It is time for race two for GT World Challenge America at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. We have an hour and a half on the clock. It is up to the polesitter to set the pace. What can Matteo Cressoni do to fend off Trent Hindman. Once Hindman is in the acceleration zone, we can go racing. We're off! Green flag at Circuit of the Americas as Kyle Marcelli dives inside Cressoni for an Acura 1-2. Rodrigo Baptista goes off the road and Colin Braun goes around him. Ryan Dalziel lets Baptista in. The two Racer's Edge Acura's are really going for it. Ryan Dalziel is defending from Jeroen Bleekemolen, running globally in Porsche's. He wants to move in on Dalziel and the Scotsman defends from the Dutchman.
Bleekemolen gambled in a damp qualifying session on Saturday and is in the back of the grid. Watch out so you don't carry too much speed through turn 19. Bleekemolen has to be thinking, "OK. Now I'm finished being Generous Jeroen, and I have to go for it! Out of my way, fools. I'm moving ahead!" Of course, he will be a little more circumspect than that. These blokes are racing drivers, not jousting knights. SRO will be enforcing track limits. Meanwhile, Max Root was being monstered by Greg Liefooghe. Max Root in the Porsche is 20 years old, but he still has a great racing resume. These chaps are stacked up behind the Park Place Racing Porsche in the hands of Alain Metni, car #73 he is sharing with David Ducote. Metni has had a pole and a win in Porsche GT Cup. Oh boy! Some argy bargy early, look.
Guy Cosmo is right on the back door of Greg Liefooghe and, kathunk. Around he goes! Good evasive driving there, by Max Root who avoids the shemozzle entirely. Root tucked his nose into no man's land, and Liefooghe turned in while Cosmo didn't see him and, bish bash bosh, you know the rest. No real damage. Just a couple of blokes trying to restart their stalled GT3 cars so they can get back in the race. We have a single file running order and the leaders are all around on the other side of the circuit. Trent Hindman is opening his margin over the sister car, Kyle Marcelli at the wheel of it. Let's take a squizz at the replay of this little melee between Cosmo and Liefooghe. Greg Liefooghe was turning in to make a pass and Guy Cosmo had his nose already into the corner.
Liefooghe got turned and Max Root was a lucky chap that evasive driving saved him from being casualty number three. In the meantime, focus forward and keep going is Liefooghe's motto. He's back on track. Rich Baek in the second Vital Speed Ferrari almost made contact but avoided the spinning duo. Trent Hindman and Kyle Marcelli in the Acura's are moving ahead swiftly of the two Ferrari's of Matteo Cressoni and Jeff Westphal who are in hot pursuit. Colin Braun rounds out the top five in the Mercedes AMG GT3. We are settling into a rhythm and a sweet spot with the Pirelli P Zero tires as Rodrigo Baptista is moving away from Ryan Dalziel.
Baptista, the Brazilian ace, looks inside Colin Braun and yes indeed, he makes the pass. Colin Braun wants to counter attack but thinks better of it, deciding discretion is indeed the better part of valor right now. Discretion the better part of valor? Not so much. Here comes Braun back on Baptista and Ryan Dalziel is in the pound seats if these two tangle with each other. Baptista won here with K-PAX Bentley last year piloting that car with Maxime Soulet. The brand new Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo, is racing against the Ferrari 488 GT3 which is a previous generation car, not the evo version. Evo of course, stands for evolution.
The tail on that Ferrari stepped out big style, and so Baptista had to correct to avoid spinning. Rodrigo Baptista is not done yet. He wants by Colin Braun in a hurry. Baptista keeps wanting to step into the next room but Braun is right there to slam the door in his face. Let me in! Let me in! Not on your life, Mister. All this scrapping is allowing Jeff Westphal to be cackling like a madman and saying, "OK, boys. If you're going to fight, then I'll just pull away and whistle off into the distance." Track position is crucial, but don't hold people up. The #87 BMW M6 GT3 for Stephen Cameron Racing is in the pit lane, and Greg Liefooghe waits to have the damage on the car repaired.
