Fletcher Claims Pole For Race 2 Before Red Flag Stoppage

Jeremy Fletcher claimed pole position for Race 2 of the Toyota GR Cup North America weekend at Road America in a red-flag shortened qualifying session.

The Copeland Motorsports driver jumped to the top of the time sheets on just his second lap around the four-mile Wisconsin circuit in his No. 22 Toyota GR86 Cup car to outpace TechSport’s Ethan Goulart by 0.332 seconds.

Jackson Tovo qualified third in his Nitro Motorsports Toyota, but was involved in an on-track incident with Brett Kowalski, which brought out the red flag and an effective early end to the 15-minute session, drawing the eye of race control.

Race 1-winner Spike Kohlbecker qualified fourth in his No. 55 RVA Graphics Motorsports by Speed Syndicate GR86 Cup car, ahead of stablemate Will Robusto’s No. 2 machine in fifth.

Just after halfway through the quarter-hour qualifying session, Kowalski went off into the Turn 1 gravel trap after contact under braking with Tovo’s Nitro Toyota, bringing out the red flag with just over six minutes to go.

The incident swiftly came under review from race control, and the session was officially ended under red flag conditions, with drivers able to complete up to four total laps before the stoppage.

After the session, a stewards’ bulletin assessed Tovo a 5-place grid penalty for the forthcoming Race 2 for causing a collision, as well as the addition of two warning points to his license and the loss of his two best qualifying laps for bringing out the red.

The only other incident of note was a drive-through penalty served by Livio Galanti for a pit lane speed violation.

Race 2 of the GR Cup North America weekend takes the start at 12:45 p.m. CST with live coverage available on SRO’s GT World YouTube and Twitch channels as well as grcup.com.

RESULTS: Qualifying 2