terms of normal green flag running to get to the finish of this race, so if you believe you've got to come to pit lane again anyway, you can take a bit of a fly right now, a bit of a gamble, short fill the race car and leapfrog cars on pit lanes. I'll be interested to see the sequence coming in and leaving pit lane if anyone's taken that choice. Adam Adelson is behind the wheel of the 120 right motorsports Porsche. Brian Till, we are approaching the halfway mark. What did you see on that round of stops? Well, they had a problem as well. Matt talked about little mistakes. The car came in, they were going to fuel it left rear tire only. That's not surprising. Left side takes a punishment around this racetrack. The tire changer went to the left rear, the fueler went to the nose but no one plugged the air hose in and they waited a long time, fuel was done before they got that left rear on and Adam Adelson got back out into pit lane. It could be Dane Cameron up against Tom Blomqvist, up against Benjamin Peterson, Tom Dillman, Hunter McElroy. Well, we've got it on track right here, right now. Let's go back racing, Chevrolet Grand Prix here in Canada. Big names in these P2 machines going at it at the front of this field. Look at these cars weaving around just trying to get those tires clean at the same time. You get, generate a little bit of tire temp, that's mainly about clean up here, running around under yellow, get a lot of marbling and pickup on the tires. Cameron has scorched off at the front of this pack. Just the cadence that you have to try and find here and knowing where those GTD machines will give you a little bit of speed to make those moves. Dane Cameron's a past GTD champion. He knows that was really tight there. Up ahead, Tom Dillman forced his way through on that United Autosports P2 car. Dillman is on the move. The champ from last year is on the attack and all eyes are on Dane Cameron. We told you at the top of the show that we may see this. You are seeing it now. Peterson with a really savvy move on Blomquist in Moss Corner and Hunter McElroy is opportunistic as well. Canada, meanwhile, up front. You saw what that traffic did to Tom Dillman's pursuit of Dane Cameron. Dane was able to get by the traffic in a more, in a more convenient section and was able to gap the Frenchman. And then there's another two seconds back to Benjamin Peterson and Tom Blomquist and Felipe Fraga run for the top five. Peterson has been super impressive. We expected these sort of performances from Cameron, Dillman, Blomquist and Fraga, etc. But Peterson does not have a ton of prototype experience. He's doing an amazing job here. Lexus biggest movers. We've just been talking about Mario Farnbacher. Up eight positions. Lauren Heinrich up seven. And he is good to go at the finish here, Lee. Should be good to go in terms of winning time. That last pit stop, you're back timing these races as to when the checkered flag will fall, what your fuel range is, and at that point you hit pit lane. New race leader. It's the winner from a year ago. Tom Dillman. Can he drive all the way to victory lane? Blue flags waving everywhere as the United Autosports. 22 of Tom Blomquist. Farnbacher. And that moment gets into barriers. This is a car that could have had the victory this afternoon. And that has all just disappeared in a moment. Just had that little bobble that got into the marbles and even someone as skilled and experienced as Mario Farnbacher just couldn't get it back together. But yellows here in the later stages of this race historically. So here comes Blomquist and McElroy. Tom's clear. Hunter's right there. A little bit. Gets squeezed a little bit. And I think when he tried to tighten his hands up, he suddenly lost the rear and had to correct it. And before he knew it, he was offline in the marbles, Lee. And this late in the race is really treacherous there offline. Here's the view from Phillip Ellis. Watch there. See how he gets squeezed. As McElroy has given chase there and just kind of came across online and Mario couldn't tighten his hands up anymore. Who got their tires prepped the best as we get ready for green here. Dillman will lead them away. Cameron in the purple dragon right behind him. Tom Blomquist will have another shot. The bright yellow car, Hunter McElroy, Felipe Fraga, Ben Hanley. There's the green. Let's do it. Let's finish this off. After the second full course caution, the P2 cars whip up to speed. Oh, there's a car off now. One of the Paul Miller racing BMWs. I believe they're in the backdrop. Sure was. Went wide. It's the 48. It's going to get really feisty here in the final stages of this race. There's Robbie Foley trying to make a move around the outside of the 021 and Dillman's off. He's off