Two top teams in the Fanatec GT World Challenge America series have withdrawn in advance of Race 2 at Road America this afternoon.
On the first lap of Race 1, the #6 US Racetronics Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Steven Aghakhani spun out of turn three, triggering a four-car chain reaction accident.
Aghakhani was struck by the #96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 of Michael Dinan, who was behind another car and couldn’t react in time until it was too late.
Both cars retired immediately and, as we have learned this morning, will not start Race 2 this afternoon.
It is yet another stroke of misfortune for the US Racetronics team, who have had the speed to win multiple races throughout the season. Loris Spinelli, Aghakhani’s co-driver, qualified the car on pole position for Race 2 and was due to share the front row with the Race 1 winning #33 Winward Racing AMG GT3 (Russell Ward/Philip Ellis).
Winward Racing will now move up into pole position with the #93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 (Ashton Harrison/Mario Farnbacher) occupying the outside of row one.
Turner Motorsport, Dinan, and Robby Foley were due to start 11th this afternoon but the damage to the right front compartment, combined with the M4 GT3’s relative scarcity of spare parts, have meant that they are packing up and making an early departure.
The two teams have had an on-track rivalry stemming from multiple on-track collisions, and entered the weekend separated by just three points in the Pro class drivers’ championship.
Both are expected to return for the upcoming round at Sebring International Raceway in September.
Another car that was involved in an incident yesterday, the #91 TR3 Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 (Jeff Burton/Corey Lewis), is questionable to start Race 2.
Images © SRO Motorsports Group America