Steven Cameron Racing won the GT4 SprintX Series last year. But this is a new season and they want to make the car drivable. Jeroen Bleekemolen was lagging behind and now, he's gotten the Pirelli tires up to pressure. Bleekemolen will have to motor if he wants to move up. Trent Hindman leads this motor race with team mate Shelby Blackstock. Circuit of the Americas has lots of racing room. These cars are so aerodynamically dependent espcially through the turns as Hindman turns a 2:05.634 lap time. Hindman is flying right now, managing his tires. They are on a long stint and will do over half the race on one set of tires before the mandatory pit stop to change them.
Matteo Cressoni has been driving Ferrari's for a long while now. Jeff Westphal is next up, sharing the Vital Speed car with Trevor Baek. Colin Braun has put some daylight between himself and Rodrigo Baptista. Baptista is very persistent at this point. Martin Barkey says Kyle Marcelli is running well right now. We have tire warmers allowed in this championship now, as SRO has changed the rules. Martin Barkey says that there are lots of strong teams competing against them. Racer's Edge is running 1-2 right now and Martin Barkey, team manager and driver, he is running real well. Trent Hindman runs an Acura in GT3 competition for a different team in a different championship, and he knows the car in and out, both here in SRO and in the other championship he races in.
The battle for third continues between the two Ferrari's of Matteo Cressoni and Jeff Westphal. Westphal is racing in four championships in 2020. He won in GT4 last year. Trevor Baek is a young man who is moving up from Ferrari Challenge and so he can only improve. Colin Braun is fifth overall and fourth in Pro Am. Max Root leads the Am category. TR3 Racing with their Ferrari, with Gregory Romanelli, team owner, they showed up at St. Petersburg in Florida on the street course with driver Daniel Mancinelli and made a real statement. Baptista, Dalziel, Bleekemolen, and Root are next in the top ten running order.
TR3 has a great deal of experience racing Ferrari's especially in GT3. So much elevation change between turns one and two. Turn one opens to the apex, but gravity allows for late braking. The apex flattens out and you risk overshooting the corner. We watch again, Max Root in the #20 Porsche. He is gaining experience, has the speed, and the potential. Colin Braun will turn over the #04 Mercedes to George Kurtz soon. Kurtz won a GT4 Am championship a few years ago and he is working onn his race craft. George Kurtz is now really comfortable driving the car.
This is a tough field even though we've lost the Pro/Pro driver combinations. Jeroen Bleekemolen and Ryan Dalziel are two more professional drivers who run very well. How will the Am drivers stack up? They have various degrees of speed and experience. We'll see more ebb and flow when the second half comes after the pit stops that include tire changes, fueling, and driver changes of course. Jeroen Bleekemolen recognizes that James Sofronas, his co-driver is extremely experienced. We mentioned yesterday, that Sofronas has raced this championship for many, many years. Alain Metni in the Park Place Porsche is second in the Am division.
Greg Liefooghe is back on track as well after some time in the lane. We wonder what is going on with Guy Cosmo. His co-driver Patrick Byrne says they are coming from the back of the field. The tire regulations for the Pirelli tires have changed, and the rain washed out their qualifying setup. The team is very capable, but the new tire caught them out. They will have time to test between now and the next race that you'll hear about at the end of this race report. Guy Cosmo is going for it right now. Patrick Byrne explaining about losing track time and then, not getting it back, puts you behind the eight ball.
Driving a race car is a learning process. The minutest changes can affect performance of a race car and that is something that we've talked about in several races before. Max Root is making an unscheduled pit stop after being in the Am class lead. The pit crew opens the passenger side door and goes in to look for something. Root was running consistent times of 2:07 dead. Alain Metni is going to make a fw more starts this year, a legendary team that has run a number of championships globally. Metni is also looking into the new Sports Club championship coming up later in the year. Baptista is being reported to the stewards for track limits. The rules must be enforced. Baptista will have to be cautious.
Something is amiss with a loose seat belt in the Wright Motorsports Porsche and so now, Max Root is back on his way. But, a loose seatbelt is spooky and uncomfortable. It cost them time as well. Colin Braun is catching Jeff Westphal while Matteo Cressoni has pulled away. Rodrigo Baptista was a little wide. Be careful so you don't get a drive through penalty. This track is a stewards nightmare as was mentioned yesterday. Trent Hindman has runa 2:06.5 and Kyle Marcelli ran a 2:08 dead. The battle continues between Baptista, Dalziel, and Bleekemolen. You cannot hit the disappear button if you are the driver trying to get out of the way.
