| Walker, Porto Deliver Pole-to-Flag Wins in GTDX, GSX July 12, 2025By Tony DiZinnoIMSA Wire Service |
| Race 1 Results BOWMANVILLE, Ontario – The three key contenders in the headlining Le Mans Prototype 3 (P3) class delivered an entertaining opening 45-minute race to the IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. At the end, championship leader Valentino Catalano in the No. 30 Gebhardt Intralogistics Motorsports Duqueine D08 returned to the top for his fourth win of the season in seven rounds. The complexion of the race changed before it even started with Catalano’s Gebhardt teammate, Oscar Tunjo in his No. 31 Duqueine D08, moved to the rear of the P3 field from pole following a technical infraction discovered in post-qualifying technical inspection. That promoted Jonathan Woolridge to pole in the No. 54 MLT Motorsports Ligier JS P320, with Catalano second and Tunjo back in fifth. Woolridge led early but Tunjo made his way back to third behind Catalano. Catalano made a bold pass on Woolridge for the lead on Lap 8. He passed Woolridge around the outside of the right-handed Turn 8, which set him up to have the inside for the subsequent left-handed Turn 9. Tunjo followed through for second four laps later on Lap 12 and emerged just over three seconds behind Catalano and began his pursuit. The phrase “driving the wheels off the car” can be used colloquially to describe a driver gaining pace on their rival. In Tunjo’s case, the phrase was first metaphorical – he closed from three seconds to within three tenths of a second on Lap 18 – and then literal, when a lap later his left front tire and wheel departed the No. 31 car exiting Turn 10 onto the front straight. That brought out a full-course caution which closed the field. Absent his teammate, Catalano brought home the win by 2.331 seconds over Woolridge with Bronze Cup winner Brian Thienes third in his No. 77 Forte Racing Ligier JS P320. “After the pass I was just managing my race,” Catalano said. “I wanted to know I had a gap, and I know the entire degradation is really high here, so I took it quite easy. Then I saw that Oscar was pushing and then I was thinking, ‘Oh, should I push now as well?’ “Then suddenly I saw he was in the wall and with the tire lost. It’s really unfortunate for him because there would have been a really fun battle, I think. It was a good race. It’s really tricky around here to manage everything. Degradation is high and I had some other issues in the car, which got worse at the end, so I just had to bring it home.” |
| The Grand Touring Daytona X (GTDX) and Grand Sport X (GSX) classes were straightforward affairs, with both polesitters leading flag-to-flag en route to victory. However, drama in both classes occurred for the final podium places. In GTDX, Jake Walker enjoyed a successful race with his fourth win in the last five races aboard the No. 6 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 and won by 12.440 seconds. “We had a good start, and I got a bit of a gap, which was key,” Walker said. “I just kept putting down this lap time and looking forward. The Turner Motorsport BMW was ripping right out of the gate. This is my first time here and it’s an awesome track, man. It’s fast and it takes a lot out of you.” Behind them, the championship complexion changed after the restart inside the final 10 minutes. Title rivals AJ Muss (No. 66 Af Corse Ferrari 296 GT3) and Adam Adelson (No. 24 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R) collided exiting Turn 10, with Muss assessed a 10-second post-race time penalty for incident responsibility to drop from second to third. Adelson was promoted to second, which unofficially gives him the championship lead by 20 points over Muss. Samantha Tan (No. 38 ST Racing BMW M4 GT3) marked her return to her home country venue at CTMP with the Bronze Cup win in fourth. |
| GSX was similarly controlled by championship leader Kiko Porto in his No. 8 RAFA Racing Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2, who took his fifth win of the season by 8.597 seconds. The team recovered from missing most of the first practice session on Friday due to a mechanical issue that Porto explained nearly set him back on his first visit to CTMP. “We had a similar problem to what took us from victory lane at COTA,” Porto said. “We were a little bit worried that would stay happening throughout the weekend, but the team did an amazing job to fix the car. “In the beginning of the race, I was a little bit more aware of controlling the pace. We were able to make an almost eight-second gap. The yellow came, but I still had tires to the finish.” Steven Clemons finished second in his No. 76 BSI Racing Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2 while Chris Walsh leapt to third and the Bronze Cup win in his No. 22 TWOth Autosport Porsche 718 GT4 RS CS following a last-lap issue for Ian Porter in his No. 68 RAFA Racing Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2, who slowed on course and dropped to eighth in GSX. Sunday’s second VP Racing Challenge race of the weekend is at 11:10 a.m. ET and local time, streaming on Peacock, IMSA.TV and IMSA’s Official YouTube channel. |
