Pintos Charges to Dominant Race 1 Pole

Tommy Pintos secured pole position for the first McLaren Trophy America race of the weekend at Virginia International Raceway, finishing the session more than a full second clear of the competition.

The Skip Barber Racing driver laid down a 1:48.092 lap in the Pro class No. 919 McLaren Artura Trophy Evo he shares with Cooper Broll to secure his starting position for this afternoon’s race. Pintos rose to the top of the times on his fourth lap to clear Casey Dennis’s No. 74 RWE Motorsport entry by 1.098 seconds.

James Sofronas claimed the Am class pole for GMG Racing, setting the third-best time overall in his solo-driven No. 14 entry.

Fourth-quickest and second-fastest in AM was Colin Harrison’s TechSport entry, ahead of the Pro-Am pole-sitting entry of John Dempsey, who rounded out the overall top five.

Tom Kopczynski qualified best of the Papaya Cup-eligible drivers in the No. 17 Riley Motorsports machine he shares with Eric Filgueras, laying down the third-quickest Pro-Am class time in the process.

Neil Langberg will start last on the grid after failing to meet the 1:58.901-second maximum qualifying threshold time. John-Capestro Dubets and George Lawrence did not take part in the session following their accident in yesterday’s second practice.

The 15-minute Saturday morning session ran entirely green, with the 12 participating drivers having maximum track time to set their laps.

Race 1 is scheduled to take the green flag at 12:05 p.m. EST with live coverage available on SRO’s GT World and McLaren Automotive’s YouTube channels.

RESULTS: Qualifying 1