Memo Gidley and Jason Daskalos won last weekend’s GT America series races at Sebring International Raceway, setting up a showdown between the two at the final round in Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the GT America SRO3 class championship.
Gidley and the #101 TKO Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 won Race 1 on Saturday after taking the pole position earlier in the morning. It was his first win since Race 2 at VIRginia International Raceway in June, and his sixth of the year.
He led from the drop of the green flag for all 40 minutes of racing, as championship rival Daskalos finished second in his #27 CRP Racing Mercedes, ten seconds off the win.
Daskalos held off the #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) of Adam Adelson, who took the final podium place in SRO3 ahead of the #04 CrowdStrike by Riley Mercedes of George Kurtz, the #427 RealTime Racing Mercedes of Anthony Bartone, and the #41 CRP Racing Mercedes of Todd Treffert.
Gidley set the fastest lap in Race 1 and would have started from pole position in Race 2, but after the race, he was given a three-position grid penalty for an inoperable tyre pressure management system (TPMS) which sent him down to fourth and put Daskalos on pole position on Sunday morning.
Daskalos took the initiative and led from pole position ahead of Kurtz and Adelson, but Gidley went on the attack early. He got past Adelson for third place, then with 20 minutes left, he passed Kurtz for second.
Gidley closed down what was a gap of almost five seconds, but Daskalos held on at the finish line to take his fourth win of the year, by just 0.287 seconds. With Gidley in second, it proved to be a critical victory as Daskalos goes into the final weekend at Indy with a chance at winning the SRO3 title.
The gap between Gidley and Daskalos remains at 18 points as it did at the start of the Sebring weekend.
The ageless Johnny O’Connell and his equally classic, first-generation #3 SKI Autosport Audi R8 LMS made a push late in the race and took third place, with Kurtz in fourth and Adelson in fifth, then Treffert in sixth.
Kurtz’s SRO3 title defence comes to an end as he was mathematically eliminated from the championship, but he’s still assured of third place in the standings. Meanwhile, Bartone, O’Connell, and Adelson are separated by just 15 points in a race for fourth.
In the GT4 class, Jason Bell extended his championship lead on the strength of a Race 1 victory. The #2 Flying Lizard Motorsports Aston Martin Vantage GT4 of Bell got by pole sitter Robb Holland and his #99 Rotek Racing Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 to take the lead, and he went on to lead all the way, and win the race by over three seconds.
It was only Bell’s second win of the year, the first since race two on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida in March.
Holland held on to second place by just three-tenths over the #8 Flying Lizard Aston Martin of Elias Sabo in third. However, later that day, Sabo got involved in an opening-lap crash in the GT4 America race. Sabo’s GT America chassis had to be drafted in as a replacement, and the #8 car withdrew from GT America Race 2 on Sunday.
Bell was determined to pull off the weekend sweep and all but guarantee himself a GT4 class title for the second time in three years, doing so by leading comfortably from the start of Race 2.
Tony Gaples, who finished fourth in Race 1, effectively got to start third with Sabo’s withdrawal, and with 20 minutes to go, his #5 Blackdog Speed Shop Chevrolet Camaro GT4 got past Holland to take second place.
Bell and Gaples were running tail-to-nose on the final lap when Bell slid out of Tower Turn (turn 13). Bell almost countersteered into Gaples’ path but the two avoided making contact with each other, and Gaples drove through the gap to take the win in dramatic fashion!
Not only was this Gaples’ first win of the 2023 season, this is his first win in SRO Motorsports America competition in six years. But unlike last time, when Gaples suffered a mighty crash in the 2017 finale at Sonoma Raceway and was given the GTS class win on countback, the 20-year veteran could properly celebrate this victory.
Bell still managed to finish second, with Holland in third. The #50 Chouest Povoledo Racing Aston Martin of Ross Chouest had a tough weekend, finishing ninth in Race 1 after a broken diffuser, and seventh in Race 2.
But, with two races left, three drivers are still mathematically eligible for the championship in GT4. Bell has a commanding lead in the standings, with a 35-point gap to Holland in second, and 39 points to defending GT4 champion Chouest in third.
RACE 1 RESULT >> | RACE 2 RESULT >>
Images © Brian Cleary / SRO Motorsports America
