Ellis, Grenier Secure Barber Pole Positions

Philip Ellis delivered Regulator Racing pole position for the first race of the GT World Challenge America powered by AWS weekend at Barber Motorsports Park on Saturday, with Mikael Grenier set to start on the pole for Sunday’s Race 2 for JMF Motorsports.

The Mercedes-AMG factory driver brought his Pro-Am class No. 91 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo to the top of the pile over Random Vandals Racing’s Kenton Koch on his fifth lap, taking his fifth straight pole in the process after laying down a 1:20.822 benchmark time.

Koch secured the Pro class pole in the No. 99 BMW M4 GT3 EVO with the second-fastest Q1 time, 0.282 seconds down on the Regulator driver’s time.

Fellow Pro class entrant Michai Stephens set the session’s third fastest time and will roll off the grid in the No. 34 JMF Mercedes-AMG.

Bill Auberlen put the second Random Vandals BMW inside the top-five, reeling off the fourth-best time with Q1, with RS1’s Alex Sedgwick fifth in the No. 18 Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Blake McDonald was the second-fastest Pro-Am driver with the sixth-best time aboard the No. 11 DXDT Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R

Dollahite Racing claimed the Am class pole for Race 1, with Scott Dollahite ending the session 13th quickest overall, but 0.753 seconds faster than the No. 163 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 of Jay Schreibman.

Q2 saw Grenier improve in the final four minutes of the session to put the No. 34 JMF Mercedes-AMG on pole for Race 2 by just 0.078 seconds over Random Vandals’ Connor De Phillippi, who had led the majority of second qualifying.

Tom Sargent gave GMG Racing the Pro-Am pole in the No. 32 Porsche with the third-best lap after finishing second qualifying less than one tenth of a second off the JMF driver’s overall pace.

Sargent appeared to be on pace to match or best Grenier’s time late in the session but a slight off in Sector 3 saw him abandon his lap and bring his Porsche into pit lane.

Aaron Telitz was fourth quickest and second-best in Pro-Am in Q2 aboard his No. 88 Archangel Motorsports McLaren 720S GT3 Evo, ahead of Robby Foley’s Turner Motorsport BMW in fifth.

Jan Heylen was the third fastest driver in Pro, having set the sixth-quickest lap of the second qualifying session for RS1.

Eric Powell delivered Dollahite a sweep in qualifying after outpacing AF Corse’s Ozz Negri by three-tenths.

Race 1 will take the green flag Saturday at 3 p.m. CST with live coverage available on both SRO’s GT World YouTube channel and on Twitch as well as the RACER Network.

RESULTS: Qualifying 1/Qualifying 2