Jason Daskalos had raced around the streets of Long Beach before during his time in the Pirelli World Challenge – but on Saturday evening, the veteran driver finally claimed his first win in a thrilling first race of the weekend for GT America powered by AWS.
Daskalos got the better of polesitter Johnny O’Connell and second-place starter James Sofronas in the final 12 minutes of the 40-minute sprint race. All three had to navigate GT2 and GT4 traffic perfectly. Here, Daskalos got past Sofronas for second place and then pressured the leader O’Connell, who seemed assured of a pole-to-win victory.
Daskalos his move for the win on O’Connell with six minutes remaining with a daring pass down Seaside Avenue and into turn nine, and despite a late surge from O’Connell, Daskalos took the win.
It was his and the #27 CRP/Daskalos Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3’s second win of the season, and he also set the fastest lap of the race in the final minutes to win the pole for Race 2 on Sunday evening.
O’Connell in the #3 SKI Autosports Audi R8 LMS GT3 finished just 0.298s behind in second. The #14 GMG Racing Audi of Sofronas rounded out the Race 1 podium, another three seconds back.
That trio broke well clear of the rest of the SRO3 class field, which saw the #29 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 of Justin Rothberg and the #32 GMG Porsche 991.2 GT3 R of Kyle Washington round out the top five, less than three-tenths apart from one another.
Mirco Schultis finished sixth in his #70 MISHUMotors Callaway Corvette C7 GT3-R.
In GT2, Dan Knox picked up his first win in his first race of 2024, driving the #10 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT2 to a wire-to-wire win.
But Aaron Farhadi kept it close the whole way in the #127 TPC by Dream Racing Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo, taking the runner-up spot by just over two seconds. Brett Holden’s #44 GMG Racing Mercedes rounded out the class podium in third.
And in GT4, Isaac Sherman extended his winning streak with a class win over his Rotek Racing team-mate Robb Holland.
Sherman seized the lead from polesitter Gray Newell at the start of the race and the #098 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 began driving away to a comfortable margin, while Holland slipped by in the #099 Porsche to second.
The only driver that could keep up was Holland, who gradually closed in on Sherman, but ultimately had to take second place as Sherman recorded a win in his first-ever street circuit race.
Curt Swearingin made it a Porsche podium sweep after the #7 ACI Motorsports Cayman fought its way past the #25 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT4 of Newell for third. Newell finished fourth, followed by the #38 ST Racing BMW M4 GT4 of Samantha Tan, and the #8 Flying Lizard Motorsports Aston Martin of Elias Sabo in sixth.
Race 2 starts Sunday at 4:20 PM PDT.
Images © Fabian Lagunas / SRO Motorsports America
