The #94 BimmerWorld Racing BMW M4 GT3 of Chandler Hull and Bill Auberlen set the fastest time in a rain-affected first practice session in GT World Challenge America’s annual visit to Road America.
The skies were partly cloudy but beautiful earlier this morning, but with ten minutes left until the start of Practice 1 at 10:00 AM local time, it began to rain enough for teams to make the late switch to their wet compound Pirelli tyres.
Jordan Pepper set the benchmark time early in the session, clocking a 2’22.395 aboard the green #3 K-PAX Lamborghini Huracan GT3. The rain gradually intensified as the session went on.
The session was red flagged for five minutes after Scott Smithson went off at Bill Mitchell Bend (turn 13). He was able to bring his #08 Qelo Capital/DXDT Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 back to the garage, but DXDT Racing opted to park their two cars for the rest of the session.
The rain stopped and the track began to dry out before the chequered flag. Auberlen was setting fastest outright first sector times, and on his final flying lap, he snatched the best lap time with a 2’22.188 as the session wrapped up.
Pepper and Misha Goikhberg finished the session in second, ahead of the #6 US Racetronics AMG GT3 (Steven Aghakhani/Loris Spinelli) in third. The #93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3 (Ashton Harrison/Mario Farnbacher) was fourth, while Smithson and Bryan Sellers finished fifth in the #08 DXDT AMG GT3.
The #04 CrowdStrike with Riley Motorsports AMG GT3 (George Kurtz/Colin Braun) finished in sixth, followed by the new #91 TR3 Racing Lamborghini of Utah’s Jeff Burton and Corey Lewis.
With the potential of rain for both race days, some teams opted to run a full practice session. Others, including the #1 K-PAX Lamborghini (Michele Beretta/Andrea Caldarelli), the #032 GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3-R (James Sofronas/Kyle Washington), and the #96 Turner Motorsports BMW (Michael Dinan/Robby Foley) only ran a limited number of laps.
The track should be dry in time for Practice 2 later this afternoon.
Feature image © Brian Cleary/SRO Motorsports Group America
