The #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Adam Adelson and Elliott Skeer set the fastest time in GT World Challenge America’s sole 60-minute Practice session at Sonoma Raceway earlier today.
This Practice also served as Qualifying due to the disruption of the weekend schedule, caused by surface issues at Sonoma Raceway. As a clarification to an earlier report, the grid order for Race 1 will be determined by the fastest times from each team’s first registered driver (“Driver 1”), and the grid for Race 2 will be determined by the fastest times from each team’s second registered driver (“Driver 2”).
Skeer’s best lap of 1:31.783 won him the pole for Race 2 tomorrow afternoon at 2:15 PM PDT. His time was over three and a half seconds faster than the Race 2 pole time from last year, thanks to the resurfacing of the circuit.
Second-fastest was the #04 CrowdStrike by Riley Mercedes-AMG GT3 (George Kurtz/Colin Braun), followed by the #91 DXDT Racing Mercedes (Jeff Burton/Philip Ellis) in third place. Braun secured a front-row starting spot for Race 2 with his best lap of 1:32.005, with Ellis not far behind on a 1:32.056.
The #38 ST Racing BMW M4 GT3 (Samantha Tan/Neil Verhagen) and #08 DXDT Racing Mercedes (Scott Smithson/Bryan Sellers) rounded out the top five from the practice session.
In sixth was the #29 Turner Motorsport BMW (Justin Rothberg/Robby Foley), in seventh was the #93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3 (Luca Mars/Zach Veach), then the #28 ST Racing BMW (Varun Choksey/Bill Auberlen) in eighth.
The rest of the running order consisted of the #19 Esses Racing Mercedes (Will Hardeman/Adam Carroll), the new #8 Flying Lizard Motorsports Aston Martin Vantage GT3 (Elias Sabo/Andy Lee), the #50 Chouest Povoledo Racing Mercedes (Ross Chouest/Aaron Povoledo) and the #32 GMG Racing Porsche (Kyle Washington/Tom Sargent).
Most importantly, there were no red flags for incidents or surface issues, after 48 hours without on-track action to fix broken patches and potholes along the surface.
UPDATE – Philip Ellis of DXDT Racing will start on pole position for Race 1 as the team designated him as “Driver 1” of the #91 Mercedes-AMG GT3.
Previously, GT World Challenge America regulations required the “Am” driver of a Pro-Am team to be the first registered driver – this rule has now been removed from the sporting regulations.
Ellis’ time of 1:32.056 will put him on pole this afternoon, ahead of Luca Mars in the #93 Racers Edge Acura. Adam Adelson will start third in the #120 Wright Porsche.
Feature image © Fabian Lagunas / SRO Motorsports America
