James claims PWC GTS pole at Sonoma

Veteran Ian James continued his impressive performance in the second half of the 2017 Pirelli World Challenge GTS class by provisionally taking his No. 50 Team Panoz Racing Panoz Avezzano GT sports car to the pole position during Saturday morning qualifying at Sonoma Raceway.

The Briton, a five-time 2017 GTS race winner with the all-new Panoz creation, posted his third pole of the year in the first-year machine. Currently second in the GTS point standings, James clocked a best lap of 1m39.95s to easily better the old Sonoma Raceway GTS track qualifying record of 1m40.961s of Andy Lee set in 2015.

The top four in GTS qualifying bettered the old track mark and the top qualifiers were in six different auto makes – Panoz, KTM, Porsche, Chevrolet, Ginetta and Aston Martin.

"That was an exciting qualifying session there and we're glad to grab pole position for today's GTS race," said James, a veteran of many worldwide sports car events. "The Panoz Avezanno is really well-suited to this track. The team has done a great job all weekend. It's great to have Don Panoz here this weekend to support our effort. We are going into Race 1 today and hopefully will get another race victory. I'm looking forward to the race."

Second in GTS qualifying Saturday was veteran Martin Barkey in the No. 80 Mantella Autosport KTM X-Bow GT4 at 1m40.390s, followed by four-time 2017 race winner Rodrigo Baptista in the No. 3 Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport MR at 1m40.511s, newly-crowned GTS champion Lawson Aschenbach in the No. 10 Blackdog Speed Shop Chevrolet Camaro GT4.R. at 1m40.601s and 16-year-old Parker Chase in the No. 19 Performance Motorsports Group Ginetta G55 at 1m40.970s.

The leading GTS Am division driver Saturday and sixth overall was Derek DeBoer in the No. 007 TRG-AMR Lasalle Solutions/BRM Chronograph/Auto LeafStar/Castrol/FastLife TV Aston Martin Vantage GT4, with a best lap of 1m41.518s.

Placing second in the GTS Am category was point leader George Kurtz in the No. 04 CrowdStrike/GMG McLaren 570S at 1m42.361s. Kurtz now provisionally clinches the GTS Am drivers' championship entering this afternoon's Round 17 event, set for 5:15 p.m. PDT.

GTS Round 18 is scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 17, at 1:30 p.m. PDT. Both 50-minute races this weekend can be viewed live on www.motortrendondemand.com and www.world-challenge.com.