Holton Tops Opening Sonoma Practice

Photo: Dan Bathie/McLaren

Paul Holton led the way in the opening McLaren Trophy America practice session of the weekend at Sonoma Raceway.

Holton, in the No. 8 Forte Racing McLaren Artura Trophy EVO, reeled off a chart-topping 1:38.019 lap early in the hour-long session.

The former McLaren factory driver edged out the Am pace-setting No. 5 GMG Racing entry of Jeff Cook by 0.074 seconds.

Cook outpaced the fellow Am class entries by nearly 2.5 seconds, with the next best in class having been TechSport Racing’s Colin Harrison, who set a best time of 1:40.469 and was ninth overall.

Patrick Liddy was third quickest overall in the sister Pro class Forte entry he shares with Tanner Harvey, while Kevin Madsen led the way in Pro-Am in the RPM by Forte McLaren that was good enough for fourth quickest overall.

The No. 7 GMG McLaren of John Capestro-Dubets completed the overall top-five, ahead of the No. 22 Greystone GT entry of Oliver Webb, also in Pro-Am.

RWE’s Pro class No. 74 McLaren of James Li was seventh, ahead of Tommy Pintos in the team’s No. 11 Pro-Am car.

Fifteen of the expanded 16-car grid turned laps in the session, with the No. 49 Orlando Motorsports Services entry of Scott Sorbaro the only car to not set a time.

There were no major incidents or red flags in the session.

A second 60-minute practice session is on tap for Friday at 11:05 a.m. PST (2:05 p.m. EST).

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