Koch, Braun Take Sonoma Poles

Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO

Kenton Koch and Colin Braun claimed overall poles for the opening rounds of the GT World Challenge America powered by AWS season at Sonoma Raceway.

Koch reeled off a best lap of 1:33.445 in his Pro class No. 99 Random Vandals Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO to edge out Pro-Am class pole-sitter Philip Ellis in the No. 91 Regulator Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo by 0.064 seconds.

GT3 debutant Michai Stephens qualified an impressive third for Race 1 in his Pro class No. 34 JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG, with Allam Khodair fourth in the No. 16 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3.

RS1’s Alex Sedgwick completed the top-five in the No. 18 Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Random Vandals’ No. 51 BMW of Bill Auberlen lost his previous times after unauthorized work in the pit lane after a reported technical issue for the car, and is set to start from the rear of the 19-car field this afternoon.

A heavy accident by Kyle Marcelli in the No. 92 LAB Motorsport by GT Racing Porsche with eight minutes to go in Q2 ended the 15-minute session early.

It handed the overall pole for Race 2 to Braun in the No. 04 CrowdStrike by Riley Mercedes-AMG, thanks to a 1:37.739 lap time, which was unrepresentative of the Q1 times due to the curtailed session.

Braun’s time was a half-second clear of Jeff Burton in the No. 91 Regulator Mercedes-AMG, with Robby Foley (Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO), Aaron Telitz (Archangel Motorsports McLaren 720S GT3 Evo) and Pro class pole-sitter Connor De Phillippi (No. 99 Random Vandals BMW) completing the overall top-five.

The season opening round gets underway at 3:15 p.m. PST with live coverage on SRO’s GT World YouTube and Twitch channels and MAVTV.

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