Spinelli Leads Red Flag-Filled Indy Pre-Qualifying

Photo: Mercedes-AMG

Two late flyers by Loris Spinelli put the No. 6 US RaceTronics Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo atop the time charts in Pre-Qualifying for the Indianapolis 8 Hour presented by AWS.

Spinelli reeled off a best lap of 1:22.377 lap time with less than 20 minutes to go in the 90-minute final practice session to edge out the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 of Robby Foley by 0.145 seconds.

Foley’s 1:22.522 in the zebra-liveried BMW came early in the running and was just 0.019 seconds quicker than the No. 3 K-PAX Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo of Franck Perera in third.

The No. 75 SunEnergy1 Racing by Akkodis ASP Mercedes of Dominik Baumann led the way in the Pro-Am class with the fourth quickest time overall, with the No. 33 Winward Racing Mercedes completing the top-five outright.

The Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS Pro-Am championship-contending No. 93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 was sixth quickest, followed by the pair of AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020s in seventh and eighth.

The session saw three red flags for stoppages, the first coming when Charlie Luck beached his No. 45 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R in the gravel trap.

It was followed by a spin by Samantha Tan in the No. 38 ST Racing BMW with 35 minutes to g0 to bring out another red, while the third red was for the No. 218 Andretti Autosport x Vital Speed Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo of Ryan Briscoe, who stopped at pit-out with an apparent problem.

Qualifying gets underway at 1:55 p.m. ET followed by the Pole Shootout at 4:55 p.m. Both sessions will be streamed on SRO’s GT World YouTube page.

RESULTS: Pre-Qualifying

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