Aghakhani and Heylen Separated by Three-Thousandths in Practice 2
Just three thousandths of a second separated Steven Aghakhani and Jan Heylen at the top of the timesheets during GT World Challenge America Practice 2 at Watkins Glen International, and just 0.013 seconds covered the top three.
But just like the morning session, it was the #6 US Racetronics Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Aghakhani and Loris Spinelli that ended the session with the fastest time, ahead of the #45 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3-R of Heylen and Charlie Luck.
Despite delays in the previous TC America practice due to nearby lightning strikes, GTWC America Practice 2 was able to start on time as scheduled at 3:15 PM local, under mostly sunny skies.
Early on, the top time belonged to the #04 CrowdStrike with Riley Motorsports AMG GT3 (George Kurtz/Colin Braun). Kurtz was quickest in both GT America chassis in a similar car, and Braun followed up on his co-driver’s pace by getting out of the blocks with a top time of 1’44.382.
Teams were tagged with warnings and deletions of lap times for violating track limits, particularly at turns one, eight (The Heel), and nine. Seven teams had at least one lap time deleted.
Otherwise, the session proceeded without any major incidents.
In the second half of practice, the #45 Wright Porsche of Heylen jumped to the top with a time of 1’44.372, just one hundreth of a second ahead of Braun.
Eight minutes later, Aghakhani took over where his co-driver Spinelli left off in Practice 1, and he set a 1’44.369 to displace Heylen by just three-thousandths.
With the black and white #6 US Racetronics AMG GT3 leading both practices, they’ve once again demonstrated the potential to take the fight to K-PAX Racing in the Pro Cup and for the overall win.
The #45 Wright Porsche was second overall and fastest in Pro-Am, ahead of the #04 CrowdStrike/Riley AMG GT3.
In fourth was the #13 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo (Justin Wetherill/Ryan Dalziel), followed by the #3 K-PAX Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo (Misha Goikhberg/Jordan Pepper) in fifth, which completed a session-high 32 laps.
The #33 Winward Racing AMG GT3 (Russell Ward/Philip Ellis) followed up eighth place in Practice 1 with sixth place in Practice 2, ahead of the #93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 (Ashton Harrison/Mario Farnbacher) in seventh, and the undefeated #1 K-PAX Lamborghini (Michele Beretta/Andrea Caldarelli) in eighth despite a close call at the Bus Stop from Beretta.
The #96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 (Michael Dinan/Robby Foley) and the #08 DXDT Racing AMG GT3 (Scott Smithson/Bryan Sellers) completed the overall top ten.
In the final minutes, the #88 Zelus Motorsports Lamborghini (Jason Harward/Madison Snow) got out on track to complete five laps. However, the #00 Team Hardpoint Porsche (PJ Hyett/Gunnar Jeannette) was still in the garage and did not run at all today.
Images © Brian Cleary / SRO Motorsports Group America
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