McDonald Storms to COTA Pole; Washington to Start First

Photo: Brian Cleary/SRO

Blake McDonald stormed to pole position for the first GT America powered by AWS race of the weekend at Circuit of The Americas.

The DXDT Racing driver drove his No. 11 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R to a best lap of 2:04.532 to edge out the No. 32 GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Kyle Washington by 0.209 seconds.

It marked McDonald’s second consecutive pole after taking top qualifying honors for Race 2 on the streets of Long Beach.

Washington, however, is set to start the race from first position as McDonald promptly withdrew from the remainder of the GT America weekend following his pole-winning run.

McDonald is understood to be focusing his race efforts on his GT World Challenge America powered by AWS program this weekend.

Elias Sabo qualified third in his No. 80 Flying Lizard Motorsports BMW M4 GT3 EVO, with Memo Gidley and Justin Rothberg completing the top-five for SKI Autosports and Turner Motorsport, respectively.

GT4 pole honors went to the No. 39 Van der Steur Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4 Evo of Max Hewitt.

Hewitt’s 2:14.539 lap time was three-tenths quicker than the No. 69 JTR Motorsports Engineering Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2 of Anthony McIntosh.

Michael Auriemma is set to start third in class in his No. 47 Nolasport Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport.

Race 1 of the weekend gets underway at 11:20 a.m. CST with live coverage on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel and on Twitch.

RESULTS: Qualifying