Sargent Leads The Way In Barber Practice 1

Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO

Tom Sargent topped the opening practice session of the GT World Challenge America powered by AWS weekend at Barber Motorsports Park after setting an insurmountable benchmark time early in Friday’s session.

Sargent shot to the top of the times on his sixth lap early in first practice in his Pro-Am class No. 32 GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R, reeling off a session-best time of 1:21.357 before eventually handing the car off to co-driver Kyle Washington.

Steady improvements during the hour-long session saw Mikael Grenier climb the order to finish just 0.034 seconds off of Sargent’s pace in the No. 34 JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo he shares with Michai Stephens.

The Mercedes-AMG factory driver set the fastest Pro class time of the session.

Third overall and second-quickest in Pro-Am was fellow factory ace Philip Ellis, who put his and Jeff Burton’s No. 91 Regulator Racing Mercedes-AMG just 0.247 seconds off of Sargent’s pace.

Jan Heylen was fourth fastest in the session and set the second-best Pro-Am time in the process in the No. 18 RS1 Porsche, just ahead of Aaron Telitz’s best effort in the Pro-Am-entered No. 88 Archangel Motorsports McLaren 720 GT3 Evo in fifth.

The Pro points-leading No. 99 Random Vandals Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Kenton Koch and Connor De Phillippi finished the session third fastest in class with the sixth overall best time, with stablemates Bill Auberlen and Varun Choksey just behind in seventh.

Ozz Negri topped the Am class times in the No. 163 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3, which was handed a mid-season stop-and-go penalty for a pit speed violation.

RS1, Heart of Racing, and the No. 16 Pro-Am AF Corse entry of Marcelo Hahn and Diego Gomes Nunes were also assessed stop-and-go penalties for pit lane speeding infringements.

Practice 1 ran without any major incidents or interruptions.

The second and final practice session is slated for Friday at 2:15 p.m. CST ahead of qualifying and Race 1 on Saturday.

RESULTS: Practice 1

Source: Sports Car 365