Chinnici Earns Pole for GMG in Tight Qualifying Battle

Photo: Brian Cleary/SRO

Andrew Chinnici stormed to the first-ever McLaren Trophy America pole position on Saturday at Sonoma Raceway for GMG Racing in what proved to be a session-long battle at the top of the time sheets.

The GMG driver set his benchmark 1:38.752 on his final attempt aboard the Pro-Am class No. 4 McLaren Artura Trophy Evo to outpace stablemate James Sofronas’ No. 14 entry by a narrow 0.069 seconds.

Sofronas, who topped the times on numerous occasions throughout the session, took the Am class pole with his best qualifying effort.

James Li was third quickest overall in his No. 74 RWE Motorsport machine and was the highest-qualifying Pro class entry, comfortably ahead of Cooper Broll’s Skip Barber Racing Artura, who was eighth.

TechSport’s Colin Harrison set the fourth fastest overall time in his solo-driven Am-class No. 21 machine ahead of John Dempsey, who rounded out the top-five for RWE.

Sofronas, Harrison, Li, and eventual pole-sitter Chinnici all spent time at the top of the times during the 15-minute qualifying session, with all four drivers trading fastest laps until the checkered flag fell.

Notably, three drivers failed to meet the maximum 1:48.627 qualifying time in the session and were therefore not classified in the official results.

Flying Lizard Motorsports’ Brandon Kreutz and George Lawrence, alongside Hooper Street Racing’s Bob Stockard, all failed to meet the qualifying threshold.

Lawrence went for a spin near the end of the session in his No. 3 Flying Lizard Artura, but rejoined the field without major incident.

The inaugural McLaren Trophy America race takes the green flag at 12:05 p.m. PDT with live coverage available on SRO’s GT World and McLaren Automotive’s YouTube channels.

RESULTS: Qualifying