IMSA at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park

This weekend, IMSA’s series will be in action north of the border at Ontario’s Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. It will be a topsy-turvy weekend in a number of ways.

IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Chevrolet Grand Prix

There are 35 teams entered for Sunday’s 160-minute sprint race on the 2.439-mile road course. That is actually up by one team over last year. However, the class breakdown is very different.

Last year’s race had four classes (GTP, LMP3, GTD Pro and GTD) competing. The GTP class is not competing this weekend and will be replaced as the headlining class by LMP2. LMP3 is no longer in WeatherTech and will only compete in IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge this weekend on the undercard.

The LMP2 class will take center stage with 12 teams entered, down one from Watkins Glen. The only team not entered from Watkins Glen is DragonSpeed.

With the GTP class not being in competition this weekend, a number of the GTP drivers are free. The FIA World Endurance Championship being in action at Interlagos in Brazil has ruled a number of LMP2 regulars out of the race.

Tower Motorsport has brought on Renger van der Zande to team up with John Farano. Effectively, this is a return of sorts. Tower Motorsports is more or less the modern version of Starworks Motorsport. Van der Zande drove for the team full-time in 2014.

At TDS Racing, Mikkel Jensen is out of the car due to his responsibilities with Peugeot TotalEnergies in the Hypercar class. Scott Huffaker, who normally runs the endurance races, will drive in his place.

AO Racing has tapped Louis Deletraz to drive “Spike” alongside PJ Hyett. He will replace Paul-Loup Chatin, who is racing for the factory Signatech Alpine team in Brazil. Deletraz is a known quantity to the team and is coming off a victory last weekend in the European Le Mans Series at Imola in a car co-run by AO Racing and TF Sport.

Filipe Albuquerque, who normally races for Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Global, will drive United Autosports’ No. 22 alongside Dan Goldburg this week. He replaces Paul di Resta, who is driving a Peugeot in Brazil. Albuquerque drives for the team in ELMS.

Richard Mille AF Corse has tapped Action Express Racing’s Pipo Derani to drive the No. 88 alongside Luis Perez Companc. Derani is replacing Nicklas Nielsen, who will be driving for Ferrari AF Corse in Brazil.

Finally, Era Motorsport announced last week that Stuart Wiltshire will make his series debut in…