Dalziel Tops Opening Practice at COTA

Photo: Gavin Baker/SRO

Ryan Dalziel led the way in Friday’s opening practice session for GT World Challenge America powered by AWS competitors at Circuit of The Ameircas.

The DXDT Racing driver reeled off a best lap of 2:04.671 in the No. 63 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, edging out the No. 1 Squada Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 of Rodrigo Baptista by 0.195 seconds.

Baptista was atop the time sheets for the majority of the 60-minute session.

DXDT’s sister Mercedes Evo of Colin Braun was third quickest, followed by the No. 20 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Max Root, who topped the GT3 Am class with the fourth quickest time overall.

The No. 14 GMG Porsche of Jeroen Bleekemolen completed the top-five.

Trent Hindman and Shelby Blackstock in the lone GT3 Silver Cup entry posted the ninth quickest time overall.

The session was interrupted by an incident for the No. 8 K-PAX Racing Bentley Continental GT3 of Patrick Bryne, which stopped in Turn 8.

Thirteen of the 14 entered cars turned laps, with the No. 73 Park Place Motorsports Porsche the only car to not set a time.

Practice 2 gets underway at 2:15 p.m. local time.

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