IMSA: Mazda on pole with Nunez in Canada

The battle for overall pole at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park for Sunday's Mobil 1 Sportscar Grand Prix was waged between two young Floridians, and after 15 minutes of fiery driving, Tristan Nunez edged Ricky Taylor in the Mazda-vs-Corvette duel.

Nunez's No. 55 Mazda P2 Prototype delivered the brand's second pole of the season thanks to a lap of 1:10.126 as Taylor settled for second in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing DP (-0.309). Mazda managed a 1-3 in qualifying with Tom Long pushing hard to overtake Taylor but came up just short (-0.446) as the checkered flag waved.

Freshly presented in the Le Mans-winning Mazda 787B livery that was used for the first time on the No. 55 P2 last weekend in Watkins Glen, Nunez and the Mazda Racing team continue to show incredible speed and could be ready to win for the first time in IMSA's Prototype class.

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"We learned a lot from [the pole at] Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca to now, the crew gave me a fantastic car and we just need to run away with it," Nunez said. "I think we have a good shot at [winning] this one."

The odds of a repeat of Colin Braun's stellar drive to PC victory last year at CTMP increased with his pole position. The pro's 1:11.946 in the No. 54 CORE autosport entry was well clear of the rest as Performance Tech Motorsports' James French (-0.426) and JDC/Church Motorsports' Stephen Simpson (-0.502) had no answer for the Texan.

"Big hats off to the mechanics," Braun said. "We had some mechanical issues at Watkins Glen, they broke out the spare chassis and switched everything over. It's great to win pole here for them."

This week's Balance of Performance changes had an effect on the GT Le Mans class as Corvette Racing held onto its practice pace, with Antonio Garcia placing the No. 3 C7.R on pole by a tiny margin over the Le Mans-winning Ford GT model. The Spaniard's 1:15.198 held Dirk Muller's No. 67 Ford at bay (-0.038) and the sister No. 66 Ford (-0.232) wielded by Richard Westbrook.

"Corvette Racing did a fantastic job and we seem to like this track," Garcia said. "I can't remember the last time I was on pole."

Three practice sessions of dominance by Audi's R8 LMS GT3 was spoiled by Alex Riberas as the Brazilian charged to the GT Daytona pole position in his No. 23 Alex Job Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R.

"We were not actually expecting to be in first place," Riberas said. "We were struggling with the car this weekend."

Andrew Davis, who topped Free Practice 3 in the No. 6 Stevenson Motorsports Audi, managed to secure second (-0.337) and Spencer Pumpelly was third in the No. 16 Change Racing Lamborghini's Huracán GT3 (-0.427).

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