The Ferrari 296 GT3 of Conquest Racing, scored its first victory in North America as Manny Franco and Alessandro Balzan won Saturday’s GT World Challenge America Race 1 at Road America.
It was a win that also marked the biggest win for Conquest Racing in American sports car racing for over a decade, a first career win for Franco at his home circuit, and a return to the top step of the podium for Balzan after some time away from GT racing’s highest levels.
Franco, who was born and raised in Milwaukee – a short drive from Road America – was inspired by the chance to race at his home track. Earlier in the morning, he put the #21 Conquest Racing Ferrari on pole position for Race 1, sharing the front row with Pro-Am class championship contenders George Kurtz and Colin Braun in the #04 CrowdStrike by Riley Mercedes-AMG GT3.
Meanwhile, the #16 ACI Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R (991.2) and #33 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari withdrew ahead of the weekend, leaving the field at just 17 cars for this weekend’s pair of 90-minute races.
The path to victory was fairly straightforward for Franco and Balzan after a pair of early accidents. Will Hardeman went off at the Kink and into the concrete barrier, inflicting enough front left suspension damage to knock the #19 Esses Racing Mercedes out after just six minutes of racing. The Safety Car would come out, and then again when Pro-Am championship leader Adam Adelson lost control of his #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 991.2 out of turn seven and smacked the tyre barrier along Hurry Downs.
Once all the carnage subsided, Franco led the field away on the ensuing restart. He brought his #21 Ferrari into the pits once the ten-minute pit window opened, and a great pit stop from the Conquest Racing crew allowed Balzan to exit the pits with an even bigger advantage over his nearest rivals.
What’s more, the second-placed #28 RS1 Porsche 992 (Eric Filguieras/Stevan McAleer) dropped a place to the #94 BimmerWorld BMW M4 GT3 (Chandler Hull/Bill Auberlen) after pit stops, allowing Auberlen to gain second place.
Auberlen would start to chip away at a six-second lead, but wouldn’t come close enough to trouble Balzan. The diminutive Italian took the chequered flag after 39 laps, at a margin of victory of 2.629 seconds.
Conquest Racing founder Eric Bachelart joined his drivers in the celebration. It was his team’s first victory in a headlining sports car race since the 2012 American Le Mans Series round at Road America, when Martin Plowman and David Heinemeier Hansson piloted the Conquest Morgan LMP2 to a class win. For Balzan, it was his first notable win in the States since the 2020 Petit Le Mans – and for Franco, his first win in a GT3 car, less than a year after stepping up to this category, at his home track!
Auberlen and Hull would finish second overall and in the Pro class after starting fifth, earning precious points in the Pro championship battle with just four more races remaining.
Third overall, and the Pro-Am class winners for the third straight GT World Challenge America race, were Kurtz and Braun in the #04 CrowdStrike/Riley Mercedes.
With their third straight class win of the season, and the retirement of Adelson and co-driver Elliott Skeer, Kurtz and Braun have turned a four-point deficit into a 21-point lead in the standings. Kurtz held the class lead very convincingly throughout his opening stint, but Braun would have to hang on in the final minutes to secure another Pro-Am win.
That’s because ST Racing’s new young hotshoe, Neil Verhagen, made a rush through the field as the #38 BMW closed in on Braun late in the race.
Samantha Tan made her way up from 11th on the grid to seventh after the start of the race, then after the pit cycle, Verhagen gained three positions and set the fastest lap of the race over the course of his closing stint. He would come home in a close fourth overall, good enough for second-place points in the Pro-Am category.
This is Tan and Verhagen’s third consecutive runner-up finish in Pro-Am behind Kurtz and Braun.
The #93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 (Ashton Harrison/Mario Farnbacher) finished fifth after Farnbacher made his way past the #28 RS1 Porsche 992 of McAleer. McAleer and Filgueiras finished sixth overall and fourth in the Pro class.
Madison Snow and Jan Heylen finished seventh in their first race as a Pro class combination aboard the #45 Wright Motorsports Porsche 992, just ahead of the #53 MDK Motorsports Porsche 992 (Seth Lucas/Trenton Estep).
Filguieras and McAleer still lead the Pro standings but only by 13 points over Harrison and Farnbacher, and 31 points over Hull and Auberlen.
Rounding out the rest of the overall top ten were the #007 TRG Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 (Derek DeBoer/Valentin Hasse-Clot) in ninth and the #08 DXDT Racing Mercedes (Scott Smithson/Bryan Sellers) which bounced back from a pit lane speeding penalty to take tenth.
GT3 debutants Jon Branam and Paul Kiebler finished 14th in the new #77 TR3 Racing Mercedes, earning the Am class victory by default.
A top ten finish could have been on the cards for local squad RealTime Racing – but the #43 RealTime Mercedes (Anthony Bartone/Adam Christodolou) retired just 15 minutes short of the chequered flag with a mechanical problem. They would be classified 15th.
Images © Fabian Lagunas/SRO Motorsports Group America