the road. The race leader has lost it. Can you believe it? There will be no defense of the victory of a year ago for the inter-Europe pole driver. Yeah, there's going to be a yellow lead. Caution is out. When in control, in command, that is a nasty crash. And this is the crash that brings us under this latest full course caution. Heavy, massive impact for Tom Dillman. Yeah, really bizarre situation there. He's on the identical line to what Dane Cameron was doing right behind him. So I assume it was a technical issue with the race car in terms of the suspension potentially. As you see the top category here, LMP2, Hunter McElroy, while he's third at the moment, that will be a post-race penalty assessed. We already know that. He was meant to do a drive through if the race remained green. So that'll change the order and it will elevate the 74 Raleigh Motorsports car and Felipe Fraga and Gar Robinson to a podium spot. Checkered flag is out. It's at a slower pace, but AO Racing wins in LMP2 for the very first time. Dane Cameron and PJ Hyatt here in Canada. Tom Blomquist in United Autosports and then Felipe Fraga will grab third in GTD Pro. How about that for dragon speed? They can't believe it. Giacomo there, he's got his hands on his cheeks. He just can't believe what happened there. And in GTD, it is a spin to win scenario for Trent Hinman and Danny Formale. The most unlikely day. They were backwards at the end of lap one and now they're fully forwards to victory lane. It doesn't matter the class, the car, the situation, the track. When you're a wheel man, you rise the occasion. Congratulations, Dane Cameron. What it means most to you about how everything has transpired this year and you got this team to victory lane with PJ? Yeah, I mean, that was the goal to come here. I mean, first of all, I'd like to say, you know, thinking of Tom, not sure how that ended up for him, but it's not really the way we wanted to win the race, not how we wanted to end the race. So thinking of him if he's if he's a bit hurt. But honestly, today I'm just so proud of PJ. That was so phenomenal at the beginning to lap half the class is incredible. So, so proud of him. So, so proud to be a part of it. We knew it was possible. It's going to take a little while, but we're rolling now. So let's see what happens. What a massive fight, though, between yourself, Tom Blomquist and the 43 for quite a while. Yeah, it's fun. It's it's racing. You know, you got to use the traffic. You have to use your head, place the car the right way, pace, all of it. You know, I love how you have to think in these races. It's cool for Well, we're going to try to catch up with P.J. Hyatt in just a little bit. He's making his way to victory lane, but we're going to circle back with him in a few moments. But certainly it's going to be one heck of a celebration here with A.O. Racing. Let's check out the updated P2 driver standings. And there is pressure being mounted on Dan Goldberg, who now leads by himself because, of course, all the rest are not here today. He's got the A.O. Racing guys zeroing in. Yeah. Maximum point score. There's bonus points in qualifying now. So they got that yesterday with the pole position for P.J. Hyatt and a maximum point score of 350 today for the win. So they're closing in. It's going to be a sensational battle through the end of this championship season with three rounds to go. They run the Sprint Racer Road America, then the two Enduros at Indy and Petit Le Mans. You're used to us saying WTR Wayne Taylor Racing winning in prototype competition, but not in GTD. Let's go there now and join the celebration with Brian. A big time celebrations down here as Trent Hemond trying to cool off a little bit. Spin on the first lap to victory at the end. Now, Travis Hogue told me 100% we're good. 100%. When did you believe it was 100% good? I believed it the whole time. Whatever those guys tell me up on that Wayne Taylor Racing pit box, I trust them. I have all the faith in the world in them. Our guys over the wall, Danny, everybody did a fantastic job. I've been on the wrong side of these kind of races enough in the past to where you take it when you can get it. That's exactly what we did. I'm just so grateful for the whole Dex Wayne Taylor Racing team. How much coasting down the hills, clutch in, anything like that? Was it that severe or was it just easy on the throttle? Pretty close to it. Pretty close to it, especially in the second half of that middle stint there. Just phenomenal job by the whole team. Danny, it's a long time coming for him. Tell you what, Travis is telling me 100%. I look up at Danny on the box, he's got his head in his hands. When did you believe it was 100%? To be honest, it was a crazy race. Obviously, got