A dominate beginning and a wild ending encapsulate an action-packed Sunday afternoon at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park.

 

AO Racing take “Spike” to the top step of the podium of the Chevrolet Grand Prix on the back of a late race incident, an otherworldly stint from PJ Hyett and a great drive from Dane Cameron.

 

The number 99 machine finished ahead of the Daniel Goldburg and Tom Blomqvist driven United Autosport number 22, with the Riley Oreca of Gar Robinson and Felipe Fraga rounding out the podium after an unserved TDS Racing drive-through was converted into a time penalty.

 

After dominance in the early portions of the race, it almost wasn’t capped of with a win for AO Racing.

 

Despite an electric stint from Hyett, one which saw him lead by upwards of 15+ seconds, they lost the lead in the final pit stop cycle and the Inter Europol car, piloted by Tom Dillmann, always seemed out of reach, even after a restart. That was until the number 43 crashed into the tire barrier in turn three with around 15 minutes remaining, handing the lead back to Cameron and forcing the race to end under full course yellow conditions.

 

This gives AO Racing their first win in LMP2, converting a hard-earned pole from Saturday. They were not the only team to grab their first victory in their class.

 

In GTD Pro, the DragonSpeed Ferrari of Albert Costa and Giacomo Altoe, with some gutsy strategy calls and a couple timely full course yellows, take the top spot ahead of the Tommy Milner and Nicky Catsburg Corvette and Lauren Heinrich and Klaus Bachler in AO Racing’s Porsche, also known as “Rexy”.

 

The GTD class saw Wayne Taylor Racing pick up the win with an audible of their own.

 

The Danny Formal and Trent Hindman driven Lamborghini finished ahead of the Windward Racing Mercedes of Russell Ward and Philip Ellis, with Parker Thompson, the only Canadian on any of the podiums, and Jack Hawksworth rounding things out in the Vasser Sullivan Lexus.

 

In terms of the hometown contingent, it was rather hit and miss for them.

 

In LMP2, Tower Motorsports, driven by John Farano and Renger van der Zande, managed to top both practice sessions, however faltered in qualifying and had a rough start to the race, ultimately finishing ninth, three laps off the pace from the rest of the class.

 

Meanwhile, Phil Fryer of the United Autosports no.2 was the highest finishing Canadian overall, coming home in P4.

 

GTD Pro was much of the same, with the Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini of Andrea Caldarelli and Marco Mapelli finishing in fifth, while both Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustangs struggled for pace all race long.

 

GTD had the highs of Robert Wickens of DXDT Racing and Romain De Angelis of Heart of Racing ending up fourth and fifth in class respectively, adding on to the Thompson podium, and the lows of AWA struggling throughout the day and the Forte Racing Lamborghini, piloted by Misha Goikhberg and Mario Farnbacher, ending up in the tire barrier in Turn Eight to bring out the full course yellow with around 30 minutes remaining.

 

The series heads to Road America next, with the GTP class returning as the tip of the spear for a sprint round around another famous circuit from Aug. 1-3.