Laurin Heinrich led the 23-car field in the 90-minute Indianapolis 8 Hour Pre-Qualifying practice on Friday morning. The German racer went around the 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1:23.387 in the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R.
Brendon Leitch was second fastest in the No. 61 EBM Porsche, just 0.037 seconds slower than Skeer. Connor De Phillippi was third fastest in the No. 99 Random Vandals Racing BMW M4 GT3, 0.009 seconds off of Leitch’s pace.
All drivers in the top three led their respective classes, which was separated by just under 1.3 seconds. The top 21 of those cars were separated by just under nine-tenths of a second.
Gabby Chaves was fourth fastest in the No. 93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3 Evo22, 0.074 seconds off of Sheer’s time.
Dries Vanthoor was fifth fastest in the No. 31 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 ahead of Fabian Schiller in the No. 4 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.
Philip Ellis was seventh fastest in the No. 91 Regulator Racing Mercedes-AMG ahead of Nick Yelloly in the No. 8 Flying Lizard Motorsports BMW.
Jordan Love was ninth fastest in the No. 888 Triple Eight JMR Mercedes-AMG with Alex Fontana of Car Collection Motorsports rounding out the top ten in the No. 21 Porsche.
There were no red flags and only one spin of note with Bill Auberlen spinning at the exit of Turn 7 in the No. 28 ST Racing BMW.
Qualifying begins at 3:05 p.m. EDT with the Pole Shootout following, with live coverage on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel and on Twitch.
RESULTS: Pre-Qualifying