Two days down of a busy schedule of on-track action at Circuit of the Americas for CieloVision GT World Texas. Here is the GT REPORT notebook of the weekend so far.

Friday

GT World Challenge America

GT World Challenge America held a private general testing session and private bronze-only session on Friday morning. On Friday afternoon, the cars took to the track for Free Practice 1. JMF Motorsports picked up right where they left off at Sonoma – on top. Mikael Grenier turned a lap of 2:04.678 to top the session. Loek Hartog, second overall in the session, was the fastest Pro-Am entry in his Kellymoss Porsche – a quarter second behind Grenier. Turner (Robby Foley), AF Corse USA (Frederick Schandorff) and Archangel Motorsports (Aaron Telitz) rounded out the Top 5. Oswaldo Negri topped the Am class for AF Corse USA in 16th overall.

TC America

The lone race on Friday was Round 3 of the young TC America season. Braydon Arthur started on Pole, but lost the lead in Turn 1 to the Skip Barber Racing Acura on Dean Lambros. Arthur would fall down as far as fourth, but the Canadian would not stay there long. One by one, Arthur picked off the men in front of him. He finished his comeback taking the lead after a spirited battle with Lambros just shy of halfway.

Arthur pulled away and did not look back taking the race win by three and a half seconds over Lambros with Andre Castro rounding out the podium. The race was slowed by a full course yellow and there was some drama on the penultimate lap of the race. PJ Groenke attacked the curb at the exit of Turn 19 too hard, causing his suspension to collapse. The Ricca Autosport Hyundai was forced to retire a lap early. One final note on Castro was he scored the fastest lap of the race, placing him on pole for Saturday’s Race 2.

Saturday

TC America

Race 2 of the weekend for TC America kicked off a busy Saturday slate. Andre Castro started on pole, however it did not take long for  Braydon Arthur to mix it up the Ricca Autosport driver. By Turn 12, Arthur (who started on outside of Row 1) was alongside Castro. Their battle opened the door for Dean Lambros to make it a three-way fight. Lambros emerged to lead Lap 1, but Arthur was back up front after going inside the Acura at Turn 1 to start Lap 2.

Arthur would not be challenged for the remaining of the 35-minute race. The JMF Motorsports Toyota, wrapped in purple with sponsorship from weekend title partner CieloVision, takes the win by three seconds. In a mirror of Friday, Lambros finished second and Castro in third. After sweeping the weekend, Arthur leaves COTA with a 20 point lead in the drivers standings.

Toyota GR Cup North America

Coming into COTA, the question was could anyone top series leader Spike Kohlbecker after his sweep in Sonoma. Jeremy Fletcher scored pole Saturday morning in Qualifying for Race 1. Fletcher clears the field into Turn 1 and pulls a gap until Liam Harrison suffers mechanical issues. Harrison stops on course and brings out a full course yellow. Once the race restarts, Fletcher holds off BSI’s Ethan Ayers and Tech Sport’s Spike Kohlbecker and maintains his advantage.

The deciding moment of the race comes when Max Schweid suffers mechanical problems pulling off at the exit of Turn 16. The stationary #98 GR86 Cup car caused a full course yellow which would not see the race resume. Under yellow, Fletcher rebounds from a rough Sonoma weekend to score his second win of the season. Championship leader Kohlbecker finishes second with Ethan Ayers third.

Finally, a weird incident where after the finish fifth place finisher Beltre Curtis ran into the back of fourth place finisher Ethan Goulart. The resulting collision sent Goulart crashing into the pit wall with damage to his Toyota. The incident appeared to be a knock-on effect of some theatrics from Will Robusto who was hoping to minimalize a time penalty that was added on to his race time. The time penalty relegated Robusto to a ninth-place finish.

GT America

Perhaps the wildest finish of the day came in Race 1 of GT America. Tony Davis started on pole and held off an early challenge from Memo Gidley. It looked as if Davis would hold off Gidley and score his first GT America win. But Gidley, in a near carbon copy of his Lap 1 move, would challenge Davis going into Turn 12 on the final lap and this time the Californian prevailed. Gidley and the SKI Motorsports Audi team start the season three-for-three in GT America. Davis ends up second with Ross Chouest inheriting third. Scott Blind who was third on the road was relegated to fourth due to a time penalty. David Lecko takes Cup class honors while Jozsef Petkes top the GT4 class.

Pirelli GT4 America

Speaking of GT4, rounding out the day was the Lone Star Enduro three-hour race for Pirelli GT4 America. Westin Workman scored the pole for RAFA Racing in their Toyota Supra. Workman lead the field from green over Francis Selldorff early. Workman and teammate Tyler Gonzalez would go on to dominate the first half of the race. However, the RAFA Racing team would hit trouble past halfway. The car was having transponder issues so the officials held the car on its second stop until the problem was resolved. This technical glitch (along with damage suffered later) took them out of contention.

A late-race full course yellow with a little over thirty minutes remaining would set up a shootout. Spencer Pumpelly controlled the field in his RS1 Porsche leading a six-car breakaway pack. Fireworks erupt with nine minutes to go in the esses. Kevin Boehm sent it late inside of Pumpelly to gain the lead. Kenton Koch in the Random Vandals BMW saw the open door and seized second. While trying to regain momentum, Pumpelly collides with the Dome Motorsports Mercedes of Marc Miller causing him damage and taking him out the race.

Meanwhile, Boehm’s lead ended up being short lived. Koch passed Boehm for the lead at Turn 11 for good. Koch, in the Pro-Am class entry sharing with Sam Craven, scores the overall victory. Boehm and Selldorff finished second on the road but relegated to third after a time penalty for track limits. Despite the penalty, the Auto Technic BMW team scored Silver class victory. Inheriting second overall is the NOLASPORT Porsche of Mathieus Leist and Matt Travis. Finally, BMW completes a sweep with the Bimmerworld team of James Clay and James Walker topping the Am class.

GT World Challenge America

In between all the races were the second and third free practice sessions for GT World Challenge America. Michai Stephens turned the fastest lap of the weekend so far in his JMF Mercedes leading FP2 with a 2:03.908. Behind Stephens, Daniel Morad and Lorcan Hanafin made it a Mercedes 1-2-3 at the top of the charts. Morad in second was the best Pro-Am entry in the session. Hampus Ericsson (Random Vandals) and Tom Sargeant (GMG Racing) round out the Top 5 in the session.

FP3 saw a car not a Mercedes top the timetable. Ricardo Agostini in the #18 Triarsi Competitizione Ferrari lapped COTA with a 2:05.219 to go fastest in the final practice. Thomas Merrill logged the second fastest lap in the Wright Motorsport Porsche with Frederik Schandorff third fastest in the AF Corse USA Ferrari, fastest in the Pro class. Sargeant and Stephens rounds out the top 5.

Join us tomorrow for GT World Challenge America Qualifying & Race Reports along with our final notebook from the rest of the SRO America weekend.

Featured Photo: The Archangel Motorsports McLaren in the GT World Challenge Paddock Area Photo Courtesy: Fabian Lagunas/SRO Motorsports Group