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GT World Challenge America

K-PAX Lamborghinis Sweep Sonoma Qualifying

Andrea Caldarelli, Jordan Pepper claim poles for season-opening rounds at Sonoma…

Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO

Andrea Caldarelli and Jordan Pepper have claimed poles for the season-opening Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS rounds at Sonoma Raceway.

Caldarelli, who topped the time charts in both of Friday’s practice sessions, reeled off a 1:36.186 in the No. 3 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo, edging out teammate Corey Lewis by 0.691 seconds.

Russell Ward put the No. 33 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 third on the overall and Pro class grid for Race 1 ahead of Michael Dinan in the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3, which is the fourth and final Pro class entrant this weekend.

The No. 77 Compass Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo of Rodrigo Sales claimed Pro-Am class pole while the lone Am class entrant, the No. 61 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 of J-C Saada returned to the track after a heavy accident on Friday.

The Italian squad worked until 2 a.m. making chassis repairs to the Prancing Horse.

Erin Vogel struck trouble in Q1 after her No. 19 DXDT Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo made contact with another car, sustaining left-front nose damage that ended her run early.

Q2 saw Pepper eclipse his co-driver’s time from the first session, setting a 1:36.026 in the Lamborghini to outpace the No. 04 DXDT Racing Mercedes Evo of Colin Braun by 0.383 seconds, which scored Pro-Am class pole.

Giovanni Venturni in the sister No. 6 K-PAX Lamborghini will roll off third for Sunday’s race, followed by the No. 20 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Jan Heylen, who had a spin in the 15-minute session.

Ryan Dalziel completed the top-five overall in the No. 63 DXDT Mercedes Evo, meanwhile.

The first race of the weekend gets underway at 2:15 p.m. PT (5:15 p.m. ET) with live coverage on SRO’s GT World YouTube page. Race 2 is set for Sunday at 1:15 p.m. PT (4:15 p.m. ET) with live coverage on CBSSN.

RESULTS: Qualifying 1 / Qualifying 2

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

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