Skeer Quickest as Grids Set for Sonoma Season Openers

Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO

Elliott Skeer went quickest in the one-and-only track session prior to Saturday’s Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS opening round of the season at Sonoma Raceway, with the grids set for both Race 1 and 2.

Skeer, in the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R, reeled off a best lap of 1:31.783 late in the 60-minute session to edge out the No. 04 CrowdStrike by Riley Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Colin Braun by 0.222 seconds.

While co-driver Adam Adelson is set to start from the front row for this afternoon’s 90-minute race, Skeer will line up for Sunday’s Race 2 on the overall pole, with Braun taking Pro-Am class qualifying honors for tomorrow.

The No. 91 DXDT Racing Mercedes-AMG of Philip Ellis was third quickest in the the combined practice and qualifying session, followed by the No. 38 ST Racing BMW M4 GT3 in fourth and the No. 08 DXDT Mercedes-AMG of Bryan Sellers, who completed the top-five.

Turner Motorsport’s No. 29 BMW was sixth, ahead of the No. 93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 in seventh and the No. 28 ST Racing BMW in eighth.

Esses Racing and the No. 8 Flying Lizard Motorsports Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, meanwhile, completed the top-ten in the session.

The hour-long running saw no red flags, in what marked most drivers’ first time on the re-patched circuit after on-track activity was canceled on Thursday and Friday.

Timing and scoring have yet to publish grids for both races.

The first race of the weekend for Fanatec GT America gets underway at 4 p.m. PDT (7 p.m. EDT) with live coverage on SRO’s GT World YouTube page and on Twitch.

RESULTS: Practice 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