Chip Ganassi Racing’s Renger van der Zande took the overall lead away from Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian’s Oliver Jarvis with less than 11 minutes to go in turn 3. From there, van der Zande pulled away to score his and Sebastien Bourdais‘ third win of the year in the Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park Sunday (July 3).
“This was hard work. The power steering was a big issue all race long,” van der Zande told NBC Sports’ Brian Till in victory lane. “In the fast corners, the power steering kept cutting in [and out]. In the end, it got better and I thought, with normal power steering, I might have a chance for a move. I was all in then. This is my day. I’m going to go for the win.”
The start was fairly chaotic. Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian’s Tom Blomqvist started from the pole and just barely cleared Ricky Taylor in turn 1 to keep the lead.
Meanwhile, Sean Creech Motorsports’ Dr. Lance Willsey spun entering turn 1 and hit the inside wall after running into the back of Andretti Autosport’s Jarett Andretti. He then came across the track and clipped Frankie Montecalvo, the pole sitter in the GTD class who had dominated there for most of the weekend. Both drivers limped their cars back to the pits, so no full course yellow was thrown. Willsey continued, but Montecalvo was forced to go behind the wall with right rear suspension damage to his Lexus. They eventually returned to the race, but Montecalvo and Aaron Telitz finished at the rear of the GTD class, 17 laps down.
BMW M Team RLL’s John Edwards also caught a piece of the incident, but it came back to haunt him in a different way. Nine minutes into the race, Edwards lost his right rear wheel, which resulted in the race’s first full-course caution.
On the restart, Ricky Taylor cut his right rear tire entering Moss Corner. The tire casing came off on the Mario Andretti Straightaway, creating another full-course caution. Most of the leaders chose to make quick pit stops during this yellow. Blomqvist made a two-tire change. The only DPi team that stayed out was JDC-Miller MotorSports’ Tristan Vautier, who claimed the overall lead.
Once the race restarted, Vautier was pressured extensively by Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Lynn. Vautier, driving a similar Cadillac to Lynn, resisted this pressure until they caught the GT3 cars. He put some distance between himself and Lynn as they passed the GTD and GTD Pro cars, which brought Blomqvist up to…
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