Charlie Luck and Wright Motorsports topped the opening session of the 2023 GT World Challenge America powered by AWS season from Sonoma Raceway with the team’s No.45 Porsche 911 GT3 R setting a 1m36.911s. The teams were stymied by a brief rain shower that fell before the session started.
Just six cars had ventured out after the first 10 minutes, and a 1m44.822s from Seth Lucas in the No.53 MDK Motorsports entry stood as the top time for most of the running. Lucas’ lap was eight seconds slower than last year’s top FP1 time, illustrative of the slow-going approach teams were taking.
The No.9 TR3 Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 was second-fastest with a 1m36.990s, just 0.079s behind Luck. Chandler Hull in the No.94 BimmerWorld BMW M4 GT3 was the quickest Pro entry with a time of 1m37.162s, which was good enough for third overall.
There were no interruptions by red flags, and no major incidents in the session. The weather forecast for the rest of the weekend is clear with temperatures in the mid-50s.