Series moves north to Canada for July 10 race
Christina Nielsen and Alessandro Balzan scored their second GT Daytona (GTD) victory of the season in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen on Sunday in the No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3 to extend their lead in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship standings.
Entering the Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park on July 10 — the sixth of 11 races making up the GTD championship — the pair holds a 13-point lead over Mario Farnbacher and Alex Riberas, drivers of the No. 23 Team Seattle/Heart of Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R, 162-149.
“We had some issues early in the race at Watkins Glen, but the fact that we were standing on the top of the podium shows that this was a total team effort,” said Nielsen, who also won with Balzan and Jeff Segal in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida. “We are very lucky to have very talented engineers who nailed the strategy and a team that was able to keep us in the race.”
Andy Lally and John Potter finished second at Watkins Glen in the No. 44 Magnus Racing Audi Tire Center/Auric Solar Audi R8 LMS GT3; they are third in the GTD standings with 141 points.
Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen won the most recent GTD class event at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, back in 2014. They will drive the No. 33 Riley Motorsports ViperExchange.com/Cruising with the Monkey Dodge Viper GT3-R. They are fourth in the standings, with a victory in Detroit to their credit.
Practice for the Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix begins at 10:35 a.m. ET on Friday, with qualifying on Saturday at 3:40 p.m. ET.
PROTOTYPE STANDINGS
| RANK | DRIVER | WINS | CAR | MANUFACTURER | POINTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joao Barbosa | 1 | Action Express Racing | Chevrolet Corvette DP | 187 |
| 1 | Christian Fittipaldi | 1 | Action Express Racing | Chevrolet Corvette DP | 187 |
| 2 | Dane Cameron | Action Express Racing | Chevrolet Corvette DP | 180 | |
| 2 | Eric Curran | Action Express Racing | Chevrolet Corvette DP | 180 | |
| 2 | Ricky Taylor | 2 | Wayne Taylor Racing | Chevrolet Corvette DP | 180 |
| 2 | Jordan Taylor | 2 | Wayne Taylor Racing | Chevrolet Corvette DP | 180 |
| 3 | Marc Goosens | Visit Florida Racing | Chevrolet Corvette DP | 168 | |
| 4 | Oswaldo Negri Jr. | 1 | Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian | Honda HPD Ligier JS P2 | 165 |
| 5 | Jonathan Bomarito | Mazda Motorsports | Mazda | 159 | |
| 5 | Tristan Nunez | Mazda Motorsports | Mazda | 159 | |
| 6 | Tom Long | Mazda Motorsports | Mazda | 152 | |
| 6 | Joel Miller | Mazda Motorsports | Mazda | 152 | |
| 7 | Katherine Legge | Panoz DeltaWing Racing | Elan DWC13 | 146 | |
| 8 | Ryan Dalziel | Visit Florida Racing | Chevrolet Corvette DP | 142 | |
| 9 | John Pew | 1 | Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian | Honda HPD Ligier JS P2 | 138 |
| 10 | Luis Felipe Derani | 2 | Tequila Patron ESM | Honda HPD Ligier JS P2 | 95 |
| 10 | Sean Rayhall | Panoz DeltaWing Racing | Elan DWC13 | 95 | |
| 10 | Scott Sharp | 2 | Tequila Patron ESM | Honda HPD Ligier JS P2 | 95 |
| 10 | Johannes van Overbeek | 2 | Tequila Patron ESM | Honda HPD Ligier JS P2 | 95 |
| 11 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Visit Florida Racing | Chevrolet Corvette DP | 84 | |
| 12 | Max Angelelli | Wayne Taylor Racing | Chevrolet Corvette DP | 82 | |
| 13 | Olivier Pla | Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian | Honda HPD Ligier JS P2 | 77 | |
| 14 | Ed Brown | 2 | Tequila Patron ESM | Honda HPD Ligier JS P2 | 72 |
| 14 | Spencer Pigot | Mazda Motorsports | Mazda | 72 | |
| 15 | Ben Devlin | Mazda Motorsports | Mazda | 70 | |
| 16 | Andy Meyrick | Panoz DeltaWing Racing | Elan DWC13 | 67 | |
| 17 | Scott Pruett | Action Express Racing | Chevrolet Corvette DP | 62 | |
| 18 | Filipe Albuquerque | Action Express Racing | Chevrolet Corvette DP | 61 | |
