The Pirelli GT4 America series kicked off its 2023 season Friday at Sonoma Raceway with two Practice sessions.
By the time Practice 1 began at 12:10, the sun shone brightly over the hills of Napa Valley, and any trace of the morning’s rain showers had vanished.
Billy Johnson Jnr set the early benchmark aboard the green #069 Archangel Motorsports Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 which he shares with Todd Coleman. Johnson clocked in with a time of 1’45.868 just six minutes into the 45-minute session, and would not be surpassed.
The #34 Conquest Racing/JMF Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT4 (Michai Stephens/Jesse Webb) went second-fastest overall out of 42 cars, and was quickest in the Silver category.
NOLASPORT’s #47 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport was third-fastest in Practice 1. The two-time and reigning GT4 America Pro-Am champions held off announcing their drivers until just before the start of the weekend. Two-time series champion Jason Hart will be reunited with his 2021 co-driver, Matt Travis.
In fourth was the #95 OGH/Valkyrie Velocity Aston Martin (Rob Ferriol/Mac Clark), then the #50 Chouest Povoledo Racing Aston Martin (Ross Chouest/Aaron Povoledo) in fifth, and the new #82 BimmerWorld BMW M4 GT4 (James Walker Jnr/Tyler McQuarrie) in sixth.
Seventh-fastest and leading all the Am class cars was the #20 Carrus Callas Raceteam Toyota GR Supra GT4 (Nicholas Shanny/Terry Borcheller).
Practice 2 was the last on-track session of the day at Sonoma. Just minutes into the session, the #18 RS1 Porsche (Roland Krainz/Austin Krainz) went off course and brought out a red flag.
As the session progressed, John Geesbreght in the #68 Smooge Racing Toyota went to the top of the time sheets with a 1’46.322. But with a little over five minutes left in the session, Kay van Berlo, the two-time Porsche Carrera Cup North America runner-up, drove his #7 ACI Motorsports Porsche to the front with a 1’45.813.
It was the fastest time in the session by half a second and the fastest time of the day overall, putting the #7 Porsche of Van Berlo and ACI owner Curt Swearingin ahead of the #68 Toyota of Geesbreght and Kevin Conway.
Hanley Motorsports’ #999 Toyota (Daniel Hanley/Parker Thompson) was fastest in the Silver category and third-fastest overall, and the #20 Carrus Callas Raceteam Toyota was fourth overall with the ageless Borcheller again showing strong pace. The #50 Chouest Povoledo Aston Martin rounded out the top five, followed by the #34 Conquest/JMF Mercedes.
Black Swan Racing’s return to big-league GT racing got off to a good start, as did the GT4 America debut of their new #54 McLaren Artura GT4. Tim Pappas and Jeroen Bleekemolen’s car was seventh-fastest overall in Practice 2. The #19 ACI Motorsports Porsche (Francis Selldorff/Andrew Davis), the #92 Random Vandals Racing BMW (Kevin Boehm/Kenton Koch), and the #8 Flying Lizard Motorsports Aston Martin (Elias Sabo/Andy Lee) completed the top ten from Practice 2.
In 14th place overall and second in Am, was the #26 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin of Hannah Gresham and Rianna O’Meara-Hunt, the two winners of Heart of Racing Team’s female talent search.
The other new woman on the block, Isabella Robusto, was 25th in the #67 Smooge Racing Toyota. She’ll have a busy weekend of driving ahead of her after co-driver Joey DaSilva withdrew from the weekend due to an undisclosed injury. Robusto will drive solo in this weekend’s GT4 America races, on top of racing in the Toyota Gazoo Racing GR Cup – but it will afford her plenty of experience as she switches from stock cars to sports cars.
Copeland Motorsports’ #74 Toyota (Tyler Maxson/Tyler Gonzalez) didn’t post a time in either Practice session, an unfortunate setback for the “T-N-T connection”.
Race 1 of the 2023 Pirelli GT4 America series at Sonoma Raceway begins at 4:50 PM PDT (local time).
Images © Brian Cleary / SRO Motorsports America