T-Bone going into T9, fighting for second in the start. Kind of in the back foot there, drove the whole stint with a broken rim, as probably you guys saw it. Vibration was abnormal, but the team never gave up, told me to keep on going, keep on pushing. Kind of had no feeling on my right leg or right arm from the vibration, but the car was fantastic, good race pace. We knew that coming in. The guys in Wayne Taylor Racing, everyone in that stand, we really truly deserve this. We've had it close so many times and Trent did fantastic. That fuel safe was majestical, a Scott Dixon kind of. I'm so proud of him, so proud of the team, so proud of Dex, so proud of Wayne Taylor Racing. We deserve this win. Thank you to everyone. Now we go celebrate. Seriously, we really need that. This program's fantastic and long time coming. I want to thank Trent, again, that stint. Also, because of the vibration when I put the water, our water tube in the car, it fell off, so he drove two hours with no water, and Lamborghini doesn't have A.C., so yeah. Iron Man over here. Iron Man, and guys, when you look at it at the beginning of the season, this driver lineup, this team, this car, you would have expected this result by now. They kept the frustration at bay and they find the victory here in Canada. They do, and Danny Formel said it was a long time coming. Well, think of this. Danny's the first driver from Costa Rica since Javier Cuirass back in 1997, and guess where it was at? Right here at Mosport at the time, now CTMP. That's another reason to celebrate. What a cool start. Updated GTD driver standings, and Russell Ward and Philip Ellis, 93 ahead of the Lexus Duo. Fascinating battle, this brewing there. This is going to go all the way down to the wire. They extend it a little bit with that runner-up finish, but ahead of the 12 car here today, Lee. How about in GTD Pro from last to first. Tell us more, Matt. Dragon speed after a second and a third on the podium, they scored GTD Pro victory. Albert Costa, man, how would you even describe this day? Back to the front, back to the front again. We woke up this morning saying, okay, we need to play the gamble because we were not fast, we were the slowest car on track. We play hard, we manage all the time the situation with the fuel tank. Actually, in the last lap, I said to them on the radio, guys, if I knew that the overtake to Qatar was for the lead and for the win, it would be different, but now knowing that, it's amazing. We played the gamble, everything worked on our side, happy for the team, for the strategy they make. We were lucky for once, and now we need to keep it up because I think now for the championship is good. Thanks to all of them for the support and the hard job, especially to him. A day of almost perfect execution? Yeah, obviously, it's not the way we want to win, and I hope Tom is doing well. In the end, we were lucky, but this is a really good result, important for us, for the team. It's not been an easy weekend, but we made the most out of it. Mega, mega, so happy. I think I remember an old phrase where luck is when preparation meets opportunity, and these guys put themselves in position to take home the W. Well done to Julian and Dragon Speed with Riese organization. Updated GTD Pro driver points, and this is the tightest battle that we have between Corvette, Pratt & Miller, and the A077. This is good, Cal. This is really tight indeed, and as Albert Costa said, we are now very much in the championship picture. Look at that. Only 53 points back. To put it in perspective, the difference between first and third in one of these races alone is 50 points. That's how tight it is. If you can start the day on pole position and end the day in victory lane, it doesn't get any better, right? Well, that's the case that it is for P.J. Hyatt. Here he is. Everyone always dreams of a day like this. Reality match or surpass that dream, P.J.? It's a wonderful day, especially with P2 being the overall winner. It makes it even more sweet. I thought for sure you were doing the commentator's curse talking before the race ended, and I was like, oh, here we go. He did jinx it, but no, it ended up working out perfectly, so yeah, couldn't be happier. What makes you most proud of this whole group here of what you've accomplished? Well, AO has really worked incredibly hard over these past couple of seasons, especially on the P2 program to see our fellow garage mates do so well in the GTD Pro car. Rexy won the championship last year. I think it was time for a little spike love on the other side of the garage, and this is a testament to all of the incredibly hard work on the P2 side. Certainly a lot of spike love now. They're going to celebrate a W overall win in LMP2 here at CTMP.