News

Teenager Harry Gottsacker of New Braunfels, Texas, took his No. 29 Performance Motorsports Group Ginetta GT4 to the fastest time Friday afternoon at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in the second round of GTS practice for the Pirelli World Challenge Championships presented by Nissan.

Gottsacker, 17, has been busy this year with competition in the Pirelli World Challenge GTS division as well as Red Bull Global Rallycross action but the talented youngster has continued his driving development throughout the 2016 campaign and his time of one minute, 31.715 seconds bested the 25-driver GTS field Friday.

Harry’s speed of 87.846 miles per hour just edged the No. 10 Blackdog Speed Shop Chevrolet Camaro Z-28 of four-time PWC champion Lawson Aschenbach of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., whose speed was 87.818 m.p.h. with a time of 1:31.744. Completing the three GTS drivers Friday afternoon was 15-year-old Parker Chase of New Braunfels, Tex., Gottsacker’s teammate in the No. 19 Performance Motorsports Group Ginetta GT4 with a time of 1:32.017 (87.558 m.p.h.).

Rounding out the top-five in GTS practice Friday afternoon were veterans Martin Barkey of Huntsville, Ont., Canada in the No. 80 Mantella Autosport KTM X-Bow at 1:32.254 (87.333 m.p.h.) and Andrew Aquilante of Chester Springs, Pa., in the No. 37 Calvert Dynamics/Phoenix Performance Ford Boss 302, at 1:32.310 (87.280 m.p.h.). Aquilante paced the GTS field in the Friday morning practice round with a 1:31.218 (88.325 m.p.h.) in the cooler conditions.

Qualifying for GTS is scheduled for 9 a.m. PDT Saturday with Round 18 50-minute sprint race set for 11:45 a.m. PDT.