Michelin Pilot Challenge 

Saturday opened with qualifying for the Michelin Pilot Challenge, with the BHA Hyundai's of first Mason Filippi (Mark Wilkins) then Harry Gotsacker (Robert Wickens) taking a place at the top of the timing charts, with Gotsacker taking the top spot with just under 5 minutes to go, and holding on to capture the pole. 

 

Mason Filippi (Robert Wilkins) eventually slipped to 3rd, following the Audi of Chris Miller in 2nd.

 

Sam Baker slotted the Baker Racing Audi that he’ll share with his dad into 4th place, while Dai Yoshihara put the first of the Montreal Motorsport Group Honda’s into 5th while the sister car of Jon Brel (LP Montour) ended the qualifying session in 10th.

 

With IMSA splitting the qualifying session by class, the GS cars took to the track after the TCR’s and Michael de Quesada (Jesse Lazare) was the top Canadian car qualifying second. Michai Stephens (Jesse Webb) guided the JMF Mercedes to 9th, while Bryce Ward (Daniel Morad) was a bit disappointing down in 13th in the Winward Mercedes, with Justin di Benedetto & Travis Hill starting shotgun on the field in 23 spot in class. (See separate article HERE for the race report)

 

Jagger Jones immediately jumped around pole sitter Steven Aghakhani at the drop of the flag, while Woolridge slotted into third on a very clean start. Jones checked out on the field from there opening a 10 second lead over pole sitter Aghakhani 15 minutes into the race, and never looked back. Woolridge was able to maintain a 5 second gap to Aghakhani, but was unable to put any pressure on throughout the race. 

 

Early on the race settled in, with the top 5 in the P3 class all opening up comfortable gaps on the trailing drivers, as was the case in GSX, only Jack Polito keeping Lazare honest with a gap hovering around 1.5 seconds.

 

20 minutes into the race, unlike the P3 race, Polito began to put pressure on GSX leader Lazare, closing the gap to under second, while maintaining a lead of 4+ seconds over third place Luca Mars. 

 

Lap 16 and the McLaren of Lazare slowed and came to a stop, leading to the first yellow of the race, and handing the GSX lead to Jack Polito.

 

It also eliminated all the gaps in the P3 class, which had led to some pretty routine lapping, without any of the lead drivers under pressure. Unfortunately, going back to green didn’t change much, as Jones eased away from Aghakanhi.

 

With 10 minutes to go Eddie Killen got into the inside wall in turn 10 bringing out the second yellow of the race. There was a quick response by the AMR Safety Team (as always) but there seemed to be some concern for the driver as he wasn’t out of the car as quickly as we would have liked to have seen. We’ll try to update this as soon as we know anything. 

 

And with the response teams at corner 10, the final 10 minutes was run under yellow giving Jack Polito his first IMSA win in the GSX class, and Jonathan Woolridge another podium in the P3 class. In post race tech inspection, the #87 of Jagger Jones was found to be outside of spec on it’s camber measurement, so he was disqualified, elevating Aghakhani to the win and Woolridge to second. 

 

Qualifying got under way on time after the lengthy issues that ended the VP Challenge race early, with superstar-in-the-making Connor Zilisch qualifying second behind Aaron Jeansonne. The lone Canadian in the field, Jonathan Neudorf qualified 10th. 

 

Just a quick reminder, Connor Zilisch is 17 years old. Already in 2024 he’s signed on with Trackhouse Racing as a development driver, won twice in IMSA LMP2, at the Rolex 24 at Daytona and again at the 12 hours of Sebring, won an MX5 Cup race at Mid-Ohio in June and twice in the ARCA Menards series, at Dover and Iowa. Maybe superstar-in-the-making is a bit passe, he may already be there. 

 

Race 

As usual, the MX5 Cup race was one of the most exciting of the weekend, with the lead changing almost every lap. In the end, rookie Westin Workman came out on top, followed by Jared Thomas and Connor Zilisch. Canada’s Jonathan Neudorf came home in 9th. Race 2 goes after the WeatherTech race on Sunday, the green flag scheduled to fly at 2:30pm. 

 

Next up after the MX5 Cup qualifying was final practice for the headliners, the WeatherTech Sports Car series.

 

In this weekend's top class, LMP2, the #8 Tower Motorsports Oreca took advantage of Cadillac GTP star Renger Van Der Zande work putting the team second in final qualifying, a tick over a tenth of the quickest lap of the session, laid down by Felipe Fraga in the #74 Oreca. 

 

It was another tough session for the Canadian GTD Pro teams, with the 3 Candian cars taking up the last 3 spots in the session, with the #65 Multimatic Mustang in 7th, the #9 Pfaff McLaren in 8th and the #64 Mustang in 9th, the three cars all in the 1.5 seconds off the pace range.