Though Andrea Caldarelli may have a new co-driver for the rest of the season, he still showed he was the driver to beat as he set the fastest time of Practice 1 for GT World Challenge America at NOLA Motorsports Park.
Caldarelli, who will now share the black #1 K-PAX Lamborghini Huracan GT3 with second-generation driver Michele Beretta, set a time of 1’34.248 on his first flying lap. It was the fastest time of the weekend thus far, and it would stand as the top time throughout the 60-minute session.
The session was held under partly cloudy skies, with ambient temperatures hovering around 29°C, and track temperatures between 31~32°C. There were no incidents and no red flags to report, in a session that went just according to plan for all 18 teams.
Second-fastest was the #6 US Racetronics Mercedes-AMG GT3 (Steven Aghakhani/Loris Spinelli). Spinelli turned in a 1’34.341 as his best time.
Beretta’s former team, TR3 Racing, were third-fastest as the #9 TR3 Lamborghini (Ziad Ghandour/Giacomo Altoe) led the Pro-Am Cup category cars, courtesy of a 1’34.554 from Altoe – who rejoined TR3 from K-PAX this weekend.
The #96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 (Michael Dinan/Robby Foley) went fourth-quickest. Foley’s best time was a 1’34.725.
Followed by the #04 Crowdstrike Racing with Riley Motorsports AMG GT3 (George Kurtz/Colin Braun), with Braun setting a 1’34.855.
Misha Goikhberg was sixth-fastest in the #3 K-PAX Lamborghini, which he’ll now share with Jordan Pepper for the balance of the season.
Rounding out the rest of the top ten were the #94 BimmerWorld M4 GT3 (Chandler Hull/Bill Auberlen) in seventh, the #45 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3-R (Charlie Luck/Jan Heylen) in eighth, and the #93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 (Ashton Harrison/Mario Farnbacher) in ninth.
Best of the Am Cup cars, in tenth, was the #23 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 488 GT3 (Onofrio Triarsi/Charlie Scardina).
Images © Brian Cleary / SRO Motorsports Group America
