McQuarrie Takes Road Atlanta Pole

Championship hopeful Tyler McQuarrie scored pole position for this weekend’s Michelin Pilot Challenge Fox Factory 120 at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

McQuarrie, driving the No. 39 CarBahn with Peregrine Racing Audi R8 LMS GT4, set the pace early in the 15-minute session and continued to reset his fastest lap until the running was interrupted by a red flag in the final minutes.

Three-quarters of a second back of McQaurrie in second was Robby Foley in the No. 95 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT4, followed by Russell Ward in the Winward Racing entered No. 4 Mercedes-AMG GT4.

Championship leader Nate Stacy will line up fourth in the KohR Motorsports No. 60 Aston Martin Vantage GT4.

The session was cut several minutes short when the red flag was displayed after Frank DePew’s Chevrolet Camaro GT4.R was spotted emitting a significant amount of smoke out of the back of the car, forcing him to pull off track and prompting the stoppage.

Earlier, Todd Lamb scored his first Michelin Pilot Challenge class pole in a hotly contested TCR qualifying session that was interrupted by a four-minute red flag.

Lamb’s best lap of 1:28.887 in the No. 84 Atlanta Speedwerks Honda Civic Type R TCR on his final flying lap was good enough to pip Bryan Herta Autosport’s No. 98 Hyundai Veloster N TCR of Mason Filippi by 0.055 seconds.

Filippi’s BHA teammates Mark Wilkins and Ryan Norman were third and fourth, respectively, with all of the top four qualifiers separated by a mere 0.067 seconds.

Max Faulkner was the quickest of the Audi runners in fifth for FASTMD Racing with Speed Syndicate, while series debutant Tyler Gonzalez was sixth quickest in a Hyundai for Copeland Motorsports after leading much of the session.

The red flag halfway through the running for Gavin Ernstone’s spin sent all the cars into the pit lane while the No. 61 Audi RS3 LMS TCR was recovered, setting up the final dash for pole.

Ernstone’s car did not appear to suffer significant damage after sliding into the tire barrier at Turn 2 on his third lap but he was unable to drive it back to pit lane under its own power.

RESULTS: Qualifying