The final race of the weekend at Circuit of the Americas is upon us. It is time for race two of GT America. GT America is a new category but is old school with a combination of cars with single drivers in a sprint format of 40 minutes for the race. A great mix of cars and drivers are set to compete. It is toasty with ambient temps in the low to mid 80s. We are set to go green here at Circuit of the Americas for the second and final time in GT America! Yes indeed! We have a green flag and we’re underway! The front row has Brendon Iribe in the #70 Inception Racing with Optimum Motorsports McLaren 720S GT3, alongside Jason Daskalos in the #27 Daskalos Motorsports Audi R8 LMS Ultra.
Yesterday’s winner, James Sofronas, is sixth. George Kurtz aboard the Crowdstrike Mercedes
AMG GT3, he is trying to avoid a repeat of the heartbreak of yesterday’s race,
starting caboose on the field. Green
flag and they fan out four, five-wide as Sofronas wants to move, riding the
cushion. Third spot for the Lamborghini
and poor old Charlie Luck in the Masters class ranked Wright Motorsports
Porsche 911 GT3R, car #45, is off the pace already, just as this race begins.
Brendon Iribe in the lead of the motor race. Tire pressures building as Jason Daskalos is pushing hard. Cold and damp yesterday. Hot and greasy today. Well, maybe not too hot and greasy, but much warmer. James Sofronas is making up ground but has Jason Harward in the #88 Zelus Motorsports Lamborghini Huracan GT3, ready to pounce. Iribe is eking out a gap on Jason Daskalos as we speak. Ooh! Tight squeeze and some argy bargy between the Sofronas and Harward, and Harward, pushing the envelope, spins out! Blimey O’Reilly! That was forcing the issue.
Cold tires for Harward, pinching it down the inside and is now caboose on the field, waiting to safely re-enter. Jeff Burton has made up four places. Into turn 12, Sofronas goes wide, and Harward wants to make an inside move, but a slight touch, losing grip on the rear tires, spins him out. Jeff Burton passes by Kyle Washington. A pass on a Porsche, by an Audi. Jeff Burton is in the Master’s class. He was down in tenth overall and is moving up. In the dry, Brendon Iribe has scampered away from the others. This is Inception Motorsport’s American debut.
James Sofronas says he had tires to make fastest lap but forgot about it. However, he is moving up. It’s been a while since he raced, after having shoulder surgery. We have a Full Course Yellow, and another thud with big damage between two Aston Martins! Jeepers creepers! What is this? This, ladies and gentlemen would be a pig’s breakfast. Or maybe it is a scrapyard. #00 is Matt Dalton in the Notlad Racing Aston Martin Vantage, crunching into the #120 Porsche Cayman driven by Adam Adelson for the Premier Sportscar team! We saw Dalton have a huge crackup in Pirelli GT4 America and now, the backup chassis he must use, is also heavily damaged.
Sweeping across the apex, is misfortune for two cars and two drivers. Full Course Yellow, with 15 minutes on the board already. James Sofronas will be closer, and so will Jason Daskalos, to Brendon Iribe, who had been whistling off into the distance. The McLaren has come alive. Meanwhile, Charlie Luck who was off the pace, that Porsche is now moving. He is jumbled into the GT4 field. It appears he moved too soon. Alex Welch wondered what was going on. Luck maybe had to do a reset of the electronics. He was a two-time Master’s class winner at Sonoma last time out in March. C.J. Moses is in the field today, and he makes his season debut. Poor old Moses was supposed to race at Sonoma, but like our colleague Calvin Fish, on that weekend, was dealing with the massive pain and discomfort of kidney stones. Ugh!
We have a safety car on track, for obvious reasons. C.J. Moses, sat out yesterday’s rain soaked
event here at Circuit of the Americas as well, and he is a newbie to GT3
racing. A prudent decision to not take a
risk. Matt Dalton went in way too
deep. Adam Adelson also raced in the
Porsche Cup races this weekend. He was
very lucky he was farther into the turn, so he did not get hit in the door
directly. This will be a long
yellow. We are going to lose 10-15
minutes of this short race.
Top speeds on AWS Race Vision tell us that the fastest driver is Brendon Iribe at 155.9 miles an hour while others are within range and tied for the slowest speed thus fat at 153.4 miles per hour, we have Jason Daskalos and Kyle Washington. Brendon Iribe has been impressive racing in GT4 and moving up to GT3. He is a successful businessman, but he wants to take time to race. Ollie Milroy, his team mate is a good one to have. Ross Chouest, in GT4, he is running well for RENNTech, leading in GT4 followed by Jason Bell and Rob Holland, a veteran of sports and touring car racing.
Mercedes, Aston Martin, Ford, many brands involved here in GT America. We will also see more GT2 cars in GT America this year, rather than racing GT2 cars in the GT World Challenge America races. Seat time, and learning tracks are the key here. The SRO championship is structured in a ladder system. We remain under the safety car with 25 minutes left on the board. Now, we are back to green! Brendon Iribe has the hole shot, but now, Jason Daskalos is immediately being monstered by James Sofronas as well, look.
