Front Row Start for Acura at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park
• Dane Cameron qualifies Acura ARX-05 prototype second
• Alvaro Parente qualifies his Acura NSX GT3 sixth in tight GTD field
• Record-setting qualifying runs shatter existing marks for second consecutive race
BOWMANVILLE, ON, Canada (July 7, 2018) – As at Watkins Glen International Raceway last week, lap records and extremely close qualifying times were the order of the day today at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park, as Dane Cameron qualified his Acura ARX-05 prototype second in preparation for Sunday’s Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix. More lap records were set in the GTD category, as Alvaro Parente qualified sixth in his Acura NSX GT3.
Acura Team Penske Prototype
Acura Team Penske’s Dane Cameron battled CORE Autosport’s Colin Braun for qualifying honors, as all 12 prototypes in the field bettered the existing Canadian Tire Motorsports Park lap record.
At the end of the 15-minute session, Cameron qualified second in the #6 Acura ARX-05 he shares with Juan Pablo Montoya, just over two-tenths of a second off Braun’s pole time. Qualifying the #7 Acura, Helio Castroneves rebounded from a crash in practice on Friday to record the sixth-fastest time around the challenging, 2.459-mile road course.
Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3
In GTD, the Meyer Shank Racing #86 Acura NSX GT3 of Alvaro Parente and Katherine Legge lost track time in practice due to a vibration issue and fell behind with the team’s setup program. Parente qualified a disappointing sixth as a result. As in prototype, the top six GTD qualifiers
bettered the existing lap record in the class.
Parente’s qualifying time was less than two-tenths of a second slower than the championship rival Lamborghini of Bryan Sellers. Legge trails Sellers and co-driver Madison Snow by only a single championship point heading into tomorrow’s two-hour, 40-minute race. Justin Marks qualified 10th in the typically tight GTD field in the #93 MSR Acura he will share with Lawson Aschenbach.
Quote
Dane Cameron (driver, #6 Acura Team Penske ARX-05) qualified second: “I think we have a really strong car. Every track [in the series] we go to has different strengths and weaknesses for different cars, and this seems to be another track [like Watkins Glen last week] where the LMP2 cars have a slight edge. But we’ve been really happy, and really fast, all weekend. Acura Team Penske has been doing a really good job lately. Our pit stops are good and everything is coming together. I think we’re in great shape for the race.”
Where to watch the Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix
The Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix starts at 2 p.m. EDT Sunday, July 8, with same-day television coverage on Fox Sports 1, at 4 p.m. EDT. Live coverage at 2 p.m. is available on the Fox Sports Go app.