Louisiana businessman Ross Chouest and his brand new Chouest Povoledo Racing team have won the 2022 GT America series GT4 Championship in style, securing the weekend sweep at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in dramatic fashion.
Chouest drove his black and red #50 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 to class victory on the final lap. With four corners to go, race leader Gray Newell suddenly dropped off the pace, allowing Chouest to sail through to his second win in the GT4 class.
It’s the culmination of what had been a remarkable season for the second-year GT4 driver, who started this new team mid-way through last season alongside his co-driver Aaron Povoledo.
Chouest’s consistency throughout the season helped keep him in title contention despite the fact that he hadn’t won a race heading into this weekend. And with each GT4 drivers’ lowest weekend score dropped, he could shake off a wretched weekend at Sebring with ease.
Newell’s #25 Heart of Racing Team Vantage GT4 limped across the line in fourth as the #016 Hattori Motorsports Toyota GR Supra GT4 of Seth Lucas drove by into second, and the #2 GMG Racing Vantage GT4 of Jason Bell just edged out Newell over the line for third.
That was Bell’s eighth podium of the season, but it wasn’t enough for the gentleman racer from Tampa to defend his GT4 crown from last season. Bell finished six points behind Chouest in the final championship standings.
And for Newell, a cruel denial of what would have been sweet redemption for him – just over a month after his frightening crash at Road America, and after serving a one-weekend suspension for incident responsibilities, his second career win was within his grasp until the bitter end.
Moisey Uretsky (#55 Accelerating Performance Vantage GT4) finished the season in fifth, ahead of Todd Coleman (#69 Smooge Racing GR Supra) in sixth, Elias Sabo (#8 Flying Lizard Motorsports Vantage GT4) who started from the pit lane and finished seventh, and Robb Holland (#99 Rotek Racing Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport) in eighth.
The hero of the day could have been Adam Adelson, who started tenth on the GT4 grid. Showing no fear after being speared by Sabo in Race 1 on Friday, Adelson launched forward, picking up six spots by the time the field went into turn one. By the left-right chicane at turns five and six, he was on Newell’s bumper in second. And at turn ten, he snatched the lead, gaining nine places in total on the opening lap.
Adelson would have his mirrors full of Newell and Chouest for most of the race, doing everything he could to win the title. But it all came undone with less than four minutes to go: First, Newell took the lead by sliding past him up the inside of turn four, then, exiting the final corner, he brushed the grass runoff to his left and allowed Chouest to slip by. Both drivers drove deep into turn one, but Adelson was forced to run through the grass at turn one, damaging his radiator and ending his race. He consolidated third in the championship.
GT4 was the star of the show, while in the SRO3 class, champion George Kurtz closed out the year in style, taking his tenth win of the season in his #04 CrowdStrike Racing with Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 – and his fifth in a row to end 2022.
Kurtz started from pole after setting the fastest lap of the race, ahead of the #191 TR3 Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 of Utah’s Jeff Burton. Kurtz drove another commanding race from the front, leading by over ten seconds late in the race.
But he had to nurse an issue in the closing laps, which explains a 1.7 second margin of victory. All the same, the founder of CrowdStrike was able to cap off his season with a victory – hours after losing the GT World Challenge America Pro-Am Championship in gut-wrenching fashion.
Mirco Schultis (#70 MISHUmotors Callaway Corvette C7 GT3-R) battled with Andy Pilgrim (#56 SKI Autosport Ferrari 458 Italia GT3) for most of the race. In the final five minutes, Pilgrim got past Schultis into turn seven, trying to atone for a DNS in Race 1.
But on the penultimate lap, Schultis drove past Pilgrim to retake second position. They both were able to close in on Kurtz, but ran out of time to take a shock victory.
Schultis’ second place finish helped the German journeyman racer get third in the SRO3 Drivers’ Championship, ahead of Jason Harward, who retired after five laps. Harward also switched back to his #88 Zelus Motorsports Lamborghini that had just won the Am Class hours ago in the Indy 8 Hours. Pilgrim ended his season in third place , after Burton slipped to fourth.
2022 SRO3 runner-up Jason Daskalos finished fifth in his #27 Daskalos Motorsports Audi R8 LMS GT2, and Kyle Washington (#032 GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3-R) recovered from another first-lap incident to finish sixth.
CJ Moses finished eighth overall in his #58 GMG Racing Audi R8 LMS GT2. In eight races, the Amazon Web Services CISO recorded a best overall finish of fourth in Race 1 on Friday, and hopefully established a strong foothold for the new GT2 category in the states for others to join.
Images © Fabian Lagunas / SRO Motorsports America; Matt Fraver, Doug Mathews, Chris Owens / Penske Entertainment Group
