And then, there were two outright winners from the Pro-Am category in GT World Challenge America.
After narrowly missing out on the overall victory in Race 1 at Watkins Glen International the #04 CrowdStrike with Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 of George Kurtz and Colin Braun took a shocking victory in Race 2, seizing the lead with two laps to go after an issue befell the #33 Winward Racing AMG GT3 (Russell Ward/Philip Ellis).
The main event of a packed Sunday full of racing, Race 2 at Watkins Glen got underway as schedule at 1:15 PM local time. There was a chance of rain and thunderstorms this afternoon, but when it came time to go racing, conditions were hot and humid, yet beautiful – with ambient temperatures over 30°C and track temperatures bouncing between 45~52°C depending on how much cloud cover was over the track.
The GT World Challenge America weekend began with 18 cars, but a number of casualties dropped out by the time Sunday afternoon arrived. The #12 Ian Lacy Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 (Frank Gannett/Drew Staveley) was already scratched before Race 1, and during Saturday’s race, the #191 Zelus Motorsports Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo (Jeff Burton/Corey Lewis) crashed out, resulting in Burton and Lewis withdrawing from the weekend. And earlier that day, the #00 Team Hardpoint Porsche 911 GT3-R (PJ Hyett/Gunnar Jeannette) was scratched after Hyett got in an accident in GT America Race 2.
All the same, the 15 cars that were left by the time the green flag dropped delivered a fine race, led by Race 2 polesitter Loris Spinelli in the #6 US Racetronics AMG GT3, followed by Jordan Pepper in the green #3 K-PAX Lamborghini. Spinelli was eager to atone for a devastating setback in the final minutes of Race 1, while Pepper was hungry to help put K-PAX back to their winning ways – especially with team mate Andrea Caldarelli starting all the way back in ninth aboard the previously undefeated black #1 Lamborghini.
But over the course of the first stint, Spinelli would have the measure of the field, while Pepper began to slump down the order after being overtaken by three cars in quick succession. An issue with the diffuser underneath the #3 K-PAX Lamborghini was causing them to lose pace, and the problem would only worsen after the mid-race pit stops. Instead of challenging for the victory, the #3 K-PAX Lamborghini of Pepper and Misha Goikhberg retired after 37 laps, enough to be classified for fifth place points in the Pro class.
Meanwhile, Caldarelli got a sluggish start, dropping to 12th after the first lap and struggling to make up ground.
Spinelli’s main challenger at the front was now Ellis, who had closed to within two seconds of the race leader, in a reprise of their duel at the end of Race 1 before tyre issues knocked them both out of contention for the overall win.
The turning point in the battle between US Racetronics and Winward Racing came during the ten minute compulsory pit window. The #6 pitted at the end of lap 25, but as Steven Aghakhani had gotten aboard for his closing stint, he appeared to stall the car coming out of his box. Meanwhile, Ward suffered no such issues, and the Winward crew made a perfect pit stop to put the grey and blue #33 Mercedes out front after the pit stops.
Meanwhile, after running fourth behind the #13 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo of Ryan Dalziel in the opening stint, the #04 CrowdStrike/Riley AMG GT3 had moved up to second after pit stops. What’s more, gentleman driver Kurtz was able to stay ahead of young Aghakhani on track, matching and even surpassing his pace while Aghakhani struggled early on.
Ward was leading Kurtz by as many as 15 seconds, and had a 30 second buffer to Aghakhani as the race entered the final 20 minuites of the race. Their chances of a Pro Cup victory became a certainty after the #6 US Racetronics AMG GT3 retired with five laps left, pulling off at turn one with a possible suspension failure.
But shortly afterwards, Ward’s pace dropped significantly, by as much as five seconds per lap. Something was wrong with the Winward car, and the grey and red CrowdStrike/Riley machine was rapidly closing in, with the lead now down to just 2.6 seconds as they began the penultimate lap.
Kurtz made the move for the overall lead at the entrance of turn eight, and all Ward could do was try and bring the car home for the maximum points in his class.
Kurtz took the chequered flag after 50 laps of racing and delivered his team the Pro-Am and overall victory, winning by 3.962 seconds. This was the third Pro-Am Cup victory of the season for the newly-formed CrowdStrike/Riley Motorsports alliance that began this season. And, it was the team’s first-ever overall victory in GT World Challenge America.
