Until that point Friday afternoon, all nine Grand Touring Prototypes (GTP) entered in the sixth round of the 2023 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship were clustered within eight-tenths of a second.

When the green flag flew with about four minutes remaining after a brief stoppage, however, Colin Braun made the most of the limited time. He hustled the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Acura ARX-06 around the 2.459-mile CTMP road course in 1 minute, 7.341 seconds (131.456 mph) to gap the rest of the GTP field by 0.780 seconds. The remaining eight GTP competitors, led by Pipo Derani in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R, were clustered within 0.769 seconds.

Braun expressed surprise when informed of his margin over second place.

“We were just kind of in our race plan,” Braun said. “We had made some changes to the car and just wanted to see what it was going to do. I had only done a couple laps in the car before the red flag, and I was just getting up to speed and figuring it out.

“It felt good, obviously,” he added. “I just ended up getting a clear lap and I felt good about it.”

Filipe Albuquerque placed the No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06 third at 1:08.138, while Renger van der Zande improved on his final lap in the No. 01 Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R to 1:08.353.

In the GT classes, Frankie Montecalvo posted the best overall lap with a 1:16.558 effort (115.629 mph) as the checkered flag flew for the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 from the GT Daytona (GTD) class. That edged Frederik Schandorff in the No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 EVO by 0.092 seconds.

Unlike Braun, Montecalvo said that he and the Vasser Sullivan team used the final four minutes of the session as a qualifying simulation.

“That’s exactly what it was, a ‘quali’ mentality to get ready for tomorrow,” said Montecalvo, the defending GTD pole winner at CTMP. “The car is great, and this is my favorite racetrack. The Lexus really loves high-speed circuits and so do I, and I think that’s why we mesh really well here.

“Last year, we got taken out from pole in the first corner, so we have some unfinished business here,” he continued. “I have the utmost confidence in our team, especially rolling off a win at Watkins Glen. We should be challenging for another win.”

Antonio Garcia turned the fastest lap among GT Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) entries in the No. 3 Corvette Racing Corvette C8.R GTD (1:16.724, 115.379 mph) that ranked third overall among the GT field.

Garett Grist (No. 30 Jr III Racing Ligier JS P320) came out on top of a back-and-forth battle with Felipe Fraga (No. 74 Riley Ligier) for honors in the Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) class. The two Ligier JS P320s were separated by 0.212 seconds at the end, with the Canadian Grist running a lap of 1:12.270 (122.490 mph).

Motul Pole Award qualifying begins at 12:45 p.m. ET Saturday. Live coverage is available on Peacock and IMSA.com/TVLive. Sunday’s race airs live at noon on NBC.

Recaps from Michelin Pilot Challenge, VP Racing Challenge Action

A pair of other IMSA-sanctioned series were in action at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park on Friday as well. The IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge conducted a pair of practices and the IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge held two practices and qualifying.

IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge: Robin Liddell laid down the fast lap of the day in IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge practice on his final circuit around CTMP at the conclusion of the second session. Driving the No. 71 Rebel Rock Racing Chevrolet Camaro GT4.R that he shares with Frank DePew, Liddell was clocked at 1 minute, 22.137 seconds (107.776 mph), a full four-tenths of a second quicker than Canadian Jesse Lazare in the No. 69 Motorsports In Action McLaren Artura GT4.

Karl Wittmer, another Canada native, topped the Touring Car (TCR) class leaderboard with a 1:23.867 lap (105.227 mph) in the No. 99 Victor Gonzalez Racing Team Honda Civic FK7 TCR that he turned in the morning practice.

Michelin Pilot Challenge qualifying starts at 10:50 a.m. ET Saturday to set the grid for the two-hour race starting at 4 p.m. Saturday. Race coverage streams live on Peacock in the U.S. and on IMSA.com/TVLive outside the U.S.

VP Racing SportsCar Challenge: Bijoy Garg continued his qualifying prowess by capturing the pole position for the fourth time in five races for the new sprint series.

Qualifying Results

The driver of the No. 3 Jr III Racing Ligier JS P320 claimed the overall and Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) pole for Saturday’s race with a top lap of 1:13.157 (121.005 mph) on his final time around the track in the 15-minute session. Garg enters the CTMP weekend on a two-race winning streak and within 60 points of the LMP3 class lead.

In GSX, Gregory Liefooghe (No. 43 Stephen Cameron racing BMW M4 GT4 (G82)) will start on pole for the third straight race after setting the fast lap in class qualifying. Liefooghe toured the 2.459-mile road course in 1:22.533 (107.258 mph) to better the 15 other GSX competitors. Liefooghe converted two pole positions at Sebring in March into second- and first-place race finishes.

