Mercedes-AMG customer teams finished first and second in GT World Challenge America Practice 2 at Road America.
This time, it was a new entry atop the leaderboard: The #08 Qelo Capital/DXDT Racing AMG GT3 of Scott Smithson and Bryan Sellers went quickest in second practice, after an off-track excursion disrupted their first practice session.
The track conditions were dry, unlike Practice 1, which was impacted by rain nearly throughout its entirety. The track was also much hotter than it had been prior, up to 36 degrees celsius from 22°C in the morning.
Sellers set the best time of the session early on, clocking in with a 2’05.607 to displace the #04 CrowdStrike with Riley Motorsports AMG GT3 of George Kurtz and Colin Braun from first place. Braun was just 0.026 seconds behind Sellers’ best, with a 2’05.633, as the Pro-Am points leaders look for a strong result.
While the #08 DXDT Mercedes led the session after their practice misfortune, a separate incident in the same rainy practice session caused an issue for the #63 Usalco/DXDT AMG GT3 (David Askew/Dirk Mueller) which took them out of the session.
Also missing Practice 2 – and almost certainly the rest of the weekend, is the #37 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo (Justin Wetherill/Ryan Dalziel). This troubling development comes after Wetherill suffered a heavy crash at The Kink (turn 11) during GT America practice earlier in the afternoon. Thankfully, Wetherill was not seriously injured.
As the session wound down, the #33 Winward Racing AMG GT3 (Russell Ward/Philip Ellis) jumped to third-fastest, as Ward set a 2’05.750. His time led all of the Pro Cup teams.
The #94 BimmerWorld BMW M4 GT3 (Chandler Hull/Bill Auberlen) backed up the fastest time in Practice 1 with fourth in Practice 2, ahead of the #93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 (Ashton Harrison/Mario Farnbacher) in fifth.
Sixth was the #6 US Racetronics AMG GT3 (Steven Aghakhani/Loris Spinelli), ahead of the Am Cup #23 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari (Onofrio Triarsi/Charlie Scardina) in seventh.
New to TR3 Racing, the #91 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 of Jeff Burton and Corey Lewis was eighth-fastest, following up from seventh in Practice 1 and showing marked improvement in their new environment.
The Pro championship-leading #1 K-PAX Racing Lamborghini (Michele Beretta/Andrea Caldarelli) and the #45 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3-R (Charlie Luck/Jan Heylen) rounded out the top ten in Practice 2.
Rain and storms are expected to affect, potentially disrupt, tomorrow’s slate of Qualifying at 9:00 AM CDT (local time), and Race 1 which is scheduled to go green at 2:15 PM CDT.
Images © SRO Motorsports Group America
