Franco, Braun Take Road America Poles

Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO

Manny Franco and Colin Braun have claimed pole positions for this weekend’s pair of Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS races at Road America.

Franco took his No. 21 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 to a best lap of 2:03.486 in Q1 to edge out the Pro-Am class pole-sitting No. 04 CrowdStrike by Riley Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of George Kurtz.

Kurtz’s late flyer demoted the No. 43 Bartone Bros Racing by RealTime Mercedes of Anthony Bartone to second in Pro-Am and fourth overall, behind the No. 28 RS1 Porsche 911 GT3 R of Eric Filgueiras, which slotted in third.

The Pro class No. 94 BimmerWorld BMW M4 GT3 of Chandler Hull, who had a brief spin in the closing moments of Q1, completed the top-five overall.

Q2 saw Hull’s co-driver Bill Auberlen escape a near-disastrous spin at the Kink that resulted in only minimal damage to the BMW, which continued without the need of a red flag.

It came moments before a spin by Daniel Morad in the No. 9 TR3 Racing Mercedes, who also continued.

Braun, meanwhile, reeled off a blazing 2:01.970 lap time to put the CrowdStrike by Riley Mercedes on pole for Race 2, ahead of Morad, who rebounded to qualify second.

Adam Christodoulou was third in the Bartone Mercedes, with Alessandro Balzan’s Conquest Ferrari fourth, quickest in Pro, and Auberlen completing the top-five in a last-lap improvement.

The Pro-Am championship-leading No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche did not set a time in Q2 after sustaining a fire in the pit lane between the sessions.

Race 1 gets underway at 3:10 p.m. CDT with the second 90-minute contest taking the green flag Sunday at 2:15 p.m., both of which will be streamed live on SRO’s GT World YouTube page.

RESULTS: Qualifying 1/Qualifying 2

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