DXDT Racing’s Alec Udell and Turner Motorsport’s Robby Foley cut up the pole positions for Race 1 and Race 2 of GT World Problem America at Street America – with Udell beginning up entrance at the moment, and Foley beginning up entrance tomorrow with a brand new course document.
Ellis has been the maestro of Race 1 qualifying periods this 12 months and continued as such on a cloudy Saturday morning. Invoice Auberlen and Luca Mars put up respectable benchmark instances on their first laps, however the Anglo-Swiss driver of the #91 Mercedes-AMG GT3 would crush these markers.
Ellis posted a 2:03.976, breaking final 12 months’s course document and standing because the pole-winning time by seven-tenths of a second on the finish.
This could have been Ellis’ fourth straight general pole place in Race 1s this 12 months – however after Qualifying, the #91 Mercedes-AMG was discovered to be beneath the minimal journey peak as dictated by the SRO Steadiness of Efficiency.
The #91 Mercedes was due to this fact moved to the again of the grid for each races (Jeff Burton had already certified fifteenth out of 15 automobiles for Race 2).
Alec Udell continued his robust type, going second-fastest within the #63 DXDT Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R – which then turned outright pole place for the #63 Corvette, with a time of two:04.690.
Second place went to the #28 ST Racing BMW M4 GT3 of Auberlen, simply forward of the #93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3 of Mars in third.
Madison Snow was fourth-fastest within the new #99 Random Vandals Racing BMW, forward of Professional class championship chief Adam Adelson within the #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R.
The primary Am class pole place of 2024 went to Will Hardeman, in a powerful sixth aboard the #19 Esses Racing Mercedes – and just some hundredths up on the Professional-Am class #08 DXDT Racing Corvette of debutant Bryson Morris in seventh.
Professional-Am title rivals, Samantha Tan in her #38 ST Racing BMW and Justin Rothberg within the #29 Turner Motorsport BMW, had been eighth and ninth – and Jake Pedersen was tenth within the #85 RS1 Porsche.
QUALIFYING 1 RESULTS (UPDATED) >>
After a five-minute interlude, Qualifying 2 obtained underway with numerous drivers setting very aggressive benchmark instances.
A type of drivers was Robby Foley, coming off a category win within the IMSA SportsCar Traditional at Street America just some weeks in the past. Foley took the provisional pole for Sunday’s race with a 2:04.388 however discovered extra pace on his second lap.
The tip end result was one other new course document: A 2:03.762 from Foley which gave Turner Motorsport its first pole of the 2024 season, and an enormous enhance for his or her long-shot championship hopes in Professional-Am.
Within the remaining minutes, the #63 DXDT Racing Corvette secured one other front-row begin – this time, a late flyer from Tommy Milner put him second on the grid. That’s their fifth Professional class pole in six races.
Milner edged out the #120 Wright Porsche of Elliott Skeer by simply three milliseconds – Skeer will begin third tomorrow, forward of the spectacular Tom Sargent, who was fourth within the #32 GMG Racing Porsche.
Regardless of a late spin popping out of flip seven into flip eight, Bryan Sellers was nonetheless fifth-fastest within the #08 DXDT Racing Corvette, forward of Neil Verhagen within the #38 ST Racing BMW and Zach Veach within the #93 Racers Edge Acura.
At 60 years younger, Oswaldo Negri Jnr certified eighth general and took the #163 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3’s first Am class pole of the 12 months. Negri was solely a second off the pole time of Foley – a fantastic end result from the 2012 Daytona 24 Hours winner!
Rounding out the highest ten from Qualifying 2 was the #99 Random Vandals BMW of Kenton Koch, and one other new automobile this weekend, the #92 MMG Porsche of Kyle Marcelli, again after a nerve challenge in his arm stored him from racing in Street America two weeks in the past.
The brand new #8 Flying Lizard Motorsports BMW (Elias Sabo/Andy Lee) certified twelfth for Race 1 and thirteenth for Race 2.
QUALIFYING 2 RESULTS >>
However despite the efforts of Chouest Povoledo Racing’s crew of mechanics, the #50 Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Ross Chouest and Aaron Povoledo has withdrawn from the rest of the weekend utterly. The staff’s backup automobile – meant to be raced in GT America, suffered an engine defect extreme sufficient to guide the staff to withdraw – after the first automobile crashed in observe yesterday.
It will depart simply 15 automobiles for the rest of the weekend together with at the moment’s first 90-minute race which begins at 3:00 PM CDT (native time).
Photos © Fabian Lagunas / SRO Motorsports America
