IMSA: Morgan-Nissan and two Vipers take poles at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park

If there was any doubt that P2 cars have an advantage over their DP rivals around Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, that was swiftly expunged by qualifying for tomorrow's Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix presented by Hawk Performance. Gustavo Yacaman scorched around the 2.459-mile Bowmanville, Ont., course in 1min09.167sec, almost half a second quicker than the fastest DP, to grab pole position.

The No. 42 OAK Racing Morgan-Nissan (LEFT) will be joined on the front row by the fastest of the Extreme Speed Motorsports HPD ARX-03Bs, the No. 1 car piloted by Ryan Dalziel. He fell 0.289 short of toppling Yacaman, but was almost 0.7sec clear of ESM teammate, Johannes van Overbeek, who will start fourth.

Richard Westbrook put on a great display of bravery to clock third fastest for Spirit of Daytona Racing, outpacing similar Corvette DPs by well over half a second. The Christian Fittipaldi/Joao Barbosa Action Express Racing ’Vette DP will start fifth, and will carry Whelen livery as a favor by Bob Johnson, AER team owner, to Sonny Whelen. The No. 31 Whelen Corvette DP entry of Marsh Racing was withdrawn from the race following an accident in Friday practice.

Kuno Wittmer gave local Canadian fans plenty to cheer about, as his third lap in the No. 93 Dodge SRT Viper GTS-R was good enough to hold top spot in GT Le Mans for the remainder of the 15min session. As predicted it was a close-run thing with the No. 3 Corvette C7.R which fell just 0.072sec short, in Antonio Garcia's hands. This pair – and their teammates – are likely to get embroiled in another scrap which, if it's anything like last year's at this same venue, will be reason alone to watch this race.

Given the car's pace this weekend, it was not a huge surprise to see Wolf Henzler drive the Falken Tire Porsche into P3, but the 0.35sec margin over the (Michelin-shod) works/CORE autosport 911 of Nick Tandy was notable. More disappointing was Dirk Muller missing class pole by a quarter-second in the BMW Z4 GTE, having set the pace in this morning's session. He'll line up fifth, behind the second Corvette of Oliver Gavin.

GT Daytona honors were close-fought as ever until Jeroen Bleekemolen managed a 1min19.004sec lap in the Viper Exchange Dodge Viper GT3-R that put him 0.155sec clear of the opposition. (That's a big margin by GTD standards). Behind him, Spencer Pumpelly's Flying Lizard Motorsports Audi R8 LMS grabbed P2 by just 0.016sec from the Turner Motorsports BMW Z4 of Dane Cameron.

The No. 23 Alex Job Racing Porsche 911 GT America piloted by Mario Farnbacher will line up fourth while JDX Racing's similar car, qualified by Jan Heylen, will roll off sixth in class. The two Porsches were separated by just three-hundredths…and the second Flying Lizard Audi of Dion von Moltke.