Sargent Tops Opening Practice in Buc-ee’s Porsche at Barber

Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO

Tom Sargent put GMG Racing’s Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo, sporting colors from Buc-ee’s this weekend, atop the time charts in the first GT World Challenge America powered by AWS practice session at Barber Motorsports Park.

The Porsche Motorsport North America Selected driver chewed his way to a best lap of 1:21.267, building a dam over the nearest competitor in the 20-car field by more than two-tenths of a second.

Road America Pro-Am class winner Daniel Morad was second quickest in the No. 9 TR3 Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, ahead of the Pro class pace-setting No. 12 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo of Frederik Schandorff in thrid.

Ryan Yardley and and Jan Heylen completed the top-five in their Wright Motorsports and RS1 Porsches, respectively.

The No. 69 Archangel Motorsports McLaren 720S GT3 Evo of Aaron Telitz set the session’s sixth quickest time, ahead of Scott Andrews in the No. 04 HP-TECH Motorsports Ferrari.

Ozz Negri, in his return from achilles tendon surgery, posted the 16th quickest time overall in the No. 163 AF Corse Ferrari, the lone Am class entrant this weekend.

All cars except the No. 14 Riley Technologies BMW M4 GT3 EVO set a time in the 60-minute session, which had an oil pump seal issue.

The session started with a red flag for the No. 99 Random Vandals Racing BWW of Hampus Ericsson, which stopped on track

The car, in the hands of Derek DeBoer, brought out a red flag in the 90-minute test session this morning after a slight scrape with the tire barriers.

GTWC America competitors will have two additional practice sessions on Saturday at 10:15 a.m. CST and 2:50 p.m.

RESULTS: Practice 1

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