The first qualifying session for the Challenge North America drivers produced the toughest battle seen so far in this first day of action for the Finali Mondiali at Imola.
The battle for pole went to the US driver Manny Franco, who with a lap of 1m43.881s took the chequered flag just a whisker ahead of championship leader Jeremy Clarke, who saw his hopes of scoring the extra point for pole dashed with Franco’s last-ditch effort.
In any case, he will have the advantage of starting ahead of his rivals in the title chase, because Matt Kurzejewski and Jason McCarthy line up on row 2.
The rest of the field were a bit further behind, starting with the poleman for the Trofeo Pirelli AM, Dylan Medler, fifth in 1m44.967s. Out of the title contenders for this category, who arrived at Imola separated by just six points, the quickest was Todd Coleman, ninth overall and third in class. Slightly behind was leader Dave Musial Jr, while Alfred Caiola, only 15th overall and last in his grouping, looked to be in a bit more difficulty.
Moving onto the Coppa Shell, pole position was set by Omar Balkisson, who stopped the clocks with a time of 1m46.242s, putting him in 13th place, three places ahead of 2022 champion Michael Petramalo. Finally, in the Coppa Shell AM, the early conquest of the title didn’t put an end to the hunger of Tony Davis, who took his fourth pole of the season.
The session was interrupted twice by the red flags; first, to allow the marshals to remove the cars of Luis Peruquia and Jeffrey Nunberg, and then when Rey Acosta ended up in the run-off area at the Tamburello.
