It was a very glum and rainy Thursday at Road America, the site of this weekend’s SRO America events headlined by GT World Challenge America.
Today was meant to be headlined by the annual Road America GT Parade into downtown Elkhart Lake. But instead, the weather forced activities to be scaled back to a smaller autograph signing/meet-and-greet inside Siebkens Resort.
Still, through all the rain, there was still some things to discuss leading into the weekend’s action – and Friday’s State of the Series address with Stephane Ratel and Greg Gill.
Sargent leads preliminary tests
GMG Racing’s Tom Sargent led Test Session 1 on Thursday morning, setting a best lap of 2:17.873 aboard the #32 Porsche 911 GT3 R. Varun Choksey was second in the #28 ST Racing BMW M4 GT3, and the new #8 Flying Lizard Motorsports BMW M4 GT3 went third-fastest courtesy of Andy Lee.
All GT3 cars from GT World Challenge America, plus the GT America series, tested together. Tim Savage had an accident in his #007 ProSport Competition Aston Martin Vantage GT3 that brought out a red flag.
Only two cars completed a lap at speed in the second session, under much heavier rain. Aaron Povoledo set the fastest time in that session driving the #50 Chouest Povoledo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3.
David Peterman crashed his #52 NOLASPORT Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 during the second combined GT4 test session. Both Peterman and Savage walked away from their respective crashes.
Sabo explains his new choice of manufacturer
DSC arrived at Road America just as the new Flying Lizard Motorsports BMW took to the track for the first time in that opening test.
Elias Sabo has already given his reasons for switching from his previous Aston Martin Vantage GT3s. Instead, we posed him a new question: With all the choice of manufacturers in the GT3 space – why BMW?
Sabo explained: “You start to notice what cars are doing well. The Porsches, the Mercedes – and then we looked at the BMW, and we thought it was the best in all conditions.
“We’ve seen Samantha (Tan) and (Neil) Verhagen have success with it. We’ve seen (Justin) Rothberg and (Robby) Foley have success with it too. And of course (Bill) Auberlen, he’s a machine.
“When I got done with the first test, I was immediately impressed!
“It’s very balanced through the corners. The torque and acceleration is incredible – and you can be so aggressive on the throttle. There’s also some driver comforts that you wouldn’t even think of, like having a hand clutch.”
Confidence is high despite the lack of dry-weather running today, but given that the team was able to get significant testing time after getting the car on such short notice, any solid result this weekend would be a boost for Sabo and Lee.
Andy Lee on double-duty
Speaking of Lee, he’s been called in to drive the #5 Flying Lizard Motorsports Nissan Z NISMO GT4 this weekend, replacing Rodrigo Baptista due to an undisclosed scheduling conflict.
Lee will join Kenton Koch in pulling double-duty in GT3 and GT4 machinery this weekend.
Fresher faces on the grid
It’s been a while since RJ went to the opening round in Sonoma – and new cars have popped up since then.
The two DXDT Racing Chevrolet Corvettes have done fairly well this year – in particular the #63 of Alec Udell and Tommy Milner which has won four races in a row in the Pro class.
Bryson Morris, recommended to DXDT by his manager – longtime Krohn Racing mainstay Nic Jönsson – has settled into the team very well during testing and will hope to boost the form of the #08 Corvette co-driven by Bryan Sellers.
Morris plans to compete as a ‘derogated’ Bronze driver this weekend, with the provisional approval from SRO America and the Stewards – this would keep the #08 Corvette in Pro-Am. This driver rating can change prior to the start of Race 1 on Saturday.
RS1’s Porsche 911 GT3 R swept both races at Sebring earlier this year, and has alternated between Pro and Pro-Am classes this year.
Jake Pedersen is a young man of many trades – a Porsche North America Junior Driver, an avid musician and artist – he designed the livery of this #85 Porsche which he shares with Trent Hindman.
The other new BMW making its first appearance of 2024, the #99 Random Vandals Racing M4 GT3 with Kenton Koch and super-sub Madison Snow.
MMG (Montreal Motorsport Group)’s #92 Porsche driven by two people who first crossed paths 12 years ago in Porsche GT3 Cup Canada: Jean-Frederic Laberge, who won that year’s Platinum class title, and Kyle Marcelli.
Marcelli, now a GT World Challenge America Champion, will guide Laberge along his first starts in the series.
AF Corse is back with a black Ferrari 296 GT3 this time, the #163 driven by Jay Schreibman and Oswaldo Negri Jnr.
Negri has now aged into being a Bronze driver at 60, and he’s never raced in GT World Challenge America (or its predecessors) prior to this weekend. He and his co-driver Schreibman last raced together in the International GT Open finale at Catalunya.
More to come following a busy Friday!
Images © RJ O’Connell / Dailysportscar.com