For Kurtz, who departed for Spa-Francorchamps soon after the race, this was his second win of the day – he’d swept the weekend in the GT America sprint series, including a Race 2 win earlier in the day.
Braun enjoyed the challenge of his first stint and was especially proud of the victory. “It was great, it’s a lot of fun,” he said.
“These cars are hard to pass when you stick all the pros in them. We’re all just right on the ragged edge, and it’s a lot of fun to be racing those guys. I was really happy to be able to bring the car to George with a good gap over the next Pro-Am car, and then we took it to those guys. I’m proud of my team on the pit stop, we executed it perfectly. I think that’s a testament to the hard work and the commitment these guys put in.”
Ward was able to consolidate a second place overall finish, and win the Pro category in doing so – their first of the season. But Winward Racing have had a difficult year across IMSA and GT World Challenge America, with setbacks and accidents in the former series forcing them to miss the last two meetings in the latter. Losing out on a potential weekend sweep was a bitter pill to swallow, given their performance in Race 1 and their seemingly insurmountable advantage in Race 2.
“Of course, it was a bit sad that we didn’t take the actual overall win,” Ellis said after the race. “We should’ve had it again, but we’ll take the class win today.” The suspected cause of Winward’s sudden downfall was a suspension issue.
In the final laps, the other big battle was for third overall and second in Pro-Am between the #93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3 (Ashton Harrison/Mario Farnbacher), and the #94 BimmerWorld BMW M4 GT3 (Chandler Hull/Bill Auberlen).
A ferocious charge in the closing stint put Hull right behind Harrison over the closing laps, once he cleared the #13 Triarsi Ferrari of Justin Wetherill for third in class. But Harrison wouldn’t be denied, keeping the big BMW in her mirrors and holding on by less than three tenths of a second over the line.
For Harrison and Farnbacher, it was a great bounceback after a cut tyre cost them a likely Pro-Am and overall win in Race 1 yesterday, their fourth class podium of the year. For Hull and Auberlen, they spent most of Race 1 without the boot of their car attached, and were content with their fifth podium of the season.
The #13 Triarsi Ferrari of Wetherill and Dalziel came home in fifth overall, and just like yesterday, they were followed home by the Am class #23 Triarsi Ferrari (Onofrio Triarsi/Charlie Scardina) which finished sixth overall.
When Michele Beretta took over the #1 K-PAX Lamborghini in the final stint, he did all he could to charge through the field, climbing to as high as third place overall behind the eventual winning car. But with just under five minutes left, Beretta’s charge was halted due to a cut left front tyre.
But, they were able to consolidate second in Pro Cup and finish seventh overall to close out the hardest weekend of their season thus far.
Third in the Pro category and eighth overall was the #96 Turner Motorsport M4 GT3 (Michael Dinan/Robby Foley), which came back from a right front tyre puncture just five laps into the race, then a brief but disruptive electrical issue during the closing stint, to take the chequered flag.
The #45 Wright Motorsports Porsche (Charlie Luck/Jan Heylen), the overall winners from Race 1, finished ninth overall, ahead of the #43 RealTime Racing NSX (Erin Vogel/Michael Cooper) in tenth, followed by the #63 USALCO/DXDT Racing AMG GT3 (David Askew/Dirk Müller) and the #88 Zelus Lamborghini (Jason Harward/Madison Snow), with three classified retirements including the #6 US Racetronics AMG GT3.
After eight races, Caldarelli continues to lead the Pro Drivers’ Championship by 47 points over his former co-driver Pepper. In the battle for the effective third position, Aghakhani and Spinelli are just three points ahead of Dinan and Foley, 115 points to 112. K-PAX lead US Racetronics by 54 points in the Teams’ Championship, with 150 points left on the table across the remaining five races.
In the Pro-Am standings, Kurtz and Braun were able to take their Drivers’ Championship lead back out to 21 points after eight races, ahead of Luck and Heylen, who’d entered the day six points behind. Harrison/Farnbacher and Hull/Auberlen are still within reach of the top of the table, 46 and 51 points back respectively.
GT World Challenge America returns to action on the weekend of 19-21 August for the fifth race meeting of the year at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
Images © Brian Cleary, Regis Lefebure / SRO Motorsports Group America
