It’s been a very strong week for Colin Braun and the No. 54 CORE autosport ORECA LMP2 team in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Last Saturday, the Texan took his first Motul Pole Award of the season in qualifying for the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen, then went on to finish second in the next day’s race with co-drivers Jon Bennett and Romain Dumas. Yesterday, Braun ended the day atop the speed charts in practice for Sunday’s Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix here at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
Today, Braun obliterated Ricky Taylor’s year-old track record en route to his second consecutive Motul Pole Award. Early in the 15-minute qualifying session, Braun threw down a lap of one minute, 6.315 seconds (133.490 mph), beating Taylor’s record of 1:08.459 by more than two seconds to earn the 17th pole of his IMSA career (eight WeatherTech Championship, three GRAND-AM and six American Le Mans Series).
“It’s a testament to these CORE autosport guys,” Braun said. “The ORECA is really fast and we were fast at The Glen. This car is just a blast to drive. I love it around here. It’s probably my favorite racetrack. It’s definitely a place I enjoy coming.”
Qualifying second is a two-time defending winner of the Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix, Dane Cameron in the No. 6 Acura Team Penske ARX-05 DPi car he shares with Juan Pablo Montoya. Cameron – who won the last two years with co-driver Eric Curran in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering entry from Action Express Racing – posted a best lap on Saturday of 1:05.540 (133.038 mph).
Cameron and Montoya go into the race riding a streak of three consecutive WeatherTech Championship podium results, including a third-place run last weekend in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen. Robert Alon qualified the No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports ORECA LMP2 “Banana Boat” third at 1:06.841 (132.439 mph). Alon’s co-driver is Simon Trummer.
Renger van der Zande placed the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R he shares with Jordan Taylor fourth on the grid with a lap of 1:07.093 (131.942 mph). Jonathan Bomarito made it three different DPi manufacturers in the top five and four different cars in the top five with a fifth-place qualifying result of 1:07.109 (131.910 mph) in the No. 55 Mazda Team Joest Mazda RT24-P. Bomarito’s co-driver is Harry Tincknell.
The top-seven qualifiers all were within a second of Braun’s pole-winning time. All 12 Prototypes that posted times went quicker than the previous track record.
The two-hour, 40-minute Mobil 1 Sports Car Grand Prix begins at 2:05 p.m. EDT and will be televised on FS1 on a delayed basis beginning at 4 p.m. ET. It will be carried live by IMSA Radio on IMSA.com, RadioLeMans.com and SiriusXM Radio (Sirius 138/XM 202/App 972, including all of Canada).
