2017 Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix



The 2017 Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix was a sports car race sanctioned by the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA). The race was held at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada on July 9, 2017. The race was the seventh round of the 2017 IMSA SportsCar Championship.

Background
IMSA's president Scott Atherton confirmed the Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix was part of the series' schedule for the 2017 IMSA SportsCar Championship at Road America's victory lane in August 2016. It was the fourth consecutive year the event was held as part of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the thirty-sixth annual running of the race. The 2017 Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix was the seventh of twelve scheduled sports car races of 2017 by IMSA, and was the fourth round not held on the held as part of the North American Endurance Cup. The race was held at the ten-turn 2.459 mi Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada on July 9, 2017. After the Sahlen's Six Hours of the Glen one week earlier, Jordan Taylor and Ricky Taylor led the Prototype Drivers' Championship with 202 points, ahead of João Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi with 182 points, and Misha Goikhberg and Stephen Simpson with 167 points. With 180 points, the PC Drivers' Championship was led by James French and Patricio O'Ward with a thirty-point advantage over Don Yount. Antonio García and Jan Magnussen led the GTLM Drivers' Championship with 154 points, ahead of Joey Hand and Dirk Müller with 146 points. In GTD, the Drivers' Championship was led by Alessandro Balzan and Christina Nielsen with 173 points, ahead of Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen with 171 points. Cadillac, Chevrolet, and Mercedes-AMG were leading their respective Manufacturers' Championships, while Wayne Taylor Racing, Performance Tech Motorsports, Corvette Racing, and Scuderia Corsa each led their own Teams' Championships.

Entries
A total of 36 cars took part in the event split across 4 classes. 10 cars were entered in P, 3 in PC, 8 in GTLM, and 15 in GTD. In P, David Ostella and Nicholas Boulle replaced José Gutiérrez and Olivier Pla in the PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports entry. Pipo Derani joined Johannes van Overbeek in the #22 Tequila Patrón ESM. In PC, Ryan Lewis joined Don Yount in the #20 BAR1 Motorsports entry. Garett Grist and James Vance shared the #26 BAR1 Motorsports entry. In GTD, Alex Job Racing and Dream Racing Motorsport skipped the event. Jörg Bergmeister returned to the Park Place Motorsports entry after missing the previous round at Watkins Glen due to a family emergency. Bret Curtis returned to the Turner Motorsport entry.

Practice
There were three practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Saturday, two on Friday and one on Saturday. The first two one-hour sessions were on Friday morning and afternoon. The third on Saturday morning lasted an hour.

Practice 1
The first practice session took place at 11:20 am ET on Friday and ended with Jordan Taylor topping the charts for Wayne Taylor Racing, with a lap time of 1:09.443. The PC class was topped by the #38 Performance Tech Motorsports Oreca FLM09 of Patricio O'Ward with a time of 1:12.512. Laurens Vanthoor was fastest in GTLM while Andy Lally set the fastest time in GTD.

Practice 2
The second practice session took place at 3:55 pm ET on Friday and ended with Ryan Dalziel topping the charts for Tequila Patrón ESM, with a lap time of 1:08.994. James French set the fastest time in PC. The GTLM class was topped by the #912 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR of Laurens Vanthoor with a time of 1:14.753. Patrick Pilet was second in the sister #911 car and John Edwards rounded out the top 3. Sage Karam was fastest in GTD.

Practice 3
The third and final practice session took place at 9:20 am ET on Saturday and ended with Stephen Simpson topping the charts for JDC-Miller MotorSports, with a lap time of 1:09.142. Patricio O'Ward set the fastest time PC by 1.678 seconds ahead of Ryan Lewis in the #20 BAR1 Motorsports entry. The GTLM class was topped by the #911 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR of Dirk Werner with a time of 1:14.799. Tristan Vautier was fastest in GTD. The session was red flagged two times. 20 minutes into the session, the #15 3GT Racing Lexus RC F GT3 of Jack Hawksworth crashed at turn 3 after going wide, and dipped into the grass launching the car into the tire barriers before becoming airborne. The car suffered heavy damage to the front, but Hawksworth was uninjured and exited his car without external aid. The final stoppage came for debris on the track.

Qualifying
In Saturday afternoon's 90-minute four-group qualifying, each category had separate 15-minute sessions. Regulations stipulated that teams nominate one qualifying driver, with the fastest laps determining each class' starting order. IMSA arranged the grid to put Prototypes ahead of the PC, GTLM and GTD cars.

The first was for cars in GTD class. Sage Karam qualified on pole for the class driving the #14 3GT Racing entry, besting Andrew Davis in the #57 Stevenson Motorsports entry.

The second session of qualifying was for cars in the GTLM class. Dirk Werner qualified on pole driving the #911 car for Porsche GT Team, beating Bill Auberlen in the #25 BMW Team RLL entry by less than one tenth of a second.

The third session of qualifying was for cars in the PC class. James French set the fastest time driving the #38 Performance Tech Motorsports entry.

The final session of qualifying was for the P class. Ricky Taylor qualified on pole driving the #10 car for Wayne Taylor Racing, besting Mikhail Goikhberg in the #85 entry from JDC-Miller MotorSports.

Qualifying results
Pole positions in each class are indicated in bold and by ‡.


 * The No. 54 CORE Autosport entry was moved to the back of the GTD field entry was moved to the back of the GTD field as per Article 43.6 of the Sporting regulations (Change of starting tires).
 * The No. 15 3GT Racing entry was moved to the back of the GTD field as per Article 43.5 of the Sporting regulations (Change of starting driver).

Post-race
The result kept Jordan Taylor and Ricky Taylor atop the Prototype Drivers' Championship with 226 points, 19 points ahead of fifth-place finishers Barbosa and Fittipaldi. In the PC Drivers' Championship, French and O'Ward extended their points lead to thirty-two points over Yount. In the GTLM Drivers' Championship, Auberlen and Sims advanced from third to second. The result kept Balzan and Nielsen atop the GTD Drivers' Championship while Aschenbach and Davis advanced from seventh to fifth. Cadillac, and Chevrolet continued to top their respective Manufacturers' Championships. Ferrari took the lead of the GTD Manufacturers' Championship while Wayne Taylor Racing, Performance Tech Motorsports, Corvette Racing, and Scuderia Corsa kept their respective advantages in the Teams' Championships with five rounds left in the season.

Results
Class winners are denoted in bold and ‡.

Standings after the race

 * Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.


 * Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.


 * Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.