Hargrove Leads Close GT3 Field in Portland Practice 2

Scott Hargrove set the pace in Pirelli World Challenge Practice 2 at Portland International Raceway in a session that saw the top six separated by under two tenths of a second.

Hargrove’s best in lap the No. 96 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of 1:11.300 was a mere 0.004 seconds faster than Daniel Morad’s best effort in the No. 2 CRP Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3.

Parker Chase’s final lap was his best one and jumped him to third overall and first in the Pro-Am class in the No. 19 TruSpeed AutoSport Audi R8 LMS.

The No. 24 Alegra Motorsports Porsche of Spencer Pumpelly and Michael Christensen, who topped Practice 1 earlier in the day, was fourth with the No. 61 R. Ferri Ferrari 488 GT3 of Toni Vilander and Miguel Molina fifth.

The No. 9 K-PAX Racing Bentley Continental GT3 of Alvaro Parente and Andy Soucek turned its first laps of the day after an engine problem on the Practice 1 out lap put an end to that session.

Rather than replace the engine, the team elected to switch to a backup chassis that was onsite providing media rides earlier in the week and was quickly up to speed, finishing sixth overall.

Jeff Segal and Wei Lu were seventh overall and second in the Pro-Am class in the No. 31 TR3 Racing Ferrari, with the Caesar Bacarella and Martin Fuentest-driven Ferrari eighth overall and quickest in the Am category.

The 50-minute practice ran without incident.

Up next for the GT field is qualifying which is scheduled for 9:10 a.m. PT Saturday morning.

RESULTS: GT Practice 2