Gidley Grabs Sonoma Race 1 Pole

Photo: Andrew Miterko/SRO

Memo Gidley will start this evening’s GT America powered by AWS season opener from the pole after claiming top qualifying honors for Race 1 at Sonoma Raceway.

The SKI Autosports driver stormed to a best lap of 1:35.802 in his Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II, outpacing late-session challenges from Marc Muzzo, Tony Davis and Joel Cortes.

Muzzo, in the R. Ferri Motorsport Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo, will start second, setting a time that was just 0.006 seconds slower than Gidley.

Davis in his HP-TECH Motorsport Prancing Horse, will start third, with Cortes’ RS1 Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo set to line up fourth.

Ross Chouest completed the top-five aboard his Chouest Povoledo Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, ahead of Porsches from Dave Musial Sr (Wright Motorsports) and Scott Blind (Ruckus Racing), respectively.

The GMG Racing Porsche of Kyle Washington, meanwhile, was forced to serve a drive-through penalty for a pit lane speeding infraction and will line up eighth, behind Mirco Schultis in his Callaway Corvette C7 GT3-R.

David Lecko claimed Cup class pole honors in his RacingSupport Ginetta GTP8, have set a time that was some ten seconds quicker than the only other car in the class, the No. 3 Gotham Motorsports Ferrari 488 Challenge EVO of Yousuf Nabi.

GT4 pole honors went to the lone class entry of Craig Lumsden, in Flying Lizard Motorsports’ BMW M4 GT4 EVO.

The opening race of the season is set for a 5:20 p.m. PST (8:20 p.m. EST) start with live coverage on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel and on Twitch, featuring commentary from Ryan Myrehn, Calvin Fish and Amanda Busick in the pit lane.

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