Lone Star Mercedes-AMG Quickest as Pole Shootout Set

Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO

Lone Star Racing’s Jules Gounon, Maxime Martin and Lin Hodenius put the No. 80 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo on top in qualifying, as one of ten cars set to advance to this evening’s Pole Shootout for the Indianapolis 8 Hour presented by AWS.

The trio combined for a best average of 1:22.747, leading a Mercedes-AMG 1-2, with the No. 888 GruppeM Racing example setting the second quickest time.

A quick lap by Al Faisal Al Zubair put the No. 777 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO third quickest, ahead of the No. 34 JMF Motorsports entry, which made it three Mercedes-AMGs in the top-four.

The No. 46 WRT BMW completed the top-five, ahead of the No. 99 Random Vandals Racing BMW, No. 75 SunEnergy1-sponsored Mercedes-AMG, No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R and No. 51 Random Vandals BMW in the top-nine.

Turner Motorsport will start on the Pro-Am class pole as the only non-Pro class entry to make the Pole Shootout with the tenth quickest combined time.

The No. 11 DXDT Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R was the first to miss out on the shootout and is set to start from 11th overall on the grid and second in Pro-Am.

An impressive run by Scott Dollahite, Stefano Gattuso and Eric Powell put the No. 6 Dollahite Racing Ford Mustang GT3 12th on the grid, scoring the Am class pole by a wide margin over the No. 163 AF Corse Ferrari 296, which was 22nd overall.

Q3 saw an early session red flag after the No. 18 RS1 Porsche of Alessio Picairello stop on track, which resulted in a loss of five minutes of the segment. The RS1 squad missed out on the Pole Shootout and will start from down the order.

Both the No. 04 CrowdStrike by Riley and No. 91 Regulator Racing Mercedes-AMGs are set to start from the rear of the 25-car field for different reasons.

The Bill Riley-led team is understood to have elected not to take part in qualifying to save tires for the race, while there was a reported fuel-related issue for the Jeff Burton-driven Regulator Mercedes-AMG in Q1 that prevented them setting a representative time.

The Pole Shootout is set for 5:45 p.m. EST, with live coverage on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel.

RESULTS: Qualifying

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