Dennis on Race 2 Pole After Abandoned Qualifying

Casey Dennis will start Race 2 from pole position after second qualifying for McLaren Trophy America was abandoned due to wet weather conditions at Sonoma Raceway on Sunday.

A notice sent to teams Sunday morning stated that with the qualifying session abandoned, “the grid will be set per article 3.2.14,” meaning Dennis’ Practice 2-leading pace secured him the top position on the grid in the No. 74 Pro-class RWE Motorsport McLaren Artura Trophy Evo he shares with James Li for Sunday morning’s race.

The bulletin further stated that the 15-minute session will serve as an optional practice outing for all drivers.

Article 3.2.14 of the series sporting regulations read: “If for any reason the qualifying session for Driver 2 cannot take place or is stopped before all cars in that session have the opportunity to set a time as determined by the race director at his sole discretion, the best time from each Driver 2 during Practice 2 will be used to set the grid for Race 2.”

Dennis will lead the 15-car field to green for Race 2 ahead of the Pro-Am pole-sitting John Capestro-Dubets, who was 0.389 seconds off of Dennis’ 1:38.368-second benchmark time on Friday.

Canaan O’Connell will roll off the grid in third in the No. 18 Flying Lizard Motorsports McLaren ahead of Am-class pole-sitter Jeff Cook.

Motorsports In Action’s No. 43 Trophy Evo of Jesse Lazare rounds out the overall top-five grid spots for the start of the race.

Skip Barber Racing’s Tommy Pintos led the way in the wet optional practice in the No. 919 Artura he shares with Connor Broll, setting a 2:10.687 second lap on his fifth attempt.

James Li was second fastest, just over one second off of Pintos’ pace in the Race 2 pole-sitting No. 74 ‘Lightning McLaren’ liveried Tophy Evo.

GMG Racing’s Andrew Chinnici was third quickest, ahead of stablemate James Sofronas and John Dempsey, who rounded out the top-five practice times respectively.

During the practice, a red flag came out after just two minutes of running for a stricken Deniz Teoman, who required recovery after going off-track at Turn 1 in the No. 5 Dark Horse Artura is set to start on the Am-class pole this morning.

After the No. 5 entry failed to set a time, three additional drivers did not take part in the optional session.

Driver changes will see both the No. 53 RP Motorsports by Forte Racing McLaren and the No. 52 Aero B Motorsports powered by Skip Barber Racing machine start from the back of the grid.

In the No. 53, team manager Jon Miller will take over for Neil Langberg, with Joe Osborne climbing aboard the No. 52 entry for Chris Leichtweis.

Race 2 goes green at 10:25 a.m. PST with live coverage available on both SRO’s GT World and McLaren Automotive’s YouTube channels.

RESULTS: Practice 3