Parente Tops Friday Practice at Utah

Photo: Brian Cleary/BCPix.com

Alvaro Parente led the way in Friday’s pair of practice sessions for this weekend’s Pirelli World Challenge round at Utah Motorsports Campus, in a 1-2 run for McLaren.

The K-PAX Racing driver reeled off a quick lap of 1:49.064 in the afternoon session, unable to best his 1:48.321 set in the cooler, morning session in his No. 9 McLaren 650S GT3.

Parente ended up 0.077 seconds faster than the No. 99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing McLaren of Jon Fogarty, who was second in the afternoon session followed by the No. 43 RealTime Racing Acura TLX GT of Ryan Eversley in third.

Turbocharged cars swept the top nine positions in the GT class, following a barometric pressure adjustment issued by PWC prior to this morning’s official sessions.

Frankie Montecalvo was quickest in GTA in his No. 66 DIME Racing Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 with a 1:49.676, the best of the normally aspirated cars.

Montecalvo’s time in Practice 2 was nearly six-tenths faster than the No. 07 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 of Martin Fuentes, who was second.

Alec Udell, meanwhile, paced GT Cup in both sessions on Friday in his GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car.

Sprint qualifying is set for Saturday at 8:45 a.m. local time.

RESULTS: Practice 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