Soucek, Marcelli Take COTA Poles in Two Close Sessions

K-PAX Racing and Racers Edge Motorsports shared out the pole positions for this weekend’s pair of Blancpain GT World Challenge America races at Circuit of The Americas.

Bentley factory driver Andy Soucek went marginally quickest in an ultra-close opening session to take pole for this afternoon’s race, while Kyle Marcelli paced the second qualifying group that decided the grid for Sunday’s contest.

Miguel Molina, Rodrigo Baptista and Daniel Morad all jumped to the top of the timing charts in Q1 but were repeatedly set back by Soucek, who posted the best time of 2:11.491 on his final flyer.

Track conditions consistently improved throughout the first session which took place on a drying track.

Baptista made it a Bentley 1-2 right at the end with his 2:11.541 effort, while Molina settled for third on a 2:11.835 in the R.Ferri Motorsport Ferrari 488 GT3.

The quickest driver in the 2-minute 12s bracket was Morad, who steered the No. 22 Alegra Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R to a 2:12.385.

Pro-Am class pole for Race 1 went to JC Perez in the P1 Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 that narrowly missed out on overall pole in qualifying 2 with Maxi Buhk behind the wheel.

Buhk looked set to lead the grid for Sunday’s race with his final lap of the session before Marcelli shot to the top with a time of 2:07.206 in the Pro-Am-entered Racers Edge Acura NSX GT3 Evo.

Morad’s Alegra co-driver Michael de Quesada came through in third, ahead of Toni Vilander in the R.Ferri Ferrari.

Meanwhile, Alvaro Parente could only manage 12th for race 2 in the K-PAX Bentley that took pole for the weekend’s opening contest, which takes place this afternoon at 3:40 p.m. local time (4:40 p.m. ET).

RESULTS: Qualifying 1
RESULTS: Qualifying 2