Round 6 of the 2025 VSCA SportsCar Championship—and Round 4 of the LMP2 Sprint Cup—brought the field north of the border to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park for the Canadian Sports Car Grand Prix. With its 2.45-mile, 10-turn layout and fast, flowing corners, CTMP has long tested both the speed and poise of competitors. This year’s edition, as the series returned to Canada for the first time since 2023, held on a wet and wild Saturday, lived up to its reputation in full.
The return of the LMP2 class following their hiatus at VIR injected fresh energy into the field. All eyes were on Tseard Ploeg in the #531 Pandemonium eSports x Sim-Lab Dallara P217 after he earned pole with a blistering 1:09.678 and led early on, just as he had at Laguna Seca. However, heavy skies and worsening conditions would throw every plan into question.
Early Drama and Flying Debris
The race opened with a scare in Turn 2 as Selena Ward’s #32 Wastegate Racing Cadillac GTP slid off-track, narrowly missing other cars. But for the LMP2 class, the bigger trouble came seconds later. Tiago Maduro Dias in the #14 Grow Racing Team Dallara and Sven Albrecht in the #96 Albrecht Motorsports Dallara both lost control in the same corner. The #14 limped to the pits with significant delay, while Albrecht rejoined the field.
Further up the road, intense early action saw Taylor Parsons in the #89 Keystone Simsport Dallara battle wheel-to-wheel with Viktor Sönnergren’s #23 Twin Turn Simracing machine for second. The action briefly paused for safety following a frightening crash on lap 15, when the #158 iRacing Today Motorsports Dallara of Adam Mailhot and the #112 Rusty Spatulas Racing GT PRO Corvette of Jukka Taino collided in Turn 2, momentarily launching the Corvette airborne.
Rain Arrives, Strategies Diverge
As rain began to fall around the halfway point, pit lane activity increased and strategy began to shape the outcome. Under the first full-course yellow—triggered 52 minutes into the race—the #531 retained the lead with Falco Van Rijsselt behind the wheel, having taken over for Ploeg earlier. The #89 Keystone Dallara ran 18 seconds behind, while most of the field remained on the lead lap.
While many chose to pit under yellow, the leading #531 team made a bold decision to stay out. The #3 Tri-State Racing Dallara and #677 Valkyrie Exype Dallara followed suit, moving up the order. But not all calculated moves panned out: shortly after the restart, the #89 and #216 tangled after slowing for a GT car on a narrow wet line in Turn 2. Remarkably, Justin DeLano in the #216 Vulture Motorsports Dallara controlled the slide and continued without damage—a moment that would later prove pivotal.
Disaster struck the #531 team on lap 66. Hitting standing water at Turn 5, Van Rijsselt slid over the curbs and into the barriers. The car sustained heavy damage, and although Ploeg would later rejoin for a second stint, the car fell four laps behind.
Final Caution Sets the Stage
A second full-course yellow came just over 100 minutes into the race. When the pits opened again, the #3 Tri-State Racing team led the LMP2 field into pit lane. A lightning quick stop vaulted the #216 Vulture Motorsports entry into the lead, just ahead of the #23 Twin Turn Simracing Dallara and the #3 Tri-State machine.
On the restart, DeLano immediately pulled a two-second gap. In increasingly treacherous conditions, he delivered a masterful drive, extending the lead to nearly half a minute with ten minutes remaining. Behind him, Sönnergren kept the #23 in contention while.
Second win of Season in the Rain for Vulture
At the end of a chaotic and rain-drenched afternoon, it was Justin DeLano and Erol Ureksoy in the #216 Vulture Motorsports Dallara P217 who emerged victorious. Their combination of smart pit strategy and calm execution in difficult weather delivered their second win of the season, with a margin of 35.597 seconds at the line.
Second went to the #23 Twin Turn Simracing Dallara of Dominik Isenberg and Viktor Sönnergren, a result that moved them to the top of both the SportsCar Championship and the Sprint Cup standings. The #96 Albrecht Motorsports Dallara of Sven Albrecht and Marc Scherschel completed the podium, an impressive turnaround after the early incident.
Rounding out the top ten were the #14 Grow Racing Team in fourth, the pole-sitting but unlucky #531 Pandemonium eSports x Sim-Lab entry in fifth, the #158 iRacing Today Motorsports Dallara in sixth, #3 Tri-State Racing in seventh, #11 Vision 1 Motorsports in eighth, #89 Keystone Simsport in ninth, and the #677 Valkyrie Exype Dallara in tenth.
Post-Race Reactions
Erol Ureksoy, #216 Vulture Motorsports Dallara: "This is an unbelievable result for us! This was the debut in LMP2 for Justin and me, and we didn't even think a win was possible on our first outing in the LMP2. We stuck to our strategy and everything came together!"
"Five wins in four races across all our entries for Vulture Motorsports is truly something we are all very proud of! We embraced the Vulture Motorsports ethos of 'race our race, let others make mistakes and take the opportunities as they come and make the most of them'. We feel like we definitely did that here at CTMP!"
