The No.42 Nissan-powered Morgan from Oak Racing scored the pole position for the second consecutive race in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship today at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

While Alex Brundle took the honors at Watkins Glen, this time full-season driver Gustavo Yacaman was behind the wheel as Le Mans-style P2 prototypes filled the front row for the first time in the series.

“At Kansas last year, I missed pole by a thousandth of a second, and I really want to get that pole. We’ve accomplished that today,” said Yacaman who will drive with Frenchman Olivier Pla tomorrow.

“The whole weekend the car has been really really good. We’ve done minor adjustments to it and the car keeps getting faster, faster and faster. Here it is very important to be on pole because if we’re behind the DPs – while we can be quicker on the fast corners – We get the aero wash when we are behind them, and there is nothing we can do.

“With the straight-line speed we have nothing compared to them in the long back straights. This should help us at least pull a little gap on the first lap so we don’t get freight-trained like we did at Watkins Glen and hopefully hold the lead.”

Last race winner Richard Westbrook was third fastest and the quickest of the Daytona Prototypes ahead of Dalziel’s teammate Johannes van Overbeek and Christian Fittipaldi.

With a short run to the first turn here at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, both Yacaman and fellow front-row qualifier Ryan Dalziel (Extreme Speed HPD) are hopeful of leading into the first corner and keeping the Daytona Prototypes behind.

While the P2 machines have a aerodynamic advantage, the DP entries have a straight line speed edge. Yacaman and Dalziel will be aiming to using the opening high speed sweeping turns here in Canada to grab a gap before the the long back straight.

“It’s gonna be tough. We have a big aero advantage, but a power disadvantage. It will be about managing traffic. At this track, the speed differences are very difficult,” Yacaman said.

“We just have to keep cool. The race is going to be long. We have to keep clean, keep it up front and work our strategy. Play around the safety cars. I hope we can do this.

“We’ve been working really hard. Our team has really been developing and getting used to the tire. We’re a race winning team, and we haven’t done so yet and we need to. Canada has been nice to me. The past three years in Indy Lights and Toronto, I finished first, second, and third. And also in Three Rivers, the two years we went there I finished second. I wanted to get that win, but I couldn’t pull it off. So Canada has been nice, hopefully we can keep that winning streak.”

Yacaman is loving his first outing at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

“I love it, it’s such a fast track. The whole turn one-turn two sector goes by so fast,” Yacaman said.

“You’re in turn three and you have no idea how you got there. It’s mesmerizing how fast it is. And turn eight and nine – 10 complex are super fast as well. I wish more tracks were like this and not so slow and quirky. This track is so fast and really good for our car.”

Top three in class (overall in parentheses):
(1) #42-P Gustavo Yacaman (Morgan Nissan) 1:09.167
(2) #1-P Ryan Dalziel (HPD ARX-03b) 1:09.456 (0.289-)
(3) #90-P Richard Westbrook (Corvette DP) 1:09.642 (0.475-)