GTWC America Sebring Thursday Notebook: Castro Fastest in TCR, Braun Focused on New Sebring Format

On-track action began Thursday for the GT World Challenge America weekend at Sebring, with three GT4 America sessions and three TC America sessions opening the festivities at the circuit. TC America held its two official practice sessions, along with qualifying for Friday’s Race 1, while GT4 America completed two test sessions and its late-afternoon Practice 1 session.
Andre Castro led Practice 1 for TC America, piloting the No. 77 Ricca Autosport Hyundai Elantra N1 TC EVO to a 2:22.804 lap on his fifth circuit. Castro’s teammate, Eric Kunz, placed second in the No. 33 entry with a 2:22.924 on Lap 7.
Braydon Arthur topped Practice 2 in the No. 4 JMF Motorsport Toyota GR Corolla TC with a 2:22.088 lap. Arthur’s teammate, Jesse Dorkin, earned the second-best time of the session in the No. 3 entry.
Frankie Muniz, driver of the No. 33 Reaume Bros. Racing Ford F-150 in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, is at Sebring this weekend competing in TechSport Racing’s No. 30 Ford Mustang GT4. The Truck Series is also racing at Watkins Glen on Friday, with the “Malcolm in the Middle” star prioritizing his GT4 commitments.
Andre Castro broke through the 2:21 barrier in qualifying to put the No. 77 Ricca Autosport Hyundai on pole for Friday’s TC America race. Castro’s teammate, Justin Gravett, will join him on the front row in the No. 8 entry.
Four full-season IMSA drivers will be on the grid this weekend in GT World Challenge America’s three-hour endurance race on Saturday. Robby Foley (Turner Motorsports, No. 29 BMW), Colin Braun (KellyMoss, No. 017 Porsche), Frederik Schandorff (AF Corse USA, No, 12 Ferrari), Aaron Telitz (Archangel Motorsports, No. 69 McLaren). All four drivers were at Laguna Seca last weekend.
Colin Braun continued his GT3 commitments with KellyMoss after spending time with the CrowdStrike Racing by Riley Mercedes-AMG effort.
Braun on his 2026 season so far: Yeah, it’s been great. I mean, these guys obviously, in kind of a way, are also the Riley team that I drove for many years with George Kurtz and that whole program with another OEM. A lot of the same people, right? So yeah, in many ways, it’s kind of just a different name to a lot of the same faces. But it’s been good. A new platform to kind of relearn, I think, from the Kelly Moss side and from my side on the driving. Obviously, I’ve driven the Porsche a handful of times, even since the time in 2017 when I last raced it for a full season. But it’s a great platform, and I’ve enjoyed kind of learning some different things about it. I would say, with the Mercedes, we had kind of maximized what we were going to do with that from a setup standpoint, from driving, from all those little kinds of things. It’s fun to have a new challenge and a new thing to learn, so it’s been good.
Outside of GT World Challenge America, Braun also competes in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in the No. 60 Acura ARX-06 for Meyer Shank Racing. Acura recently announced their departure from IMSA for the foreseeable future, making Braun a free-agent in 2027.
Braun shared his thoughts on his next plans for 2027: “Yeah, you know, I think obviously everyone’s trying to work on where they’re going, what’s going to happen, where the pieces are going to fall into place. I think it’ll be interesting in the next handful of months to see what kind of all shakes out. I mean, there are a lot of moving parts to all those discussions and conversations, and that’s always kind of how it’s been. But it’s something that is not new in this motorsports world. We’re all well aware that these are not, most of the time, 10-plus-year deals. It ebbs and flows that way, and you’ve got to kind of roll with the punches and find the next opportunity. So in a way, it’s a fun challenge to try to put together the next piece and what that looks like. And it’s a lot of fun. For myself, I’ve been fortunate enough to be a pro at this level for 20-plus years. I don’t want to say I’ve seen it all and done it all, but I’ve definitely been a part of these kinds of things before. Yeah, you just keep your head down, do your job, and in the end, usually it’ll work out.”
Entering the weekend, GT World Challenge America features a changed format from the 2025 edition of the race. The weekend has now been reduced to a one race, three-hour in length format for 2026 and will contest at 5pm ET, a later start time.
Braun commented on how the format changes adjust him and the team’s strategy, stating: “I wish I knew the answer to the strategy. We’ve had two races so far. We’ve tried two different strategies just to see what can work. Definitely a different format style with the single three-hour race versus last year’s twin races. Yeah, I don’t know. Obviously, the series had run so many races in that hour-and-a-half format, I feel like everyone kind of optimized the ways to structure those races. But with this being fairly new, I think people are still trying to understand what the best way is to maximize that format and how long you run each guy. The challenge is no one can predict when the yellow flags come. That’s the biggest kind of randomizer, I think, of the races. So yeah, it’s tough to really know. I think conventionally, everyone’s been sort of starting their Bronze driver, running those guys at the minimum time, getting them out, and putting the pros in. We kind of tried a different strategy last weekend in Austin just to mix it up. We’ve analyzed it, looked at it, and I don’t know if we’re ready to make our decision yet on how we’re going to do it. But a lot of it could depend on the heat and the temperature here, too. If it’s super warm, it can be a challenge to drive these cars for an hour, 15 minutes or an hour and 20 minutes when you’re not used to it every week like a lot of the Bronze guys are. So that might drive some of the strategy, to be honest, too.”
Practice 1 for GT4 America wrapped up the condensed day of on-track action for Thursday. It was the Silver class entry of Kevin Boehm and Francis Selldorff that set the fastest time of the day on board the No. 51 AutoTechnic Racing BMW M4 GT4 (G82) EVO with a lap time of 2:11.392. They were followed by the No. 028 RS1 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport of Spencer Pumpelly and Luca Mars, also representing the Silver class. The No. 52 Kellymoss Porsche of Tom Kopczynski and Eric Filgueiras led the way in the Pro-Am category, slotting into third overall, just ahead of the No. 38 BimmerWorld BMW of Michael Petramalo and Tyler McQuarrie. The top 5 overall was completed by Westin Workman and Tyler Gonzalez in the No. 68 RAFA Racing Team Toyota Gazoo Racing GR Supra GT4 EVO2.
Friday’s slate features a busy day of on-track action. GT4 America and TC America open race action for the weekend with their first events, while GT World Challenge America returns to the track for three test sessions along with its official night practice.