BOWMANVILLE, Ontario, Canada (July 11, 2025) – Two-time Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by Michelin champion Jared Thomas (No. 96 JTR Motorsports Engineering) set the quickest lap of the day across two practice sessions at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

The top five fastest drivers of the day were all under the current Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup qualifying lap record at CTMP, 1:31.736, set by Connor Zilisch last year. Thomas’ fast lap time of 1:31.302 was turned in the morning session, which bodes well for him when it comes to Saturday’s qualifying session which will take place at roughly the same time of day.

“I think we have a good car,” said Thomas, who tested with his teammates at CTMP on Monday and Tuesday. “We were fast here last year. We went back through the notebook, fixed the things we thought were wrong and unloaded in a good spot.

“The relative speed here is high and a car without downforce can be pretty sketchy going over some of the crests, so probably the biggest gain from testing was just getting up to speed and comfortable in the car.”

A winner at CTMP last year, Nate Cicero (No. 83 McCumbee McAleer Racing) was second quickest of the day, just 0.095-second behind Thomas.

Westin Workman (No. 13 BSI Racing) completed the top three followed by the fastest rookie of the day, Helio Meza (No. 27 BSI Racing).

Following qualifying on Saturday morning, Race 1 will go green at 5:25pm ET. Race 2 is set for Sunday at 10:05am ET. Both races will be streamed live on the RACER and IMSA YouTube channels.