The first VP Racing Challenge race of the weekend streams live on Peacock in the U.S. and on IMSA.com/TVLive outside the U.S. starting at 11:40 a.m. ET Saturday. Race 2 streams live on the same outlets at 9:30 a.m. Sunday.

But the end result was the same, as Garg drove the No. 3 Jr III Racing Ligier JS P320 back into Victory Lane. Despite starting the race from the pole position, Garg surrendered the lead to Dan Goldburg in the No. 73 JDC MotorSports Duqueine D08 on the opening lap.

Goldburg grabbed the advantage just before the full-course caution came out due to a first-lap incident in Turn 1 involving Adrian Kunzle in the No. 54 MLT Motorsports Ligier, Scott Neal in the No. 86 Kellymoss with Riley Ligier and Courtney Crone in the No. 99 Forty7 Motorsports Duqueine. When the green flag flew again 10 minutes into the race, a three-car battle ensued at the front of the LMP3 field that included Goldburg, Garg and Antonio Serravalle in the No. 18 Muehlner Motorsports America Ligier.

Though no positions changed hands, the battle remained close among the three cars through the halfway point of the race. It was particularly close between Goldburg and Garg, who made several runs at Goldburg in traffic before finally making the decisive pass in Sebring’s famed Hairpin (Turn 7) with 15 minutes left in the race.

“I did a pretty big dive bomb, but it worked out and none of us got damage,” said Garg.

Garg then went from hunter to hunted for the next few laps as he navigated traffic with Goldburg in his mirrors, before catching a break when Goldburg spun in Turn 7 with under 10 minutes remaining. Garg went on to win by 4.949 seconds over Serravalle, picking up a Sebring weekend sweep for himself and his Jr III Racing teammates.

“I lost the lead off the start, but I wasn’t too worried,” Garg said. “I knew it all came down to the traffic and just finding an opportunity there, so as long as I stayed with (Goldburg), I was fine. I used some lapped cars, set a pick for him and then got it.

“From there, it’s all about the traffic management, as usual. It’s not easy going to a multi-class. I’m just really happy to come out with the win today.”

Serravalle was one of a number of series newcomers in the 30-car field at Sebring. He had a double podium day with a third-place run in the morning before his runner-up performance in the afternoon for the Muehlner squad.

Goldburg recovered from the spin to finish third for his fourth consecutive podium result to open the VP Racing Challenge season. He will depart the weekend atop both the overall LMP3 championship standings, as well as the Bronze driver standings. He has been the highest-finishing Bronze-rated driver in every race so far.

The next event for the VP Racing Challenge is scheduled for July 7-9 at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park as part of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Challenge Chevrolet Grand Prix weekend.

Liefooghe Rebounds for GSX Class Victory in No. 43 Stephen Cameron Racing BMW

Gregory Liefooghe started from the GSX class pole in the No. 43 Stephen Cameron Racing BMW M4 GT4 and led every lap but the last one in this morning’s first 45-minute race.

And while he also started this afternoon’s race from the class pole, it appeared on the opening lap like he might come up empty on the day as he fell from first to fifth at the end of the first lap.

“The start was pretty sporty,” Liefooghe said. “There was two LMP3 cars that crashed right in front of me. I was on the outside, so I kind of got stuck, fell back and almost got collected, so I was really happy to survive.”

He did more than survive. Liefooghe went right to work when the race went back to green following a 10-minute full-course caution period, picking off the cars in front of him, including Luca Mars, who won this morning’s race in the No. 59 KOHR MOTORSPORTS Ford Mustang GT4 but had to make an unscheduled trip to pit lane early in Race 2.

“Unfortunately, Lucas broke down,” Liefooghe said. “I’m not sure what happened to him. We were looking forward to a battle with him and see how we improved our car compared to his since this morning.”

Liefooghe would not be denied in Race 2, especially with Mars out of the picture. He drove away from the field after taking the lead, and took the checkered flag 22.712 seconds ahead of Sebastian Carazo, who finished second in the No. 27 Kellymoss with Riley Porsche 718 GT4 RS CS.

“It just seems like our car was really good on the high-speed stuff,” Liefooghe surmised. “(Turns) 17 and 1 was our strong suit. It felt like we were able to brake a lot deeper than the other competitors and we kind of squeaked by in those two spots on track.”

While Liefooghe and Carazo, who also finished third this morning, had podium finishes in both of the day’s races, they were greeted by a new face on the podium at the end of Race 2. Patrick Wilmot came home third in the No. 88 Split Decision Motorsports BMW.