On Friday afternoon, K-PAX Racing’s Àlvaro Parente claimed the overall pole for the first Pirelli World Challenge GT race of the weekend at Mid-Ohio. Parente posted a time of 79.748 seconds (101.931 mph) on his final lap of the session to snatch pole away from Cadillac Racing’s Michael Cooper.
Afterwards, Parente was pleased, but knew that it was not easy.
“It was definitely a very tough qualifying session,” Parente said afterwards. “I thought when I did the 1:20.000 that it would have been pole, that we could have held off for the seven minutes. But, it wasn’t the case. We came in, lowered [tire] pressures, did a little bit of a different strategy, went back out and the car was working well on the track.
Cooper was just under a tenth of a second slower in the No. 8 Cadillac. Johnny O’Connell was another tenth of a second further back in third. R. Ferri Motorsports’ Kyle Marcelli will start fourth, while Wright Motorsports’ Patrick Long will start fifth.
In GTA, Wright Motorsports’ Michael Schein qualified 14th overall, just over two seconds off of Parente’s pole time. However, Schein’s lap of 81.768 seconds (99.413 mph) was good enough to claim the GTA pole.
Schein was just a little more than a tenth of a second faster than GMG Racing’s James Sofronas in second. Champ 1’s Pablo Perez Companc will start third in GTA in his No. 69 Mercedes, followed by Black Swan Racing’s Tim Pappas. Magnus Racing’s John Potter will start fifth in GTA. In GT Cup, Yuki Harata claimed the pole in the Dream Racing Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo.
Race No. 1 for the GT, GTA and GT Cup classes is scheduled for 4:45 p.m. on Saturday afternoon. The race will be streamed live at both World-Challenge.com and on Motor Trend OnDemand.
About the author
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.
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