The Canadians Made Their Presence Known In 2021… Bring On 2022!

A SEASON THAT HAS SEEN ONCE AGAIN CANADIAN DRIVERS AND TEAMS SHOWCASING THEIR TALENT IN IMSA AND AROUND THE WORLD

Pfaff Motorsports winning the championship and stepping it up in 2022

Coming back to compete in the full season of GTD IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship following a 2020 season with restricted travel for this small team based in Toronto (Canada), Pfaff Motorsports continued their growth in the IMSA Series in 2021. With the returning Canadian driver Zach Robichon and the addition of Laurens Vanthoor for the full season, hopes were running high.

The Plaid Porsche showed pace pretty much all season long with some ups and downs but the team kept their heads down and continued to work tirelessly to achieve their goal. With four wins during the season, it came down to the last race at Petit Le Mans to confirm their GTD championship.

Such a great achievement from this team that has worked hard since joining IMSA. And they are now looking for more as they are moving to GTD Pro for 2022 as announced just one a week ago here.

Zach Robichon has again proven how solid he is as a driver and it is unfortunate that, as Pfaff Motorsports is moving to GTD Pro, he won’t be able to continue his journey with the team. Although, he has found a seat at Wright Motorsports in GTD for the 2022 Endurance Cup rounds of the IMSA Championship, we sure wish he’d be joining full time as he is deserving such an opportunity with a top team.

You can watch their season recap on their YouTube channel

After finding success in Michelin Pilot Challenge, AWA Racing makes a switch to LMP3

AWA Racing ended the 2021 season fifth in the championship with two wins, one being at Daytona on the first weekend on the calendar. Kuno Wittmer and co-driver Orey Fidani making the best out of driving their McLaren 570S in what was a very competitive championship.

We had seen a brief social media post towards the end of the season with a bare carbon fibre livery in pit lane at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. The news became official on December 14th that AWA Racing was to join the 2022 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship running a Duquesne D08 LMP3. What’s more is they will have Lars Kern alongside Wittmer/Fidani for the Endurance races.

Motorsport In Action showed consistency throughout the season

Even though Motorsport In Action are shown in sixth place (with the same amount of points as AWA Racing), it has to be said the team has been consistent all season and would have finished much higher in the standings it is wasn’t for the two DNF they encountered.

Hopefully, we will see them again in 2022.

Fourth place for Mark Wilkins in TCR class of Michelin Pilot Challenge

Bryan Herta Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian has proven to be the reference in the TCR class. Debuting the Hyundai Elantra N TCR at Daytona, there was a lot of work to get done in order to get up to speed with the new car. They did finished in sixth place albeit one lap down after the 4-Hour race but first of the Elantra N TCR.

Wilkins and his teammate, Harry Gottsacker, kept hard at work the entire season and it did bring a win at the WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca round in September.

They will certainly come back stronger in 2022.

A podium finish at the Rolex 24 in GTD for Mikaël Grenier racing on both sides of the Atlantic

If there is one promising driver in Canada, that we hear mainly from the French Canadian media, it is definately Mikaël Grenier. We have been following Mikaël over the last couple of seasons has he mostly raced in Europe with Emil Frey Racing who competed in Series such as the GT Open and Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe. As a silver driver, he has been extremely competitive and, unfortunately, the team decided not to renew his contract for 2021.

That did not deter him to keep wanting to get behind the wheel of a race car. In the days leading to the Roar before the Rolex 24, Mikaël announced he was to join SunEnergy1 Racing for the 2021 Rolex 24 driving a Mercedes AMG GT3. A team he has known for quite some time. Teamed up with Team owner Kenny Abul, Luca Stolz and Raffaele Marciallo. The last two well known figures with Mercedes AMG and GT Racing.

They came out of the Rolex 24 in second place behind Winward Racing for whom Grenier would then drive on occasion during the 2021 season in Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe as well as Fanatec GT World Challenge America and with success.

It is worth mentioning Mikaël also participated in other rounds of IMSA WeatherTech with SunEnergy1; one of them bring the Mobil1 Twelve Hours of Sebring where they came back from several laps down to be in contention late in the race for another possible podium until a mechanical failure.

At the moment, his 2022 season is set to debut in the 24H Series in Dubai come January 14th for the Hankook 24H of Dubai.

Let’s hope to see him back in IMSA for 2022.

Roman DeAngelis contiunes to impress with The Heart of Racing Team

It seems a long time ago that Roman De Angelis walked away with the Porsche GT3 Canada Cup Challenge. The Heart of Racing has been raising their game from 2020 season as we saw consistent progression with this team all of last year. They entered 2021 with the same pace and confirmed they are a team that can be the next GTD class champion in 2022.

Roman has been solid at the wheel of the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 all season long and his adaptation to IMSA racing as gone extremely well. He is showing a lot of confidence inches driving. To top it all off, they managed to win two races during the season and a podium finishes as well.

For 2022, The team has already confirmed he is back at the wheel of the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 in the GTD class and the team also announced they are entering the GTD pro class as well.

Major setback for Daniel Morad’s promising season at Sebring

2017 GTD Rolex 24 class winner Daniel Morad had announced in early January he was to drive again for Alegra Motorsports for the 2021 season. Set to race the entire season with teammate Micheal De Quesada at the wheel of the Mercedes AMG GT3, The team showed good pace right away. The Rolex 24 taking a toll on cars and drivers, they finished in ninth place. Then came Sebring where the team occupied second place on the starting grid.

During the third hour of the race, an unfortunate incident occurred as coming up to corner 3, the Grasser Racing Team’s Lamborghini Huracan GT3 suffered brake failure and could not slow down enough as the driver could not avoid contact with the #28 Alegra Motorsports driven at the time by Billy Johnson.

The car ended up being beyond repair. That obviously put into question the presence of the team for the remainder of the season. The team did come back for the Mid-Ohio round followed by the 6 Hour at the Glen(5th) and the last two events of the year at VIR and Petit Le Mans(4th).

They have shown in their short season they have the pace to compete in GTD. Our wish is to see this team back in 2022 and this time for the full season!

As the 2022 season is set to begin, we will do our utmost best to keep you informed about our Canadians competing South of the border and around the Globe.

Image: IMSA