| 19 | Rubens Barrichello | Wayne Taylor Racing | Chevrolet Corvette DP | 53 | |
| 20 | Nicolas Minassian | SMP Racing | Nissan BR01 | 52 | |
| 21 | Byron DeFoor | Highway to Help | BMW Riley DP | 46 | |
| 21 | David Hinton | Highway to Help | BMW Riley DP | 46 | |
| 21 | Jim Pace | Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian | Honda HPD Ligier JS P2 | 46 | |
| 21 | Dorsey Schroeder | Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian | Honda HPD Ligier JS P2 | 46 |
GT LE MANS STANDINGS
| RANK | DRIVER | WINS | CAR | MANUFACTURER | POINTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oliver Gavin | 2 | Corvette Racing | Chevrolet Corvette C7.R | 159 |
| 1 | Tommy Milner | 2 | Corvette Racing | Chevrolet Corvette C7.R | 159 |
| 2 | Ryan Briscoe | 2 | Ford Chip Ganassi Racing | Ford GT | 151 |
| 2 | Richard Westbrook | 2 | Ford Chip Ganassi Racing | Ford GT | 151 |
| 3 | Bill Auberlen | BMW Team RLL | BMW M6 GTLM | 141 | |
| 3 | Dirk Werner | BMW Team RLL | BMW M6 GTLM | 141 | |
| 4 | Earl Bamber | Porsche North America | Porsche 911 RSR | 140 | |
| 4 | Frederic Makowiecki | Porsche North America | Porsche 911 RSR | 140 | |
| 4 | Daniel Serra | Scuderia Corsa | Ferrari 458 GTE | 140 | |
| 5 | Giancarlo Fisichella | Risi Competetione | Ferrari 458 GTE | 139 | |
| 5 | Toni Vilander | Risi Competizione | Ferrari 458 GTE | 139 | |
| 6 | Antonio Garcia | Corvette Racing | Chevrolet Corvette C7.R | 133 | |
| 6 | Jan Magnussen | Corvettte Racing | Chevrolet Corvette C7.R | 133 | |
| 7 | Joey Hand | Ford Chip Ganassi Racing | Ford GT | 132 | |
| 7 | Dirk Muller | Ford Chip Ganassi Racing | Ford GT | 132 |
PROTOTYPE CHALLENGE STANDINGS
| RANK | DRIVER | WINS | CAR | MANUFACTURER | POINTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Renger van der Zande | 2 | Starworks Motorsport | Oreca FLM09 | 198 |
| 1 | Alex Popow | 2 | Starworks Motorsport | Oreca FLM09 | 198 |
| 2 | Robert Alon | 1 | PR1/Mathiassen Motorsports | Oreca FLM09 | 186 |
| 2 | Tom Kimber-Smith | 1 | PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports | Oreco FLM09 | 186 |
| 3 | Misha Goikhberg | 2 | JDC-Miller Motorsports | Oreco FLM09 | 182 |
| 3 | Stephen Simpson | 2 | JDC-Miller Motorsports | Oreca FLM09 | 182 |
| 4 | Jonathan Bennett | CORE autosport | Oreca FLM09 | 152 | |
| 4 | Colin Braun | CORE autosport | Oreca FLM09 | 152 | |
| 5 | James French | Performance Tech Motorsports | Oreca FLM09 | 150 | |
| 5 | Kyle Marcelli | Performance Tech Motorsports | Oreca FLM09 | 150 | |
| 6 | Johnny Mowlem | BAR1 Motorsports | Oreca FLM09 | 140 | |
| 7 | Kenton Koch | 98 | |||
| 8 | Chris Miller | 94 | |||
| 9 | Jose Gutierrez | PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports | ORECA FLM09 | 93 | |
| 10 | Tomy Drissi | 87 | |||
| 11 | Mark Kvamme | 80 | |||
| 12 | Ashley Freiberg | 78 |
GT DAYTONA STANDINGS
| RANK | DRIVER | WINS | CAR | MANUFACTURER | POINTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Allessandro Balzan | 2 | Scuderia Corsa | Ferrari 488 GT3 | 162 |
| 1 | Christina Nielsen | 2 | Scuderia Corsa | Ferrari 488 GT3 | 162 |
| 2 | Mario Farnbacher | 1 | Team Seattle/Alex Job Racing | Porsche GT3 R | 149 |
| 2 | Alex Riberas | 1 | Team Seattle/Alex Job Racing | Porsche GT3 R | 149 |
| 3 | Andy Lally | 1 | Magnus Racing | Audi R8 LMS GT3 | 141 |
| 3 | John Potter | 1 | Magnus Racing | Audi R8 LMS GT3 | 141 |
| 4 | Ben Keating | 1 | Riley Motorsports | Dodge Viper GT3-R | 134 |
| 4 | Jeroen Bleekemolen | 1 | Riley Motorsports | Dodge Viper GT3-R | 134 |
| 5 | Cooper MacNeil | Alex Job Racing | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 121 | |
| 5 | Leh Keen | Alex Job Racing | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 121 | |
| 6 | Andrew Davis | Stevenson Motorsports | Audi R8 LMS GT3 | 119 | |
| 6 | Robin Liddell | Robin Liddell | Audi R8 LMS GT3 | 119 | |
| 7 | Michael Marsal | Turner Motorsport | BMW M6 GT3 | 115 | |
| 7 | Markus Palttala | Turner Motorsport | BMW M6 GT3 | 115 | |
| 8 | Bret Curtis | Turner Motorsport | BMW M6 GT3 | 112 | |
| 8 | Jens Klingmann | Turner Motorsport | BMW M6 GT3 | 112 |
