Newell Takes Pole In Red-Flagged Qualifying

Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO

Gray Newell claimed the ROWE Pole Award for Race 1 of the GT America powered by AWS weekend at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, earning his first pole position as a GT3 driver with The Heart of Racing Team.

While GMG Racing led the times early, Newell banked his 1:21.754-second benchmark in the No. 24 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo just before a red flag interrupted the session and brought out an early checkered flag.

James Sofronas was second-fastest, 0.150 seconds off of Newell’s pace in the No. 14 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II, with stablemate Patrick Mulcahy in third aboard the No. 54 Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Turner Motorsport’s Justin Rothberg was fourth-quickest, with George Kurtz rounding out the top five fastest SRO3 times in his No. 4 CrowdStrike Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

Adrian Kunzle will sit on the GT2 class pole for Saturday’s Race 1, eclipsing GMG’s CJ Moses’ best time by over two seconds.

Paul Sparta claimed the GT4 class pole for Random Vandals Racing ahead of Judson Holt.

Jeff Burton ground to a halt on the back straightaway in his No. 91 Regulator Racing Mercedes-AMG roughly halfway through the 15-minute session, ultimately bringing out the red flag.

Burton lost his two fastest qualifying times as a result of bringing out the red.

Moments later, Jason Bell also appeared to stop on track in the first sector in his No. 2 RacersEdge Aston Martin.

Race 1 is slated for 5:20 p.m. PST on Saturday with live coverage on SRO’s GT World YouTube Channel, Twitch, and on MAVTV.

RESULTS: Qualifying