Colin Braun has captured pole position for the Mobil 1 Sportscar Grand Prix. Braun posted a time of 01:05:452 in the #45 CORE Autosport Nissan DPi, which proved quick enough to hold off Acura Team Penske's Helio Castroneves by one-tenth of a second.
Castroneves spent the session battling with Braun until he lost control of his Acura DPi in the closing stages of the session, spinning at turn 5. THe spin prevented him from doing another flying lap.
Jonathan Bomarito came third in the #55 Mazda DPi, with Juan Pablo Montoya fourth in the sister Acura ahead of Mazda's Tristan Nunez. The Cadillac teams struggled in Bowmanville. Whelen Engineering's Felipe Nasr was quickest of the DPi-VRs, but his fastest time of 01:06:130 was nearly a full second slower than the pole time. The DPi order was completed by Wayne Taylor Racing's Jordan Taylor ahead of the two JDC-Miller Cadillacs of Simon Trummer and Misha Goikhberg, while Juncos' Will Owen brought up the rear.
In the two-car LMP2 field, Performance Tech Motorsports' Kyle Masson took an easy pole position, with his 01:08:211 nearly half a second clear of local boy Dalton Kellett, who was making his debut in the #52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA 07-Gibson.
Jesse Krohn dominated proceedings in GT Le Mans. The #24's time of 01:13:086 beat his team-mate Tom Blomqvist by nearly half a second, completing a BMW front-row lockout in class. Best of the rest was Ford's Ryan Briscoe, who posted a 01:13:804 in the #67 Ford GT ahead of the two Porsches of Patrick Pilet and Laurens Vanthoor. Joey Hand was sixth in the #66 Ford, while the two Corvettes of Jan Magnussen and Marcel Fassler brought up the rear. Fassler stands in for regular Tommy Milner, who injured his hand in a crash at Watkins Glen.
Top honours in GT Daytona went to Turner Motorsport's Robby Foley. Foley's time of 01:16:172 in the #96 BMW M6 GT3 was enough to defeat the #33 Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Ben Keating, who looked set for pole for a long time. The two Meyer Shank Racing Acuras once again looked strong, locking out the second row. Trent Hindman's fastest time of 01:16:353 was not quick enough to grab pole, despite putting the #86 NSX GT3 Evo at the top on the timing sheets three times before being beaten. Hindman's team-mate Bea Figueiredo was fourth, half a second behind.
The GT Daytona grid was notable for the absence of no less than three regular entries. Paul Miller Racing had been forced to withdraw after a crash for Ryan Hardwick in practice, while both Moorespeed and Starworks announced after Watkins Glen that they would not be contending this weekend's round of the championship.
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