Pirelli GT4 America series Practice 1 and Practice 2 were held on Thursday, where two different Silver Cup class teams led the timing sheets in both sessions.
Practice 1 in the afternoon was led by the #34 Conquest Racing/JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT4 of Michai Stephens and Gavin Sanders. Stevens would record a best time of 1’30.358 early in a session held under cool, comfortable conditions and mostly sunny skies.
That time would be the quickest of the day from the team that enters the weekend a distant second in the Silver standings, needing two wins and two non-classified results from the #18 RS1 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport (Eric Filgueiras/Stevan McAleer) to overcome a 47 point deficit.
McAleer would finish with the fourth-fastest time in Practice 1, trailing the leading Pro-Am cars in the session – the #69 Smooge Racing Toyota GR Supra GT4 (Todd Coleman/Aaron Telitz) and the #52 AutoTechnic Racing BMW M4 GT4 (Tom Capizzi/John Capestro-Dubets) in second and third.
Toby Grahovec slotted right back into his #10 Fast Track Racing M4 with ease, going fifth-fastest overall. Sixth overall was the current Pro-Am points leaders, the #47 NOLASPORT Cayman RS (Scott Noble/Jason Hart), then the #8 Flying Lizard Motorsports Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 (Elias Sabo/Andy Lee).
The fastest Am Cup car in Practice 1 was the #53 AutoTechnic Racing M4 (Alex Filsinger/Rob Walker), in tenth overall. As for the #120 Premier Racing Cayman RS (Adam Adelson/Elliott Skeer), they finished 17th overall in Practice 1, and only 16th in Practice 2. They entered the weekend ten points behind Noble and Hart in the Pro-Am Drivers’ Championship.
In Practice 2, AutoTechnic Racing’s #51 M4 driven by Austen Smith and Zac Anderson went quickest. Anderson’s best lap was a 1’30.596, which was good enough to surpass the 1’30.739 set by the past Indy Lights prospect Telitz in the #69 Smooge Racing GR Supra in second.
The 45-minute session began at 5:30 in the evening. With 17 minutes left, the red flag was shown after Jaden Conwright crashed his #124 ARG/Rotek Racing Ford Mustang GT4 in turn 14. Conwright was not hurt, and the Mustang he shares with Edgar Lau suffered some cosmetic damage – but nothing serious enough to end their weekend on sight.
Behind Anderson and Telitz, Capestro-Dubets was third-quickest in the #52 AutoTechnic M4, then McAleer, then the #50 Chouest Povoledo Racing Vantage GT4 (Ross Chouest/Aaron Povoledo) in fifth ahead of Hart in the #47 NOLASPORT Cayman RS.
Fastest in the Am class was the one-time IndyCar aspirant Paulo Carcasci in the #35 Conquest Racing AMG GT4, seventh-fastest overall. The #53 AutoTechnic M4 was eighth to put all of the Connecticut-based team’s cars in the top eight, followed by the #8 Flying Lizard Vantage GT4, and the #71 GMG Racing Cayman RS (Jay Logan/Alex Premat).
Series newcomers ACI Motorsports finished Practice 2 in 20th with the #7 Porsche Cayman RS of Curt Swearingin and new Porsche Carrera Cup North America Champion, Parker Thompson.
GT4 America begins Friday morning at 9:45 AM EDT.
Images © SRO Motorsports Group America
