Mancinelli claims Sonoma PWC GT pole

To say that Italy's Daniel Mancinelli had some wild times the last two weeks would be an understatement. But the 5-foot-four racer didn't let any of his difficulties keep him from driving the No. 31 TR3 Racing/The Collection Ferrari 488 GT3 to the provisional pole position Saturday at Sonoma Raceway for the Pirelli World Challenge Grand Prix of Sonoma.

Mancinelli, unknown in North America before his debut at St. Petersburg this past March, has been the surprise of the GT field in 2017 with three SprintX race wins and three pole positions in his PWC season debut. He currently ranks in the top-five in both the GT Sprint and GT Overall points.

After a tough DNF two weeks ago at COTA, Mancinelli and his Miami-based team went through a series of rough situations with Hurricane Irma and the repair of their Ferrari. At COTA, Mancinelli's teammate, Niccolo Schiro, spun the Ferrari on the opening lap of the final SprintX race and the car sustained suspension damage. The team could not return to the Miami shop due to the hurricane.

After repairs on the car were made at Sonoma Raceway, Mancinelli hoped to walk the 2.35-mile, 12-turn circuit on Thursday, but arrived at the circuit too late. So, his first laps at Sonoma Raceway were made sight unseen during Friday morning's practice (30 minutes).

None of the trials of the previous two weeks affected Mancinelli, who recorded a new GT qualifying track record of 1m32.002s to take the pole for Saturday's 50-minute feature, set for 2:15 p.m. PT.

"Unfortunately, we did not have any testing at Sonoma Raceway and I had to learn the track quickly on Friday morning," said Mancinelli. "The first session I just tried to see the track and the direction it goes. Then, Friday afternoon I put all of the pieces together to find a way for a fast lap. After the team fixed the repairs from COTA's damage, I knew we had a good car and this morning's qualifying was very good. It has been a crazy time for us the past two weeks."

Starting on the front row with Mancinelli in the Round 18 GT event will be newly-crowned GT SprintX champion Michael Cooper in the No. 8 Cadillac Racing Cadillac ATS-V.R. at 1m32.148s.

Rounding out the top-five qualifiers in the GT division is two-time GT SprintX race winner Ryan Dalziel in the No. 2 CRP Racing/DeVilbiss Mercedes-AMG GT3 at 1m32.216s, Pierre Kaffer in the No.4 Magnus Racing Audi RS 8 LMS at 1m:32.312s, and current GT Sprint and GT overall point leader Patrick Long in the No. 58 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R at 1m32.318s.

Reigning GT champion Alvaro Parente of Portugal, a four-time 2017 GT race winner, qualified seventh Saturday in the No. 9 K-PAX Racing McLaren 650S at 1m32.472s, just behind Jon Fogarty in the No. 99 GAINSCO/Bob Stalling Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R at 1m32.328s. 

Michael Schein was the leading GTA qualifier in the No. 16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R at 1m32.893. Schein's qualifying lap also was a new GTA track record.

Round 8 is scheduled for Saturday at 2:15 p.m. PDT and will be live streamed for free on World-Challenge.com and MotorTrendOnDemand.com. Round 9 set for Sunday at 10:15 a.m. PDT and will be same-day broadcast on CBS Sports Network at 3:00 p.m. ET.