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Photo: Dan Bathie/McLaren Tommy Pintos and Spencer Schmidt claimed a sweep of the season-opening McLaren Trophy America weekend at Sonoma Raceway, doubling up following their last-gasp victory on Saturday. Pintos and Schmidt claimed a more straightforward flag-to-flag victory in Sunday’s 50-minute contest in their No. 11 RWE Motorsport McLaren Artura Trophy EVO entry. Having started on pole, McLaren GT3 Junior driver Pintos held command over the No. 5 GMG Racing entry Jeff Cook. The top five cars, all with their pro drivers, waited until the end of the pit stop window to make their mandatory stops, which saw Schmidt emerge as the leader over the No. 53 RPM by Forte McLaren of Neil Langberg. Schmidt drove to a 15.078-second win over the Pro class-winning No. 8 Forte Racing McLaren of Kaia Teo and Paul Holton, who made an impressive late-race charge. Holton passed the sister No. 24 Forte McLaren of Tanner Harvey for the class win with three minutes to go after an intense battle b...

Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO JMF Motorsports will start the new era of GT World Challenge America powered by AWS on pole, with Michai Stephens and Mikael Grenier teaming up for the best average in qualifying for this afternoon’s three-hour season opener. Stephens and Grenier, in the No. 34 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, combined for a best average of 1:33.352 lap time, ending up 0.689 seconds clear of the No. 6 Dollahite Racing Ford Mustang GT3 EVO of Alex Sedgwick and Cameron Lawrence. Both Stephens and Grenier topped their respective time charts in Q1 and Q2, although Tom Sargent, in the No. 32 GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R, set the session’s overall quickest time, a 1:32.673. The Porsche Motorsport North America Selected Driver, however, qualified a combined eighth in Pro-Am with co-driver Kyle Washington. Lorcan Hanafin and Jason Daskalos gave JMF a double pole, having qualified third overall in their Pro-Am class Mercedes-AMG, ahead of the No. 12 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo of Matia Pe...

Photo: Dan Bathie/McLaren McLaren is looking to focus on quality over quantity as it continues to expand the grid of its Trophy America singe-make series according to Giorgio Sanna. Sanna, the recently appointed head of motorsport for McLaren Automotive, is overseeing the growth of the British manufacturer’s GT racing programs after previously helping transforming Lamborghini into one of the leading customer racing options worldwide. A total of 16 McLaren Artura Trophy EVO cars are set for this weekend’s pair of season opening races at Sonoma Raceway, which kicks off the second season of racing in North America. The grid was set to feature two additional cars, under the Hooper Street Racing by OMS banner, but were both forced to withdraw after Bob Stoddard sustained an injury in a pre-season testing accident. “We were targeting to have 18 cars for the first round,” Sanna told Sportscar365. “Unfortunately we lost three cars during the pre season test last week; that’s a big shame...

Photo: Andrew Miterko/SRO Memo Gidley will start this evening’s GT America powered by AWS season opener from the pole after claiming top qualifying honors for Race 1 at Sonoma Raceway. The SKI Autosports driver stormed to a best lap of 1:35.802 in his Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II, outpacing late-session challenges from Marc Muzzo, Tony Davis and Joel Cortes. Muzzo, in the R. Ferri Motorsport Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo, will start second, setting a time that was just 0.006 seconds slower than Gidley. Davis in his HP-TECH Motorsport Prancing Horse, will start third, with Cortes’ RS1 Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo set to line up fourth. Ross Chouest completed the top-five aboard his Chouest Povoledo Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, ahead of Porsches from Dave Musial Sr (Wright Motorsports) and Scott Blind (Ruckus Racing), respectively. David Lecko claimed Cup class pole honors in his RacingSupport Ginetta GTP8, have set a time that was some ten seconds quicker than the only other car in the class, ...

Photo: Fred Hardy/RAFA Racing Team Toyota GR Cup North America has been a “huge propellant” of the brand’s driver development system, which has been taken to new heights this year according to TRD customer racing manager Mike Norem. The single-make series, now in its fourth season, has seen all three previous champions move up Toyota’s sports car racing ladder, into GR Supra GT4 EVO2 machinery. Inaugural series champion Tyler Gonzalez teamed up with 2024 title winner Gresham Wagner in last year’s Pirelli GT4 America campaign, where they finished runner-up in the Silver class following multiple wins. Gonzalez is now paired with 2025 champion Westin Workman in RAFA Racing Team’s Supra GT4 EVO2 this year, with Workman also combining his first season of GT4 America with a campaign in IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge. The pair kicked off their GT4 America season with overall victory in Friday’s opening round at Sonoma Raceway (pictured above). Karl Forman, meanwhile, is also comp...

Photo: Dan Bathie/McLaren Paul Holton continued his impressive form in McLaren Trophy America, having claimed overall pole for this afternoon’s opening round of the season by more than 1.5 seconds. Tommy Pintos, meanwhile, will start first for Sunday’s 50-minute contest, having set the quickest lap overall across the two sessions. Holton, making his series debut in the No. 8 Forte Racing McLaren Artura Trophy EVO, reeled off a chart-topping 1:37.734 in Q1. It was some 1.540 seconds quicker than the Pro-Am class pole-sitting No. 11 RWE Motorsport McLaren of Scott Schmidt, who was second quickest overall. James Li qualified third in the sister No. 74 RWE entry, while Coper Broll took Am class pole honors in the No. 100 Forte McLaren with a fourth place overall run. Keegan Massey completed the overall top five and was the best-placed Papaya Cup entrant. Q2 saw times tumble at the top of the charts, with Pintos recording a 1:36.671 lap in his Forte entry, which was 0.132 seconds q...

Photo: Fred Hardy/SRO The No. 131 Advance Motorsports McLaren Artura GT4 has lost its overall pole for this afternoon’s Pirelli GT4 America season opener at Sonoma Raceway. Communicated by SRO America to Sportscar365 as the cars rolled off the grid for the race, the Jonathan Neudorf-driven car has been moved to the rear of the Silver class due to not having a correctly sealed SD card in the data logger, which did not function correctly. It has given the No. 67 RAFA Racing Team Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2 of Westin Workman the pole for this afternoon’s race. Source: Sports Car 365