In the Pre-Qualifying session for Saturday’s third running of the Indianapolis 8 Hour Race, the #6 US Racetronics Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Tristan Vautier, Steven Aghakhani, and Loris Spinelli led the way after 90 minutes of daytime running.
The session began at 10:35 AM under beautiful, sunny skies. The weather was quite cold compared to yesterday, at the start of the session the ambient temperature was 10°C, and track temperature was 19°C but climbing throughout the duration of the session.
Indianapolis’ road course layout caught a few drivers out as teams and drivers began to drill down to find the pace they need to battle for pole position. Charlie Luck found the limit when he spun his #45 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3-R around at turn four, and backed into the gravel to bring out a brief red flag.
Elia Erhart would also have a spin during his turn at the wheel, losing control out of turn 11 before regrouping and continuing his session without trouble. They and Jan Heylen finished the session in 20th.
At the time, the fastest lap still belonged to Robby Foley, who put the #96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 on top within the first few minutes ahead of the #3 K-PAX Lamborghini Huracán GT3 of Franck Perera.
Past the halfway point in the session, Samantha Tan got unsettled at the turn 5/6 chicane. Her #38 ST Racing M4 spun and stopped along the backstretch, bringing out a second red flag.
The session resumed shortly afterwards, and from there, Spinelli went out on track and took the top spot in the session with a time of 1’22.416, surpassing Foley’s 1’22.522 by a tenth of a second. He would improve on the following lap to an ultimate time of 1’22.377, well before a third red flag when the #218 Andretti Autosport/Vital Speed Ferrari 488 GT3 of Ryan Briscoe came to a halt near turn one.
That it was Spinelli who led the session would be no surprise to regular GT World Challenge America viewers this season: His game-breaking speed has been on display during qualifying and race stints throughout the season, but unfortunately, he and co-driver Aghakhani have yet to convert that pace into victory as of yet.
The white-liveried #96 Turner BMW of Foley, Michael Dinan, and John Edwards finished the session in second, followed by the #3 K-PAX Lamborghini of former IndyCar prospect Perera, Misha Goikhberg, and Jordan Pepper.
Fourth overall and fastest of the Pro-Am cars was the #75 SunEnergy1 by Akkodis ASP AMG GT3 (Kenny Habul/Martin Konrad/Dominik Baumann). After Konrad led the Bronze test yesterday, Baumann set a 1’22.597 to show the car’s ultimate potential.
In fifth was the #33 Winward Racing AMG GT3 (Russell Ward/Philip Ellis/Jules Gounon), and in sixth, was the #93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3 (Ashton Harrison/Mario Farnbacher/Christina Nielsen), one of the four cars still in the hunt for the Pro-Am Championships in GT World Challenge America.
The AF-Corse Francorchamps duo finished seventh and eighth, the #71 Ferrari (Daniel Serra/Ulysse De Pauw/Antonio Fuoco) ahead of the #51 Ferrari (Pierre Ragues/Davide Rigon/Miguel Molina).
Completing the top ten were the #13 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari (Justin Wetherill/Conrad Grunewald/Ryan Dalziel), and the #77 Craft-Bamboo Racing AMG GT3 (Raffaele Maricello/Daniel Juncadella/Daniel Morad).
This puts four Mercedes and three Ferraris in the top ten, along with one Acura, one BMW, and one Lamborghini. The whole 25 car field was covered by 1.8 seconds.
Top honours in the two car Am battle went to the #88 Zelus Motorsports Lamborghini (Jason Harward/Seth Lucas/Jason Daskalos), in 24th.
Images © Brian Cleary / SRO Motorsports Group America
