GT America powered by AWS brought the curtain down on the Grand Prix of Long Beach weekend, and in Race 2, Jason Daskalos drove to a wire-to-wire victory in the #27 CRP/Daskalos Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3.
Daskalos’ fastest lap of Race 1 gave him the pole for Sunday’s 40-minute sprint. As the field took the green flag, outside front row starter Johnny O’Connell got away slowly and dropped to fourth behind the GMG Racing cars of James Sofronas and Kyle Washington.
Washington made a risky move into turn one to grab second place, only to receive a drive-through penalty for moving out of line at the start. He dropped to seventh in class, and eighth overall, but set the fastest lap of the race in his #32 GMG Porsche 991.2 GT3 R.
Sofronas kept up with Daskalos in his #14 GMG Audi R8 LMS GT3, but even through traffic, the Mercedes was able to keep the Audi at a distance throughout the race which ran clean and green from start to finish.
It was Daskalos’ third win of the season, one which moved him into the provisional lead in the SRO3 Championship standings as the #3 SKI Autosports Audi of O’Connell finished down in third place.
Justin Rothberg collected another fourth-place finish in the #29 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 – but just behind him, Mirco Schultis put on a show as he charged through the field and finished fifth in his #70 MISHUMotors Callaway Corvette C7 GT3-R – the German journeyman set fast laps and pressured Rothberg for fourth at the end.
Dan Knox and Lone Star Racing swept the GT2 class. The #10 LSR Mercedes-AMG GT2 led wire-to-wire and even ran inside the overall top five for a large portion of the race, ultimately finishing sixth overall – ahead of three other SRO3 runners.
The running order was the same as it was in Race 1: Knox winning, from the #127 TPC by Dream Racing Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo of Aaron Farhadi in second, and the #44 GMG Racing Mercedes of Brett Holden in third.
Farhadi leads the GT2 standings after a pair of wins in Sonoma and his two runner-up finishes in Long Beach.
Meanwhile, Isaac Sherman is now a perfect four-for-four on the year in GT4, after taking another wire-to-wire win in his #098 Rotek Racing Porsche 718 Cayman GT4.
Sherman’s team-mate and car owner Robb Holland ran second behind him in the opening laps but suffered a puncture that led him to retire from the race. On the opening lap, Nicholas Shanny collided with Todd Parriott, and the damage done to Shanny’s #21 Carrus Callas Raceteam BMW M4 GT4 would also result in a retirement.
With Holland out of the picture, Sherman cruised to the win, strengthening his grip on the GT4 standings in the process.
Samantha Tan in the #38 ST Racing BMW finished second, holding off the #25 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT4 of Gray Newell by one second over the line.
Behind Newell, the #7 ACI Motorsports Porsche of Curt Swearingin and the #69 Archangel Motorsports Aston Martin of Todd Coleman finished fourth and fifth.
The cars of the GT America series will now head across the country to Sebring International Raceway for the third race meeting of the year on 3-5 May.
Images © Fabian Lagunas / SRO Motorsports America
