Rothberg Quickest in Opening Practice at Barber

Photo: Brian Cleary/SRO

Justin Rothberg topped the time charts in the first GT America powered by AWS practice session of the weekend at Barber Motorsports Park.

The Turner Motorsport driver reeled off a best lap of 1:23.131 to edge out the No. 8 Flying Lizard Motorsports BMW M4 GT3 of Elias Sabo.

Sabo, as well as the third, fourth and fifth-placed Bryson Morris, Jean-Frederic Laberge and Samantha Tan, are not expected to take part in the pair of 40-minute sprint races this weekend, and instead used the sessions as additional track time for their Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS programs.

SRO3 point leader Johnny O’Connell was sixth quickest in the No. 3 SKI Autosports Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II.

Championship rival Jason Daskalos posted the eighth best time in the No. 27 CRP Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, behind Jason Bell in the No. 2 Flying Lizard Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, who made a late session improvement to seventh.

Isaac Sherman was quickest of the GT4 entries in his points-leading No. 098 Rotek Racing Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport.

The 30-minute session, which ran immediately following the weekend’s Paid Bronze Test, did not see any red flags.

That test session was topped by the No. 91 Regulator Racing Mercedes-AMG with Philip Ellis believed to have been behind the wheel.

The second and final GT America practice session of the weekend is set for a 1:45 p.m. CDT start.

RESULTS: Practice 1

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