IMSA’s two top Challenge series shared the spotlight Saturday at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park with a pair of races.

A calmer two-hour IMSA MICHELIN Pilot Challenge race ended with a frantic but fun final 15-minute run to the finish.

Meanwhile the three-hour IMSA Prototype Challenge race ran without much drama up front in a dominant winning performance.

REBEL ROCK, JDC-MILLER CLAIM PILOT WINS

After a challenging opening half of the year, Rebel Rock Racing returned to the spoils of victory with its Chevrolet Camaro GT4.R.

A caution in the first half of the race opened the door for Rebel Rock – like many others – to pit as the clock crossed over the 40-minute mark and the crossover point to switch drivers. Robin Liddell took over the No. 71 Camaro from Frank DePew after his first stint, then utilized the team’s pit strategy to leapfrog a handful of cars (No. 69 MIA McLaren, No. 39 Carbahn Audi and No. 82 Bimmerworld BMW among others) to the lead.

The final showdown came down to Liddell versus Kyle Marcelli in the No. 60 KohR Motorsports Ford Mustang GT4. Liddell, the Scot, held off Canadian Marcelli on his home soil as he and Nate Stacy sought their second straight CTMP win. It was the most American of cars ending 1-2 on Canadian soil, a couple days after the Fourth of July.

MIA snatched third with its McLaren, Jesse Lazare having dispatched of Jeff Westphal in the Carbahn Audi. Lazare shared the No. 69 570S GT4 with Corey Fergus, who led earlier in the race.

The top three cars in the GS standings are separated by just two points leaving CTMP.

In TCR, Mikey Taylor and the JDC-Miller team dominated early after scoring pole position. But their winning charge was nearly extinguished – literally – by a fire bottle that went off at their first pit stop. When the car ran over a stationary left front tire leaving the pits, that triggered a penalty.

Alas, Taylor’s co-driver Britt Casey Jr. fought back in the No. 17 Audi RS3 LMS TCR and survived a frantic battle with three other cars – including their JDC-Miller teammate Stephen Simpson – to surge back to a deserved victory.

L.A. Honda World young guns Colin Mullan and Max Faulkner scored their first podium of the year in the No. 52 Honda Civic Type R. Roadshagger by eEuroparts’ Jon Morley and Gavin Ernstone continued their run of strong form with their third straight podium in their No. 61 Audi.

The TCR points are also close with six points covering the top three pairings.

FORTY7 DOMINATES IPC

A year after winning largely thanks to strategy in an hour, 45-minute IMSA Prototype Challenge race, Garrett Kletjian’s Forty7 Motorsports team left no doubt of its pace and performance with a dominant run to win Round 4 of 2019 this year.

New Yorker Austin McCusker repeated on his own and shared the win with Peruvian Rodrigo Pflucker in the No. 47 Norma M30. This result extends their points lead over Neil Alberico and Leo Lamelas, who finished fifth in their No. 4 ANSA Motorsports Ligier JS P3.

The excitement this race came in a late-race battle for second, Scott Huffaker making a bold move on Scott Andrews in Turn 10 to the inside to ensure the PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports team had its best IPC result of the year. Huffaker shared his No. 52 Ligier with Chris Archiacono; Andrews shared the No. 9 JDC-Miller Norma with Gerry Kraut.

IPC is off until VIR in August.