Craft-Bamboo Quickest in Qualifying; GT4 Grid Set

Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO

The No. 99 Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Jules Gounon, Maro Engel and Luca Stolz combined to set the quickest time in qualifying for the Indianapolis 8 Hour presented by AWS, putting the car in prime position heading into this afternoon’s Pole Shootout.

The three drivers combined for a best average of 1:34.444, outpacing the No. 37 Team WRT Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo trio of Robin Frijns, Nico Mueller and Mattia Drudi by 0.118 seconds.

The No. 3 K-PAX Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo set the third quickest average time followed by the No. 71 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 and No. 25 Sainteloc Racing Audi, which completed the top-five.

Crucial Motorsports’ McLaren 720S GT3 was sixth, followed by the No. 32 WRT Audi in seventh and the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari in eighth.

Pre-Qualifying pace-setters AKKA-ASP was ninth with its Mercedes, with Winward Racing’s Mercedes completing the top-ten and quickest of the Silver Cup entries.

Other cars to advance to the Pole Shootout included Sainteloc’s Silver Cup Audi, the No. 6 K-PAX Lamborghini, No. 93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3 Evo, No. 75 SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes and No. 20 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R.

The SunEnergy1 entry, featuring Kenny Habul, Mikael Grenier and Martin Konrad, was the only Pro-Am entry to advance.

The No. 77 Compass Racing Acura was the first car to miss out on the Pole Shootout and will start 16th on the grid, followed by the No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren and No. 19 DXDT Racing Mercedes.

GT4 class pole honors went to the No. 68 Smooge Racing Toyota GR Supra GT4 of Jack Hawksworth, Kevin Conway and John Geesbreght, thanks to a 1:43.069 average.

It edged out the No. 2 GMG Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4 by 0.446 seconds, with the No. 36 BimmerWorld BMW M4 GT4 set to start third in class.

Pole Shootout is set to get underway at 4:20 p.m. ET and will be streamed live on SRO’s GT World YouTube page.

RESULTS: Qualifying

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John