Regulator Racing’s Philip Ellis and Turner Motorsport’s Robby Foley won the pole for this weekend’s GT World Challenge America powered by AWS races at Circuit of the Americas.
Ellis won the pole for Race 1 later today, as expected of the Mercedes-AMG Performance Driver in the #91 AMG GT3 EVO. Regulator Racing elected to wait a few minutes before sending Ellis out just to save a set of tyres, but Ellis only needed one flying lap to grab the pole – a 2:03.045, enough to win the overall pole by half a second.
The fastest Pro class car was the #34 JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG of Michai Stephens. The Canadian team spent until 1 o’clock this morning fixing a problem at the right-front suspension that emerged after the first practice session yesterday morning.
Stephens rewarded the team’s hard work with a fantastic performance in Race 1 Qualifying: A 2:03.524 put him on an all-Silver Arrows front row next to Ellis.
Then it was the two Random Vandals Racing BMW M4 GT3s, led by the #99 of Kenton Koch ahead of the #51 of Bill Auberlen.
Alex Sedgwick qualified fifth overall in the #18 RS1 Porsche, ahead of Brazilian Stock Car veteran Allam Khodair in the #16 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3, another Pro-Am car on the alternate driver strategy.
Of the Am drivers in Pro-Am, Blake McDonald was the fastest – seventh place overall in his brightly-coloured #11 DXDT Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R. Then it was Justin Rothberg in the #29 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 in eighth.
Jason Daskalos was a solid ninth in the #27 CRP Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3, and the Am class #163 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 of Oswaldo Negri Jnr completed the overall top ten, over 1.5 seconds clear of class rival Anthony Lazzaro in the #6 Dollahite Racing Ford Mustang GT3.
The pace began to quicken in Qualifying for Race 2. Mikaël Grenier was the first driver to clear the two-minute, three-second barrier for JMF Motorsports, but Tom Sargent smashed the benchmark, taking provisional pole with a 2:02.254 in his #32 GMG Racing Porsche.
Seconds later, Pro-Am championship co-leader Foley found enough time to surpass Sargent by just eight milliseconds for provisional pole, with a 2:02.246.
Grenier fired off one more quick lap to try and snatch the overall pole position, but he was a tenth short, and the #34 JMF Mercedes-AMG would settle in behind the pole-winning #29 Turner BMW and the #32 GMG Porsche on the outside of the front row.
Englishman Matt Bell was fourth-quickest in the #11 DXDT Corvette for Race 2 Qualifying. Andy Lee was fifth-fastest in the #8 Flying Lizard Motorsports BMW, ahead of Michael Cooper in sixth driving the #2 Racers Edge Motorsports Aston Martin Vantage GT3.
Then it was Aaron Telitz in the #88 Archangel Motorsports McLaren (720S) GT3 EVO, ahead of Connor De Phillippi in the #99 Random Vandals BMW, Jan Heylen in the #18 RS1 Porsche, and Kyle Marcelli in the #92 LAB Motorsport Porsche – atoning for his mistake in Sonoma qualifying.
Regulator Racing’s Jeff Burton qualified 15th for Sunday’s race, one position ahead of the #6 Dollahite Racing Ford of Scott Dollahite, who won the battle for the Am pole.
UPDATE: The #99 Random Vandals Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO will start both races from the rear of the field after post-qualifying technical inspection found that the car did not meet minimum ride height requirements.
GT World Challenge America Race 1 begins today at 1:05 PM CT (local time).
Images © Fabian Lagunas / SRO Motorsports America
