Kellymoss’ Hartog Tops Opening Sebring Practice

Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO

Loek Hartog headed the field in the opening practice session for the GT World Challenge America powered by AWS weekend at Sebring, setting the fastest time in his No. 88 Kellymoss Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo.

The former Porsche Carrera Cup North America champion, who shares the Pro-Am car with FIA Bronze-rated driver John Gilliland, set a 2:01.060 lap time in the middle of the session.

Hartog was 0.151 seconds faster than Pro class championship leaders JMF Motorsport.

The Dutchman outpaced Mikael Grenier in the No. 34 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo after he set a 2:01.211 time early in the session.

Grenier and co-driver Michai Stephens have completed a clean sweep of Pro class victories so far this season and hold a 20-point advantage on the rest of the competition.

Canadian driver Aaron Povoledo was third fastest overall and second in Pro-Am in the No. 50 Chouest Povoledo Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, just ahead of Porsche Motorsport North America Selected Driver Tom Sargent in the No. 32 GMG Racing Porsche.

The TR3 Racing Mercedes-AMG of Daniel Morad and Brayton Williams completed the top five on the time sheets.

Random Vandals Racing drivers Hampus Eriksson and Derek DeBoer finished the session in sixth place with their No. 99 BMW M4 GT3 EVO, ahead of the No. 18 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 and Archangel Motorsports with the sole McLaren 720S GT3 Evo in the field.

Kellymoss’ No. 13 sister car completed the 60-minute session in ninth, ahead of the No. 12 AF Corse USA Ferrari which finished second in the Pro class.

Jay Schreibman finished 16th in the No. 163 AF Corse USA Ferrari, the only Am class entry of the weekend.

The session was uninterrupted with constant green-flag running.

The No. 6 Dollahite Racing Ford Mustang GT3 Evo of Alex Sedgwick and Cameron Lawrence was the only car on the 21-strong grid not to set a lap time in the opening practice of the weekend. The Dollahite Ford had a hefty crash on Friday morning’s 30-minute GTWC America/GT America test session.

While Sedgwick was uninjured in the shunt, it caused significant front-end damage to the Mustang and the team was unable to make it out into the practice session later in the day.

The seconds GTWC America practice session of the weekend is scheduled for 8:50 a.m. EST on Saturday.

RESULTS: Practice 1 

Finlay Ringer

Finlay Ringer is a freelance motorsport journalist covering the 24H Series for Sportscar365. He is also a journalism student at City St George's, University of London, and has contributed to publications such as The Race and Autocar.