Ellis, Verhagen Claim Sebring Poles

Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO

Philip Ellis and Neil Verhagen have scored pole positions for this weekend’s pair of Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS races at Sebring International Raceway.

Ellis qualified the Pro-Am class Regulator Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo on overall pole for Race 1, storming to a new track qualifying record of 1:59.217.

It was eight-tenths quicker than Spencer Pumpelly, who grabbed Pro class pole honors for the first 90-minute race of the weekend in the No. 85 RS1 Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Racers Edge Motorsports driver Luca Mars qualified second in Pro and third overall, ahead of fellow Pro entrant Varun Choksey for ST Racing and class points leader Adam Adelson, who completed the top-five overall in Wright Motorsports’ Porsche

George Kurtz qualified second in Pr0-Am and sixth overall in the No. 04 CrowdStrike by Riley Mercedes-AMG.

Q2 saw Verhagen, in the No. 38 ST Racing BMW M4 GT3, storm to a 1:59.316 lap time time after electing to change tires during the 15-minute session.

It was 0.102 seconds quicker than Elliott Skeer in the Wright Porsche, with Robby Foley in the No 29 Turner Motorsport BMW third and Colin Braun’s CrowdStrike by Riley Mercedes-AMG qualifying fourth.

Bill Auberlen completed the top-five in the sister ST Racing BMW.

Race 1 gets underway at 3:05 p.m. EDT with live coverage on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel and on Twitch.

RESULTS: Qualifying 1/Qualifying 2

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