Cressoni is closing on Marcelli, and fast. Kyle Marcelli leads Pro Am and is second in the overall. Cressoni has the carrot dangling in front of him, and the pit stop window will open in six minutes and will last for ten minutes, where anyone can hit the pit lane. The delta is 80 seconds. One hiccup anywhere can really put you behind. If anything goes wrong, you'll lose track position. Marcelli responded to Cressoni, opening the gap, as Ryan Dalziel is pushing Rodrigo Baptista. Dalziel has been ill this weekend. Adrenaline is great short-term medicine.
Hindman leads followed by Marcelli and Cressoni. Matteo Cressoni was the fastest man on the road as we look at the window for pit stops being between the next three and 13 minutes. With the Pro/Am driver teams, you want to keep your pro driver in the car a little longer than your Am driver although the duo of Trent Hindman and Shelby Blackstock is a Silver/Silver duo. Ryan Dalziel is pressing Rodrigo Baptista. Matteo Cressoni is doing likewise, chasing down Kyle Marcelli. The esses are very tight. Don't get behind in your steering input through this section of track. Trent Hindman is coming up to lap Greg Liefooghe in the #87 BMW M6 GT3. That is the Steven Cameron Racing, BMW of San Francisco entry.
Who will hit the lane? Circuit of the Americas can suit the Acura really well. The ride height is kept under control to stop understeer. The pit window is now open. Cressoni is pushing but Marcelli may be pushing even harder. Now, we also see Guy Cosmo eating up Alain Metni. The Porsche and the Bentley are fairly equal despite being two totally different platforms as we have seen here in GT America and also in GT Europe and in the endurance events of the Intercontinental GT Challenge. Metni is running really well. Guy Cosmo has been in discussion with team manager Darren Law about adjusting and dialing in the car. Cosmo is trying to make a move on Metni but might not have enough confidence in the car to be able to do it.
Metni saw that move coming. He's still looking. The pit window is open. Metni is doing well to keep Cosmo at bay but into turn one, he passes Metni. The Porsche plants the power really well with the engine over the drive wheels and here comes Trent Hindman to the lane. Trent Hindman is out of the car, and now, Shelby Blackstock is into the car. Two mechanics, and one wheel gun, to make the tire changes. 80 seconds is the minimum delta. Rich Baek is also in the lane turning the #6 Vital Speed Motorsports Ferrari over to Mark Issa as well. Blackstock was gunning the engine and on the rev limiter and the mechanic was counting down over the radio.
They were delayed, four and a half seconds outside the minimum pit delta. Hindman came in with a seven second lead. Shelby Blackstock has fresh Pirelli P Zero tires now. Kyle Marcelli has stayed out longer. You have to book it, put the welly down right now. Ryan Dalziel is in the lane as well coming from seventh in class and Greg Liefooghe is in the lane as well handing over to Henry Schmitt. Also, David Askew will take over from Ryan Dalziel. Get the new tires into the sweet spot. That is the key. Askew has fine tuned his racing over the winter, the winter festival race at Thermal Club in California, to work on race craft, speed etc., kind of like spring training in baseball. Managing stress is also a big deal.
Matteo Cressoni, meanwhile is pushing the Acura, the Racer's Edge car. Next time by they will pit. There's three minutes left in the pit stop window. Rodrigo Baptista is in the lane and will hand the #1 car over to Martin Fuentes who has won three GT Am titles in the last four years. The lead battle is hot now between Marcelli and Cressoni. Pit stop time for the #1 Ferrari and they had to wait and gun the engine on the car. Shelby Blackstock is cutting into the gap, although he lost time in the lane. Squadra Corsa got that stop done extraordinarily well. Into the lane now, the #80 Racer's Edge Acura. The pit lane speed limit is 50 kilometers per hour (31 miles an hour). That's really slow.
Box, box, box for the Racer's Edge Acura. Any hiccup will cost serious time. Pit stop time as well for the #31 Ferrari. Cressoni out of the car and Ziad Ghondour now in. One of the Vital Speed Ferrari's has rotated. That's Mark Issa in the #6 car. Ghandour is back out and so is Martin Barkey. It'll be close between Barkey and Blackstock and Shelby Blackstock goes right around the outside. That was a crucial moment now that the pit window is closed. We will race to the finish as Ziad Ghandor is being pressurized by George Kurtz. James Sofronas has taken over from Jeroen Bleekemolen but their pit delta was 18 seconds too long! Ouch! That hurts! Shelby Blackstock is going for his second victory in his GT3 debut weekend.
