Bowmanville, ON – The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship took centre stage on Sunday, with the Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (CTMP). Nick Boulle and Tom Dillmann claimed the overall win, in the LMP2 class, while Canadian Roman De Angelis won in GTD, with co-driver Spencer Pumpelly.
The 2 hour and 40 minute race saw PJ Hyett and Louis Deletraz start on the LMP2 pole, while Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims started up front in GTD Pro, and Frankie Montecalvo and Canadian Parker Thompson led the field to green in GTD.
An early pit stop by Hyett gave the lead to Daniel Goldburg, a few minutes before Boulle took over the top spot. Pumpelly took the GTD lead in the early running as well.
The first full-course caution came with 2 hours and 17 minutes remaining, when Dennis Andersen got stuck in the tire wall between turns eight and nine. A bunch of drivers, including the class leaders, took the opportunity to pit just before the caution was called.
Boulle and Sims continued to lead at the restart, while Canadian Kyle Marcelli stayed out to pace the GTD field. Four minutes after the restart, another full-course caution, with just under two hours remaining; Canadian Orey Fidani spun hard into the tire wall at turn three, following contact from Bryan Sellers.
Pit road didn’t open under this yellow flag, so Marcelli pulled in for a stop as they went back to green, handing the GTD lead to Pumpelly. Patrick Gallagher took the top spot two minutes later, holding the position for nearly half an hour before Pumpelly returned to P1.
The LMP2 leaders were the first to make their driver changes, with just under 1.5 hours remaining, before the GTD Pro and GTD leaders made stops close to one hour to go. Dillmann replaced Boulle, Garcia replaced Sims, and De Angelis replaced Pumpelly, with the drivers continuing to lead after pit cycles.
A late caution came with 16 minutes remaining, for Ryan Dalziel off track in turn eight. The field restarted with eight minutes to go, with Dillmann/Boulle (LMP2), Garcia/Sims (GTD Pro) and De Angelis/Pumpelly (GTD) taking the victory.
“Traffic kind of created an opportunity and I jumped on it; happened super quickly and candidly, I didn’t even know I took the lead at that point,” Boulle said about the early pass for the lead. “To come away with a win is really special; it’s my daughter’s one-month-old birthday, so it’s good to bring her home a trophy, even though she doesn’t know what it means yet.”
The margin of victory was 0.658 seconds, with Boulle finding it hard to watch after the late restart.
“I just sat and listened on the radio, I couldn’t watch the last couple of corners,” said Boulle. “Tom did great; what a run at the end to get through lap traffic and get ahead, it was an impressive move because it’s not easy to get by any of these guys, it’s such a high level right now.”
For De Angelis, the win on home soil was his first victory of the season.
“It’s been a long road for the Heart of Racing (team) and the No. 27 car, to finally get a win feels so good,” said De Angelis. “It’s great; I have a bunch of family and friends here, so really looking forward to celebrating with them…(CTMP) was the first track I drove a car on, so I seem to know it pretty well; I’ve had some good luck here in the past in the Aston Martin Vantage GT3, so it’s home and home’s always great.”
Next up for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is Road America on August 1-4.
