PFAFF Motorsports’ Kyle Marcelli was fastest overall in the sole GTS SprintX practice session Friday afternoon (May 25) at Lime Rock Park. Marcelli turned in a lap of 55.043 seconds (96.405 mph), a mere two-hundredths of a second faster than GMG Racing’s Colin Braun in the Crowdstrike Audi R8 LMS GT4s.
GMG Racing owner/driver James Sofronas was third fastest in Pro-Am, followed by the Murillo Racing Mercedes of Matthew Fassnacht and Christian Szymczak. The Case-It Racing by Flying Lizard Audi of Ryan Eversley was fifth quickest.
The Am class was led by Mühlner Motorsports America’s Moritz Kranz in the No. 21 Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport MR. Kranz’s best lap was 55.051 seconds (96.391 mph), just eight-thousandths of a second slower than Marcelli and good for second overall.
Kranz’s lap was three-tenths of a second faster than MarcoPolo Motorsports’ Nicolai Elghanayan in the sole KTM X-Bow GT4 in the field. Running both GTS SprintX and the TC class appeared to give Elghanayan some extra pace simply because of the extra track time.
Team Panoz Racing’s Dr. Preston Calvert was third fastest, ninth overall in his Panoz Avezzano GT4. The Epic Motorsports BMW of Randy Mueller and Michael Camus was fourth, while Ian Lacy Racing’s Drew Staveley rounded out the top five.
The session was halted approximately halfway through due to a crash for Racers Edge Motorsports’ Harry Gottsacker in Turn 4. Gottsacker’s SIN R1 GT4 appeared to lose his left front wheel before going off at Turn 4 and nosing into the tire barrier. Gottsacker was ok, but the SIN R1 was hurt significantly. For causing the red flag, Gottsacker lost his fastest lap of the session and ended 29th quickest.
A number of notables were further down the order on Friday. Am points leader Aurora Straus and her teammate Jon Miller were 14th quickest. Blackdog Speed Shop’s Lawson Aschenbach and Andy Pilgrim were mired down in 18th. Compass Racing’s Ray Mason and Paul Holton were 19th, while Robinson Racing’s Shane Lewis and Gar Robinson were 25th.
PIRELLI WORLD CHALLENGE GRAND PRIX OF LIME ROCK POWERED BY M GTS SPRINTX PRACTICE NO. 1 RESULTS
GTS SprintX teams have one more practice session bright and early at 9:50 a.m. ET Saturday morning. Qualifying is scheduled for 2:25 p.m. Saturday afternoon.
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.