SRO America is back from its summer vacation. Cars were back on track Friday to kick off the GT World Road America weekend in earnest. Here are some of the highlights from a busy Friday.
TC America
As custom with the SRO weekend, TC America kicks off the racing proceedings. A couple of interesting developments came to light for Race 1. Firstly, GT World Challenge America co-points leader Michai Stephens got an eleventh-hour call-up replacing Jesse Dorkin in the No. 3 JMF Corolla. Secondly, Dean Landros of Skip Barber Racing is sitting out this weekend and will return at Barber next month.
Stop me if you heard this before…Brayden Arthur dominated this race winning from pole. The aforementioned Stephens qualified second, but fell back early. He eventually fought back to finish fourth. Shelby Mills and Eric Kunz collided in Turn 1. Kunz lost his bumper and Mills would get a drive-through penalty for the incident. Matan Rosenburg was second most of the race leading the Ricca Autosport Hyundai squad. But with ten minutes to go, mechanical issues took him out of contention. The race ended under yellow as the single Skip Barber Racing Acura for Logan Anderson came to a stop in the racing line at Turn 6.
Arthur’s sixth win of the season puts him tied in points with Andre Castro, who finished third. Justin Gravett would finish second in his Ricca Autosport Hyundai.
Pirelli GT4 America
Michael Cooper becomes the winningest driver in SRO America history. Cooper in the Blackdog McLaren take Pro-Am and overall honors in Friday’s Race 1 of the weekend for Pirelli GT4 America by six seconds. For Cooper and teammate Tony Gaples, this is the pairing’s third straight Pro-Am win. The win puts them third in points behind Kenton Koch, who is missing this weekend due to the pending birth of his child.
Riley Dickinson and Kellymoss started the hour-long race from pole. An early yellow was deployed when the Bryan Herta Autosport McLaren of Alessandro Chioccetti suffered a hard crash out of the Kink. Cleaning up the debris would keep the race slowed for fifteen minutes. On the restart, as the pit window opened for the mandatory pit stop, most of the field followed the safety car on to pit road.
In Silver, Luca Mars chased down Tyler Gonzalez from five seconds back to make a bonzai move exiting Turn 6 on the penultimate lap to score the class win. For Mars and Spencer Pumpelly, this makes six consecutive wins for the RS1 Porsche and extending their points lead over Gonzalez and Westin Workman at RAFA Racing.
While one Tyler lost out late, another Tyler came up big. Tyler Stone made the winning pass in Am with five minutes to go entering Turn 1. Stone would hold off Zach Lumsden to score victory for he and Frankie Muniz. For the TechSport Racing Ford Mustang, this is their first win of the season.
GTWC America
After a pair of test sessions on Friday morning, times were recorded for real on Friday evening for Free Practice 1. Tom Sargeant lead the way with a 2:04.646 in his No. 32 GMG Porsche. Following the Aussie was Daniel Morad in the TR3 Mercedes, just a tenth behind. Loek Hartog round out the Top 3 with a 2:05.091 in his No. 88 Kellymoss Porsche.
The session did not go fully clean as the No. 27 JMF Mercedes crashed, causing a red flag. By the rule book, the car loses its two fastest laps in the session.
Miguel Molina for AF Corse and Ferrari was fastest in the Pro class with his 2:05.813, only good for sixth overall. Lastly, Benny Simonsen topped the Am class in twenty-second with a 2:07.340.
Featured Photo: Cars getting up to speed during the Friday morning test session Photo Courtesy: Fabian Lagunas/SRO Motorsports Group
