Tom Dillmann completed a “cool story” of racing redemption at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (CTMP) on Sunday, anchoring Inter Europol Competition to a commanding victory in the Chevrolet Grand Prix just one year after a terrifying crash at the circuit left him with a broken back.
The only Canadian round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship saw the two-hour, 40-minute sprint race headlined by the LMP2 class.
Inter Europol’s weekend got off to a flying start on Saturday when Bronze-rated driver Jeremy Clarke shattered a seven-year-old LMP2 lap record to secure pole in the #43 ORECA 07 Gibson.
Clarke carried that momentum into Sunday’s opening stint, leading the first 34 laps while cleanly managing traffic and fuel targets.
“The main goal for Stint 1 was to grab the lead right at the start and maintain fuel targets and distance our pace and the traffic behind,” Clarke said. “Really the main goal was bringing the car home to Tom with no scratches, that way he could go do his thing.”
A pair of brief safety cars in the first hour threw off the team’s initial strategy, temporarily costing them the lead to cars that gambled on an alternate pit cycle. However, once Dillmann took the wheel, the team’s underlying pace proved unstoppable. With one hour and 14 minutes remaining, the Frenchman executed a clean on-track pass on Alex Quinn in the #04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR machine to retake the lead.
The final hour and 47 minutes of the contest ran entirely caution-free, introducing an unexpected fuel-mileage sweat for the leaders. Because a late-race yellow never materialized, the top three cars – Dillmann, Quinn, and the #99 AO Racing entry of Dane Cameron – were all forced to make late splash-and-dash pit stops for fuel.
“When I got a late call to pit, I was, ‘Oh, did we make a mistake or something?’” Dillmann said. “Then they quickly told me it was all good.”
The stops ultimately did not alter the running order. Thanks to a superior final pit stop by the Inter Europol crew, Dillmann crossed the finish line a comfortable 9.796 seconds ahead of Quinn, capping off a dominant performance in which the #43 car led 93 of the 127 completed laps.
The victory adds to a spectacular 2026 campaign for the multi-faceted Inter Europol organization, which has now achieved race wins across IMSA, Asian Le Mans, European Le Mans, and the FIA World Endurance Championship – including an LMP2 class victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June.
Additionally, the latest triumph was a poignant contrast to 2025, when a mechanical failure caused Dillmann’s throttle to stick wide open while leading late in the race, resulting in a high-speed accident that fractured two of his vertebrae.
“Going into the weekend, it didn’t change anything for me; I always want to win,” Dillmann said. “But now after the fact, I can see it’s a cool story.”