We shall know very soon how the order falls with just under 40 minutes to go. George Kurtz is monstering Ziad Ghandour. Kurtz has a run and he gets chopped and here comes Henry Schmitt as well. Ziad Ghandour is going in for a shallow entrance to the corner and now, Martin Fuentes has a huge head of steam, pressurizing Henry Schmitt. Schmitt allows Fuentes by and George Kurtz has to take evasive action and here comes Martin Fuentes and Ziad Ghandour, but Kurtz parks Ghandour and Fuentes will have the juice to maybe go by both of these chaps. George Kurtz is going for it. Kurtz has the door slammed firmly in his face.
David Ducote has taken over the Park Place Porsche from Alain Metni but he's off into the gravel trap. Ducote has beached the car and it might just sit there, but there's too much time left in the motor race for it to be down there. Ziad Ghandour was very quick in Ferrari Challenge. He's done GT3 Cup in the Middle East and he also did some rallying in which he earned the nickname "Z Hog". The #6 Ferrari is out. Game over. Mark Issa explains that he was looking for an opportunity and he spun the car. It's game over and now, we have a safety car on track. Issa has a good quote, "sometimes rock bottom teaches you what a mountaintop won't."
That's a good one. David Ducote spun across the esses and landed in the gravel trap. He didn't make any contact with the wall. The complexion of this motor race is going to change in the last half hour. James Sofronas is back into a contending position. Martin Fuentes is as well. The field is formed up behind the Acura NSX GT3 safety car and James Sofronas is in the lane, making a tire pressure adjustment. David Ducote is back in the race and we will get back to gren soon. That was quite a spin for Ducote, pinning the aero. He got a last minute callup to come and race. He was thrown in at the deep end, and is surely a Pro Am driver.
Metni called Ducote and asked him, "hey, man, what are you up to this weekend?" Ducote replied, "I don't know" and Metni said, "dude, get off the sofa, and come and race!" Ducote probably replied, "OK. I will bring my firesuit and my helmet and be ready to rumble." Again, we've just seen the pit stop on the #14 GMG Racing Porsche with team manager, Brad Kettler, who won the 24 Hours of Le Mans six times as a team boss. The safety car will pick up the pace to give the drivers speed on their restart. Here we go again. We have the two Acura's and then George Kurtz and Martin Fuentes right on their six.
Fuentes gets a run on Kurtz. Kurtz defends the inside. Patrick Byrne is way down on thwe inside too and the #7 Trevor Baek driven Vital Speed Ferrari was tipped into a spin but also, there's heavy damage to the left rear wheel. Over and out for that Ferrari by the look of it. We will have another yellow flag too here it seems. Yikes! No yellow called yet. These drivers are still fighting. Kurtz defends from Fuentes down the back straight. Yikes! Fuentes moves past the Mercedes of George Kurtz. Every team is monitoring radio from Race Control and we now have a Full Course Yellow. Martin Fuentes will gain and poor old James Sofronas will be on the back foot.
Big damage and no front bonnet on Patrick Byrne's #8 Bentley. He and Guy Cosmo will have to go for it at the next race. The marshals are retrieving cars and bodywork from the track. Three Acura's at the front, including the safety car. How will the battle for the lead play out between Martin Barkey and Shelby Blackstock? We'll find out here very shortly. Guy Cosmo says that the partnership with K-PAX and Bentley has been something to be proud of, but they have to focus on planning for the next event. They are just not in it. Patrick Byrne did say that there is damage and Cosmo says he feels badly for the Vital Speed team as well.
It wasn't an egregious move but it was something that did cause massive damage to the Bentley and that was quite the wallop. K-PAX team boss Darren Law shakes his head in disbelief. This is a teachable moment. Remember to present yourself in someone's mirror when you want to make a pass. Byrne also is a champion in prototype competition in the Asian Le Mans Series. Bentley will come back. K-PAX has won four titles and won 59 World Challenge races. We have a restart with 17 minutes left on the board. Martin Barkey is caught behind Blackstock and Shelby Blackstock runs away from the rest of the field.
