The team will pull double duty with WeatherTech and VP Racing Sportscar Challenge campaigns
Bowmanville, ON, Canada (5 July 2023) – Jr III (“Junior-Three”) Racing will head to Canada to compete in the next rounds of both IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and VP Racing Sportscar Challenge this weekend as the IMSA season hits a busy summer stretch of events. The Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park will air live on NBC starting at 12:00 pm ET on Sunday July 9th.
Canadian native, and former CTMP Formula Ford track record holder Garett Grist will be rejoined by Ari Balogh on board the No. 30 Airbnb Ligier JS P320 and look for a repeat podium after scoring a third place finish at CTMP last season. An incident in qualifying prevented Balogh from racing in the 6 Hours of the Glen.
Grist is very familiar with CTMP, the Canadian from Grimsby, ON started his motorsports career on the karting track and worked his way through open wheel and sports cars at the track.
The No. 30 Airbnb team scored a podium finish at the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen, marking the team’s first podium of the season in WeatherTech competition.
“I can’t wait for Mosport this coming weekend,” said Grist. “It feels great to get back to my home track. Last year at this race we were fast and I’m excited to see how we build on that this year. Mosport is a true classic, fast, high commitment track. We’re coming off a podium at the Six Hours of The Glen so we’re looking to keep that momentum going.”
Alongside the WeatherTech entry, the Jr III Racing crew will also be managing the No. 3 Jr III Racing Ligier JS P320 in the VP Racing Sportscar Challenge. Piloting the No. 3 Ligier will be Bijoy Garg, who last competed in IMSA at Sebring International Raceway in March. Garg will make his debut at the 2.459-mile Canadian track this weekend.
During the March doubleheader weekend, Garg scored two wins at the famed Florida track. These marked the first wins for Jr III Racing at an IMSA sanctioned event.
“We are excited to get up to CTMP,” said Billy Glavin, owner of Jr III Racing. “We were able to have a couple of test days last week and it went great. This will be VP’s first race back since Sebring so we’ll have Bijoy back in the car. He pulled off back to back wins at Sebring, which makes it even more exciting to see him get back behind the wheel. Our WeatherTech guys are also coming off a podium from Watkins Glen. I think overall the team will be in high spirits going into CTMP and we are looking forward to having another good weekend.”
The first race of the weekend for Jr III Racing will be in VP Racing Sportscar Challenge on Saturday morning at 11:40 am ET, followed by a second race Sunday morning at 9:30 am ET. Both VP Racing Sportscar Challenge races will be streamed live on the Peacock App. The Chevrolet Grand Prix will take the green flag at 12:05 pm ET live on NBC, Sunday July 9th.
