Inter Europol Driver Sets IMSA LMP2 Track Record at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park
By John Oreovicz
BOWMANVILLE, Ontario – Jeremy Clarke was already fastest when he started one last qualifying lap for the Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park late Saturday afternoon.
He could have backed off and hoped his 1 minute, 8.019-second tour around the 10-turn, 2.459-mile road course in the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA LMP2 07 would hold up for the overall and Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class Motul Pole Award for Sunday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race.
Turns out that 1:08.0 would have been fast enough for Clarke’s second consecutive LMP2 class pole. But he went even faster on his final lap, improving to 1:07.904 (130.366 miles per hour) to establish a new LMP2 track record that beat the benchmark established by Matt McMurry during the 2019 WeatherTech Championship race at CTMP.
Clarke has now qualified on pole four times in IMSA competition, including three times this year. He hopes to claim his second career victory Sunday in the 2-hour, 40-minute race (first was Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, on debut, in March 2025). Inter Europol claimed the LMP2 laurels at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in 2024 with Clarke’s teammate Tom Dillmann and Nick Boulle.
On Saturday, the top four LMP2 drivers qualified within 0.593 seconds.
“It was really close,” Clarke said. “I thought I put down a really good lap on the first set of tires, but when I came in to get that second set, they told me I was in P(osition) 2. I was a bit surprised, but I knew the next time I went out it was full push from the start. I had to lay the lap down, and luckily, I was able to.
“The field is super tough right now,” he continued. “I’ve been very fortunate this year, but as you’ve seen, a lot of the qualifying has been very close the whole time. The competition is really intense this year, so you have to be able to focus and get that one lap in.”
Clarke briefly dropped to third place with the top three clustered within just over a tenth of a second. Then Clarke turned in his 1:08.019 lap with two minutes remaining to jump to the top spot. The sub-1:08 final effort was just icing on the cake.
“I don’t know if there was a whole lot left,” Clarke admitted with a smile. “There were a couple corners where I knew I had to go, and when I thought I could go, I went full throttle – no matter what. I had to trust the car.
Clarke took pride from taking pole position at the only track where LMP2 serves as the top or headline class for a WeatherTech Championship race.
“We were fairly spread out, but I could still see the gap to the car ahead and the car behind,” he added. “It was staying pretty even, so I knew the times were tight. Even when I saw the 1:08.0, I knew it was good, but the team said nothing other than ‘You’ve got one more push lap.’ I wasn’t sure whether I had it or not, so I pushed to make sure.”
“It’s a great start for the race tomorrow, and hopefully we can continue that momentum,” he said. “Being the ‘top dog’ is kind of cool. We’re always second fiddle a little bit to the GTP (Grand Touring Prototype) cars, and now that we’re leading the way, it would be fun to really cross that finish line first instead of after a GTP car.”
Misha Goikhberg (No. 52 Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Mathiasen) wound up second at 1:08.077 (130.034 mph). He’ll share his car with GTP guest star Ricky Taylor this weekend.
The No. 22 United Autosports USA and No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR cars will roll off from third and fourth.
The No. 99, which originally qualified third, will be moved to the rear of the LMP2 grid as post-qualifying technical inspection revealed that the car did not meet the minimum height requirement for components located ahead of the front axle.
Green flag for the Chevrolet Grand Prix is set for Sunday at 2:10 p.m. ET, with streamed live coverage available via Peacock in the U.S. along with IMSA.TV or the official IMSA YouTube channel internationally.