Toyota Gazoo Racing customer teams locked out the front row – and swept pole positions in all three classes – for tonight’s Pirelli GT4 America Lone Star Enduro at COTA.
Leading the way was the #69 JTR Motorsports Engineering GR Supra GT4 EVO2 of Parker Thompson and Anthony McIntosh which will start on the front row next to the #68 RAFA Racing Team Toyota of Tyler Gonzalez and Gresham Wagner.
Gonzalez set the early benchmarks that looked tough to beat. The young Toyota development driver turned in a 2:12.313 to put provisional pole seemingly out of reach – but not for Toyota works driver Thompson, who turned in a 2:12.170 to take the top spot.
Gonzalez’s time was still the fastest of the Silver class runners behind Thompson in Pro-Am, while Thunder Bunny Racing from the Am class made it a Toyota clean sweep. Allen Patten was an incredible seventh overall in the #606 Toyota, nearly a second up on the next-quickest Am class car – the #72 RAFA Racing Toyota of Kenny Schmied (15th overall).
Aston Martin’s Mike David Ortmann qualified third in the #4 JMF Motorsports Vantage GT4 ‘EVO’, followed by Michael Cooper, who hopped out of one car straight into the #33 Blackdog Racing McLaren Artura GT4 and stuck it into fourth.
Matheus Leist qualified fifth in the #23 NOLASPORT Porsche, sharing the third row with the #9 ACI Motorsports Porsche Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport of Kay van Berlo.
Jesse Webb was eighth in the #3 JMF Aston Martin, followed by Matt Elwin Bell in the #43 P1 Groupe McLaren, and the two Auto Technic Racing BMW M4 GT4 EVOs of Zac Anderson (#52) and Matt Million (#53).
Last year’s winners, Kevin Boehm and Kenton Koch, will start 18th in their #97 Random Vandals Racing BMW. Koch was 2.4 seconds behind pole-winner Thompson.
The three-hour endurance race will start at 5:00 PM CT (local time).
Feature image © Fred Hardy / SRO Motorsports America
