Baptista Leads GT World Challenge America, GT Sports Club America Practice at Road America

Baptista Leads GT World Challenge America, GT Sports Club America Practice at Road America

Elkhart Lake, WI - With Friday morning's GT World Challenge America powered by AWS and GT Sports Club America practice session essentially washed out because of rain, competitors eagerly took to the 4.048-mile, 14-turn Road America circuit Friday afternoon for the second and final practice session of the weekend. Squadra Corse Ferrari driver Rodrigo Baptista set the fastest time of the session. 

The 60-minute session was held under dry conditions. Thirteen minutes in, DXDT Racing's Colin Braun posted the early fast time of a 2:07.803 behind the wheel of the #04 Mercedes-AMG GT3. His DXDT Racing teammate Ryan Dalziel in the #63 Mercedes-AMG GT3 sat second on the charts early on with a 2:07.826. A few laps later Braun went faster to a 2:07.516. Then with under 18 minutes remaining in the session, Baptista in the #1 Squadra Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 jumped to the top with a 2:07.246. The top two times held for the remainder of the session. 

Then with under three minutes remaining in the session, Winward Racing's Indy Dontje behind the wheel of the #33 Mercedes-AMG GT3 posted the third fastest time of the session, and tops in the Silver division with a 2:07.663. Am division competitor Max Root in the #20 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R (991.II) posted the sixth fastest overall time with a 2:08.849.

Mark Issa in the #31 TR3 Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 posted the fastest GT Sports Club America overall time of the session with a 2:11.659. 311RS Motorsport's Ryan Gates posted the fastest GT2 Sports Club time in his #311 Porsche 911 GT2 RS CS Gates 2:12.940.

On-track action continues Saturday morning at 8:45 am local time for GT World Challenge America qualifying and then at 10:45 am for GT Sports Club qualifying. Saturday afternoon's 90-minute Round 7 race (Round 5 for GT Sports Club), scheduled to go green at 1:45pm local time. The race and qualifying will be streamed live on youtube.com/GTWorld.

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PROVISIONAL RESULTS - PDF Link