Farnbacher Fastest In Race 2 Qualifying For Racers Edge Motorsports

Qualifying for the Fanatec GT World Challenge powered by AWS rounds five and six at VIRginia International Raceway has completed. Michele Beretta has put the #1 K-PAX Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 on pole for this afternoon’s Race 1. But in Race 2, the #93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 of Mario Farnbacher took the team’s first pole of the 2022 season.

It was a beautiful morning of qualifying across two sessions. Temperatures were much more comfortable than yesterday, topping out at 25~26°C.

Qualifying Session 1 began promptly at 9:00 AM local time, where the woes of Zelus Motorsports continued after multiple setbacks in practice. Utah’s Jeff Burton slid off at Horse Shoe Corner (turn one) after locking up the brakes of his #91 Lamborghini, but he was able to get going again.

Minutes later, Jason Harward in the ‘Bullnicorn’ #88 Lamborghini slid off at Oak Tree Corner (turns 11/12) and made gentle contact with the tyre barrier. This brought out a three-minute red flag.

Right out of the gate, however, K-PAX’s new ‘Super Silver’ Beretta immediately put his stamp on the qualifying session by posting a time of 1’43.411 on his first flying lap, putting the #1 Lamborghini on pole for Race 1 for the third straight race meeting.

Steven Aghakhani in the #6 US RaceTronics Mercedes-AMG GT3 kept chipping away at the deficit to Beretta, ultimately posting a time of 1’43.887 to take second.

And Misha Goikhberg in the green #3 K-PAX Lamborghini – still carrying the bare carbon nose scars from a crash in private testing earlier this week – finished third in the session.

The big surprise was the man in fourth – Bronze driver Charlie Scardina in the #23 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo!

With a lap time of 1’44.518, the South Florida real estate developer Scardina outqualified the Pro Cup #96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 of Michael Dinan on the overall grid, and took Am Cup pole in the process.

Behind Scardina and Dinan, Pro-Am Cup pole was won by Chandler Hull in the #94 BimmerWorld M4 GT3, giving the Virginia-based team the sixth position on the grid for this afternoon’s 90-minute race. GT America Race 1 pole sitter George Kurtz was seventh in the #04 Crowdstrike/Riley AMG GT3, followed by Justin Wetherill in the #13 Triarsi Ferrari, Scott Smithson in the #08 DXDT Racing AMG GT3, and Ashton Harrison in the #93 Racers Edge NSX completing the overall top ten.

Samantha Tan got her #38 ST Racing M4 GT3 up to 12th after being held for the first ten minutes due to avoidable contact in the pit lane during yesterday’s second practice.

GTWCA QUALIFYING 1 – PROVISIONAL RESULTS >>

After five minutes, the field was reset for Qualifying Session 2, setting the grid for Sunday afternoon’s race.

In succession, all of the heavy hitters got out on track and set their fastest laps early on. Andrea Caldarelli posted the early benchmark in the #1 K-PAX Lamborghini, before his former co-driver Jordan Pepper jumped ahead in the #3 K-PAX machine. Loris Spinelli, winner of the last two Race 2 pole positions, jumped ahead of them with a 1’42.790.

And then Farnbacher in the deep red #93 Racers Edge NSX surpassed them all, with a 1’42.525, which would be good enough to give Racers Edge their first overall pole of 2022, and their third Pro-Am pole of the year, with Spinelli second in the #6 US Racetronics AMG GT3 taking the Pro Cup pole.

Ryan Dalziel was third overall in the #13 Triarsi Ferrari, jumping ahead of Pepper in fourth. Colin Braun put the #04 CrowdStrike/Riley AMG GT3 fifth on the grid, with Caldarelli in sixth.

Completing the top ten for Race 2 qualifying were the #9 TR3 Racing Lamborghini of Giacomo Altoe, Robby Foley in the #96 Turner M4, Nick Wittmer in the #38 ST Racing M4, and Dirk Mueller in the #63 DXDT Racing AMG GT3.

Onofrio Triarsi took another Am Cup pole for the #23 Triarsi Ferrari, finishing 12th out of 19 drivers.

GTWCA QUALIFYING 2 – PROVISIONAL RESULTS >>

Race 1 begins today at 2:15 PM EDT (local time). Race 2 is Sunday at 1:15 PM EDT.

Images © Brian Cleary, Regis Lefebure / SRO

The post Farnbacher Fastest In Race 2 Qualifying For Racers Edge Motorsports first appeared on dailysportscar.com.