"We had some technical difficulties when we driver-swapped from me to Justin which cost us several positions, but we bounced back from that. Lap 58 was a heart in throat moment for us! Justin had unbeatable pace in the rain, and we gambled on rain being a huge factor, and set the car up accordingly and the gamble paid off in the wet!"
Justin DeLano, #216 Vulture Motorsports Dallara: "I’m Completely ecstatic. I’ve been chasing a win in this series since I joined and believed it would have come in our Mustang. Never in a million years did I think Erol and I would win on our LMP2 debut."
"It’s less about being all or nothing and more about our roster depth. Our Laguna Seca win was a different set of drivers. I’d like to continue to run a strong LMP2 team but I believe it’s doomed to an early retirement with our updated driver ratings."
"Our car was well off pace in the dry it was the rain that brought it to life. Even then I never felt like the win was even in the cards until the last round of pit stops. There were a few cars ahead that had incidents and then when the yellow came out a few teams did driver changes that allowed us to restart in the lead. The clear air is a massive advantage in the conditions we had not just for visibility of traffic but also to gauge the track and see where the water is and isn’t. "
On the big scare on lap 58: "Only thing on my mind was the wall. There was steering there was brakes and there was throttle. I didn’t care about position there was only survival. Because of that we hardly scraped the wall but it definitely took a minute to get the heart rate back down and get back in the groove."
On the key ingrediant for this win: "Like always it’s strategy, consistency and traffic management. I’d say rain was definitely a large factor in this race too. Staying on dry tires till the caution was critical. Just a solid team effort all around. Erol crushed it in the mixed conditions and Thomas did an outstanding job as spotter and crew chief."
Sven Albrecht, #96 Albrecht Motorsports Dallara: "It's a great feeling to finally stand on the podium again. In Daytona we had bad luck during the race and in Sebring we were well up front but couldn't get the result. In addition, there were simply too many driving mistakes and wrong decisions in terms of strategy."
"So we set ourselves the goal of driving safely here at CTMP and getting through without any incidents. No risks, and a safe setup. That cost us some speed, but it paid off in the end. We are very happy and want to build on that."
On struggles of the #96 car in the rain: "Yes indeed, we were slow. Too slow! That was a bit incomprehensible at first. We wanted to ride safely and not take any risks, but the big difference can probably be found in the setup. As soon as we were in an area where we could push, the car became very difficult to drive. We had understeer at the start of the corner, oversteer on the exit. Of course we could have gone a bit faster, but we wouldn't have reached the speed of the leaders. That's why we drove safely to achieve a good result."
"We knew that we had good drivers and were competitive. We lacked results and made too many mistakes. We will try to use the momentum and keep scoring points. The focus is always on the next race. Of course we will also try to win races. The motivation is there."
Dominik Isenberg, #23 Twin Turn Simracing Dallara: "This was a hard race for sure, with two caution periods, destroying some strategy advantages we gambled on. Especially with changing to wet tires on the first stop when the track was a bit too dry. But in the end it all worked out, we just did not have the pace to keep up with Vulture. Kudos to them! But more important to us is gaining the championship lead. We're going to try now, to defend that as hard as possible!"
On car contact with the #3 Tri-State Racing Dallara on pit-lane under the second FCY: "I was just getting out the car. I think we had some issues with the fuel hose and needed to make sure we have enough gas to make it to the end. That cost us a bit of time and we left the pit stall in a bit of a rush, but I don't know if there was any contact. Maybe a slight touch, nothing too bad."
"In the end the penalty might be deserved. It was a chaotic situation in pit-lane in general, with some cars not in places they needed to be at including the #3. That's just something we need to be aware of in the next races."
On getting held up by some GTP cars on the restart: "Its just the nature of those GTP cars - more power and way more wheight won't help them get going in these fast, low-grip corners. It was a bit anoying but in the end it wouldn't make a difference. We just needed to be patient in those situations."
"The rain was fun. We were not the fastest, but we were safe enough to not get into trouble. It would've been cool to make more use of the early change to wet tires. During the wave-by in the first caution, those who stayed on dry tires were really struggling to make it around the track while I could go 5-10 seconds quicker already."
Standings Shakeup and Next Stop: Detroit
With their second-place finish, Twin Turn Simracing leapfrogged to the top of both the LMP2 SportsCar Championship and Sprint Cup standings. Vision 1 Motorsports, now second in both, faces a 55-point gap in the overall title fight. Keystone Simsport remains third, while Pandemonium eSports, despite their setback, held third in the Sprint standings.
Looking ahead
Next, the series heads to the tight confines of Belle Isle in Detroit for the Detroit Sports Car Race on May 31. As Round 7 of the championship, it promises another challenge—this time on a concrete-lined street course where contact is inevitable and precision is paramount. After GTP and GT PRO teams had their go at Long Beach, it will now be the LMP2 and GT AM teams to get their shot at a street circuit race this season.
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