For the second straight round, the white, red, and black #34 JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO of Michai Stephens and Mikaël Grenier will start up front in GT World Challenge America powered by AWS. As they did in Sonoma, Stephens and Grenier won the pole at Circuit of the Americas for the main event of this weekend’s GT World Texas event.
The two drivers of the #34 Mercedes led their respective legs of Qualifying: Stephens, in Q1, set the pace with a 2:04.360, while Mercedes-AMG Performance Driver Grenier, in Q2, clinched pole position with his 2:03.563. The combined average of 2:03.961 puts them on the pole by half a second.
The #21 AF Corse USA Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo of Matias Perez Companc and Frederik Schandorff will start on the outside of the front row after qualifying second.
Behind them, the rest of the five-car Pro class field locked out the top five starting spots: The #29 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO (Justin Rothberg/Robby Foley) was third, followed by the #6 Dollahite Racing Ford Mustang GT3 (Cameron Lawrence/Alex Sedgwick), and the #8 McCann Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R (Michael McCann Jnr/Zachary Vanier).
And JMF Motorsports took a double pole position at COTA after the Pro-Am #27 Mercedes-AMG of Jason Daskalos and Lorcan Hanafin qualified sixth place overall, ahead of the other Pro-Am contenders. Daskalos was the fastest Am driver during the Q1 session, establishing a good foundation for co-driver Hanafin in Q2.
The #32 GMG Racing Porsche (Kyle Washington/Tom Sargent) will line up seventh on the grid, and second amongst the Pro-Am class – Sargent set the second-fastest time of all in Q2.
In eighth was the #28 RS1 Porsche (JP Martinez/Jan Heylen), followed by the #31 Wright Motorsports Porsche (Dave Musial Jnr/Ryan Yardley) in ninth, and the #9 TR3 Racing Mercedes-AMG (Brayton Williams/Daniel Morad), in tenth. This weekend marks Morad’s return to the series for TR3 Racing.
In its first race of the season, the #18 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari (Stephen Mascaro/Riccardo Agostini) will start 12th. Neither the #71 Rebel Rock Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo (Frank DePew/Robin Liddell) or the #11 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG (Jason Golan/Marc Austin) completed a lap in both legs of Qualifying and will start from the rear of the 21-car field.
Images © SRO Motorsports Group
