CORE autosport enjoyed a breakthrough overall victory at the 2018 Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix. Ahead of this year’s 2019 race, now presented by Acura, CORE has a new car but a good start to the weekend as well.

Colin Braun took the team’s No. 54 Nissan DPi to the fastest time in Friday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship practice session. Braun, who shares the No. 54 car with Jon Bennett, clocked in at 1:05.875 around the 2.459-mile Canadian Tire Motorsport Park circuit.

Braun and second-placed Dane Cameron, one of the points leaders with Juan Pablo Montoya in the No. 6 Acura Team Penske ARX-05, both clocked in at under 1:06 on Friday.

Braun set last year’s pole time at 1:06.315 and on Friday, four total DPi cars were under that mark as Michelin’s IMSA Hard DPi/LMP2 tire runs for the second straight race.

Temperatures were in the high 80s ambient and easily surpassed 100 on track per the Michelin engineers today. Slightly cooler temperatures are expected the remainder of the weekend; however, similar to Watkins Glen last weekend, Friday was a hot and humid day.

Jan Magnussen (Corvette, GT Le Mans), Bill Auberlen (Turner BMW, GT Daytona), and Matt McMurry (PR1/Mathiasen Oreca, LMP2) were the other class leaders. Combined practice times are here.

In IMSA MICHELIN Pilot Challenge, Eric Foss (Murillo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4, GS) and Michael Lewis (Bryan Herta Autosport Hyundai Veloster N TCR, TCR) set the pace in those classes. Those times are linked here.

Both series qualify tomorrow with Pilot Challenge on track after finishing third practice at 9:40. The WeatherTech qualifying is at 11:35.

The Pilot Challenge two-hour race is at 1:55 p.m. EDT with the IMSA Prototype Challenge race at 4:30 p.m. EDT.