Stephens Leads Way in Second COTA Practice

Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO

Michai Stephens kept JMF Motorsports atop the time charts at Circuit of The Americas, having set the quickest time in the second practice session for Sunday’s GT World Challenge America powered by AWS race.

Stephens reeled off a best lap of 2:03.908 to lead a Mercedes-AMG 1-2-3 in the 60-minute session.

The No. 34 JMF entry was 0.345 seconds quicker than the No. 9 TR3 Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Daniel Morad, who paced the Pro-Am class.

Lorcan Hanafin was third quickest overall and second in Pro-Am, aboard JMF’s sister entry.

The No. 99 Random Vandals Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Hampus Ericsson was fourth quickest overall and third in Pro-Am, ahead of Porsche Motorsport North America Selected Driver Tom Sargent in the No. 32 GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo.

Sargent led a train of five Porsches, which occupied positions five through nine, while Frederik Schandorff completed the top-ten in the No. 12 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo after a late session improvement.

Ozz Negri, meanwhile, paced the Am class in his No. 163 AF Corse Ferrari, which was 15th quickest overall.

The only notable incident came halfway through the session when John Gilliland spun his No. 88 Kellymoss Porsche and made contact with a tire stack.

Gilliland’s car, however, didn’t appear to sustain significant damage and there was no red flag.

The third and final practice session prior to qualifying is set for 2:30 p.m. CST.

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