Poor old Barkey is being challenged by Martin Fuentes. He has to regroup. Fred Poordad has gotten into the #20 Wright Motorsports Porsche and leads the Am class running sixth overall. James Sofronas makes a move on David Askew. Sofronas is coming in a hurry. We are watching the Fuentes/Barkey and Sofronas/Poordad scraps. George Kurtz is behind Martin Fuentes. The Pro Am battle is covered by the proverbial blanket. Barkey si finding room over Fuentes. He is pressing hard. Barkey moves ahead of Fuentes and now, George Kurtz is not going to sit around and wait. He lights the afterburners on that Mercedes and flies 'round both of them! Yikes! Oh my! There's some contact there between Barkey and Kurtz!
Martin Fuentes says, "muchos gracias" and goes right by. Fuentes makes it stick. Did any of those cars sustain damage after that concertina effect? Trent Hindman is scampering away. Kurtz wants Barkey and he makes the move and slams the door in Zaid Ghandor's face. All of this argy bargy is allowing James Sofronas to catch up. Wow! A wild spin for Fred Poordad! He made contact with Martin Barkey and got pitched off the road! Thank heavens for runoff room! That was close. Things are going off the charts here at Circuit of the Americas! Yikes! Martin Fuentes is the Pro Am leader, second on the road.
Sofronas should be OK. Fred Poordad is backing the Porsche into a safe zone. Kurtz dives for the apex, releasing the brake and he clobbers Martin Barkey who clobbers Martin Fuentes. Barkey did have some damage and Poordad got a run on Barkey and three into one won't go. James Sofronas is in the lane and Sofronas had Poordad come across his front end before he cannoned off the road and thankfully didn't crash! Barkey is in the lane and the left front tire is change. These GT3 cars have ABS but it's not as much of a panacea as you'd like it to be. Bleed out the brake pressure to get the brakes back in your corner.
Shelby Blackstock leads by five seconds followed by Martin Fuentes and George Kurtz. Kurtz's Mercedes is relatively healthy. Ghandour has shown controlled aggression. We have half a dozen races to race this year. This is round one. Eight minutes left in the motor race. Fuentes and Kurtz are running quicker than Ghandor although Fuentes has a tire chatter on that car. It's too bad to see the #14 GMG Motorsports Porsche. The suspension is damaged and it's game over. It's a scrap between Fuentes and Kurtz in Pro Am and yes, the GMG Porsche has a flat tire on the right rear. The right side of the car is completely pancaked.
Kurtz is going to throw everything bar the kitchen sink at Fuentes before the end of the motor race. This Fuentes/Kurtz scrap is pretty incredible. Is the Ferrari entirely healthy? This is for the Pro Am class win. You can hear the tire squeal on the Ferrari. These two blokes have a lot of daylight between themselves and Zaid Ghandor. David Askew and Martin Barkey are next. Kurtz got close and then lost air on the nose. The car washed out. Shelby Blackstock will have two laps remaining and this is good news as George Kurtz can keep battling Martin Fuentes.
Fred Poordad is back on track to get the victory in the Am class for himself and Max Root. Randy Hembry is the new Race Director for GT World Challenge America. He will have a lot on his plate to analyze after this weekend. One lap to go for Shelby Blackstock. This Silver/Silver driver combination class will be interesting as the season goes on. Will we see more Silver/Silver driver pairings? The Hindman/Blackstock team have the magic potion for winning here in Texas. Colin Braun is probably on the radio to George Kurtz saying "bring it home, and think of the big picture." Six rounds, a dozen races. A few corners to go and it'll be time to break out the broom.
Yes indeed. Break out the broom! Shelby Blackstock and Trent Hindman sweep the weekend as Martin Fuentes and Rodrigo Baptista win Pro Am.
Overall/Silver: #93 Blackstock/Hindman Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3
Pro Am: #1 Baptista/Fuentes Squadra Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3
Am: #73 Ducote/Metni Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R
The next event on the schedule, will be the doubleheader on Victoria Day weekend at Mosport Park (Canadian Tire Motorsport Park), in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada, as GT World Challenge America goes north of the border, the third weekend in May. Stay tuned for the action in that race. It ought to be very exciting. So long for now.
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