Accidents and afternoon weather led to a disrupted day of practice at Road America for the 16 teams in GT World Challenge America.
Under refreshingly sunny and bright skies, Bill Auberlen and ST Racing led a BMW top-three sweep in Free Practice 1, with Auberlen in the #28 ST Racing BMW M4 GT3 setting a best time of 2:05.773 early in the session.
The hour-long session was cut short after Ross Chouest crashed hard heading into turn five. Chouest was unhurt, but his #50 Mercedes-AMG GT3 was severely damaged with debris strewn over the racing line. Barrier repairs and debris necessitated a red flag and an early chequered.
Chouest Povoledo Racing’s crew then went to work reconfiguring its GT America chassis for use in GT World Challenge America the rest of the weekend, hoping a similar accident didn’t happen again.
Robby Foley finished second in the #29 Turner Motorsport BMW, ahead of Neil Verhagen in the #38 ST Racing BMW in third.
Breaking up the BMW grip on the top spots were the #93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3 of Luca Mars in fourth, and the #32 GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Tom Sargent in fifth.
Andy Lee was a solid sixth-fastest in the new #8 Flying Lizard Motorsports BMW, ahead of Pro class points leader Elliott Skeer in the #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche, and Kenton Koch in the new #99 Random Vandals Racing BMW.
The start of Free Practice 2, meanwhile, was delayed by 35 minutes due to lightning strikes in the proximity of the circuit. The session was shortened by ten minutes, but just 20 minutes in, rain began to fall over the circuit again and progressively worsened to monsoon level, leading to the session being abandoned.
Before the rain arrived, though, IndyCar alumnus Zach Veach led the session aboard the #93 Racers Edge Acura – setting a 2:06.452.
Alec Udell put in a very late flyer to go second-fastest in the #63 DXDT Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, edging out Koch in the #99 Random Vandals BMW in third.
Auberlen finished Practice 2 fourth-fastest in the #28 ST Racing BMW, with Sargent fifth in the #32 GMG Porsche, and Verhagen sixth in the #38 ST Racing BMW.
Philip Ellis was seventh in the #91 Regulator Racing Mercedes – followed by the leading Am class car, the #19 Esses Racing Mercedes of Will Hardeman in eighth.
The #50 Chouest Povoledo Mercedes backup car did nine trouble-free laps out of the box, more important than their last-place ranking for the moment.
Qualifying for both GT World Challenge America races starts at 9:05 AM CDT (local time) tomorrow, followed by Race 1 at 3:00 PM CDT.
Images © Fabian Lagunas / SRO Motorsports America