Sofronas goes for the pass up the hill through turn one. Will he have the preferred line? Not quite. Side by side and just barely clears Daskalos in the Audi. Sofronas is now in line to move in on Iribe. What will Sofronas have left in the locker? Time is of the essence. George Kurtz moves around Kyle Washington for fifth overall. Now we move back to the battle for fourth. Andy Wilzock racing against Jeff Burton. Burton in the Lamborghini, and Wilzock in the Porsche. Rearden Racing vs. Flying Lizard Motorsports. Wilzock is happy even though he has his hands full. Speaking of hands full, Jeff Burton blocks George Kurtz and the stewards are going to say something about this.
Jeff Burton is moving in on Wilzock. Be proactive and not reactive. The SRO stewards will not like that. There will be blocking penalties applied. That was a sudden block. Kurtz was in another lane as Jeff Burton jinked over to the other side of the road. Charlie Luck, meanwhile, is recovering or so it seems. He has cleared the GT4 traffic and is at the back of the GT3 field. Did he move by Washington? Yes. Jeff Burton is moving and passing George Kurtz. Remember, one move, and one move only. No weaving at high speeds.
20 minutes left on the board. Brendon Iribe just cut a 2:10.9 lap, one second clear of James Sofronas. Check that. He is three seconds clear according to timing and scoring. He is based in Los Angeles, California, but has raced more in Asia and Europe. Problems for Jason Daskalos in the Audi. He has a problem with car #27 which had transmission trouble earlier on in the week as the team was preparing the transmission but has given up the ghost. Kurtz is moving in on Andy Wilzoch and Charlie Luck will have an bite of the cherry here, too, it seems. Wow! Beautiful move! That is Charlie Luck making a beautiful move on the inside! Wow!
It is not easy if someone over slows and does not move out of the way. Jason Harward, a penalty for passing before the control line on the restart, as Jeff Burton screams past Wilzoch! Wow! He is having a blast with this form of motor racing. Burton is whistling off into the distance and Kurtz gets the wrong line as Charlie Luck gets loose before Kurtz must take evasive action. Wilzoch is not giving up either. He is pressing hard. Don’t give up. We see side by side action between C.J. Moses and Jason Bell, and there’s Ross Chouest as well!
Chouest vs. Jason Bell in GT4. Aaron Povoledo is on the radio to Ross Chouest, and Andrew Davis on the radio to Jason Bell, as it is game over for Jason Daskalos. A tough pill to swallow for the Audi driver. Ross Chouest and RENNTech have had a great weekend. They’ve had SprintX podiums this weekend already as we see the GT2 Lamborghini flash by. Poor old Kurtz was cutting his way through the field like the proverbial hot knife through butter, but he is getting stymied now. No cakewalk in GT America this year, mate. Not a chance.
Jason Harward moves ‘round Kyle Washington, too, look. George Kurtz, though, is falling behind and the leaders have a 20 second gap. Brendon Iribe leads James Sofronas. His margin has ballooned to 6.6 seconds. A second and a half on the most recent lap. Learn tracks, find pace, win. That’s the step by step approached. Wilzoch is holding off Harward. That comic book colored Lamborghini is flying! Kurtz wants to move inside and does, but Wilzoch gets shut off. Wilzoch needs to just bust out the lap times. That’s his focus, but he also has Jason Harward and Kyle Washington right on his six, look.
Meantime, for third place in the overall, Charlie Luck has moved by Jeff Burton. Charlie Luck leads the Masters division. Kurtz in seventh has the best over Wilzoch, and a pitting Jason Harward. A pit stop for Jeff Burton. Maybe it is game over. A pit stop in a 50 minute race, with eleven left on the board, is not the best scenario. Charlie Luck is third, being coached by Jan Heylen, his Wright Motorsports team-mate. Wright Motorsports runs Porsche’s in several different sports car championships.
Jason Bell moves ‘round Ross Chouest in GT4. GMG has many brands they have been involved with. Audi, Porsche, Lamborghini, Aston Martin. Sean Quinlan in the BMW M4 GT4 for Steven Cameron Rcing is moving up. He ran very well in Pirelli GT4 America. Jason Bell has had a great race today but Ross Chouest is not giving up. He is moving in little by little. The key for these drivers who have a lot of seat time, is hitting their marks and making no errors.
Brendon Iribe continues to lead overall and in GT3, and Jason Bell leads GT4. Eight minutes left. Andrew Davis is telling his co-driver to focus forward on the radio for sure. Brendon Iribe fastest through the esses at 134 miles an hour. A full ten miles an hour compared to the slowest speed of 124 miles an hour for Jason Daskalos. The lead is six and a half seconds between Brendon Iribe and James Sofronas. Sofronas is a 27-year veteran of World Challenge competition. Optimum Motorsports has a GT3 championship in Europe, and will be going to Le Mans, and racing in Europe.
The gap is stagnating at six and a half seconds. Corner speeds see Harward fastest and Burton slowest, between 94.7 and 96.9 miles an hour. Jason Harward is eighth, and that is not representative at all of his speed and lap times. He will pick up a second Lamborghini chassis following this weekend for Zelus, a second one that comes from TR3 Racing who is also racing in GT World Challenge America. Jason Bell continues to lead GT4 and just ahead of him is the lone GT2 Lamborghini Huracan, making it’s debut. Ross Chouest is driving consistently, less than four minutes to go as we watch Sean Quinlan moving in on Chouest.
The BMW washes out through the corners but is still compliant over the curbs and the bumps. Watch the bumps into turn 11. Sean Quinlan was 2019 Pirelli GT4 SprintX Pro Am champion alongside Greg Liefooghe. Jason Bell has a large lead, but oh no! He spins! He rotates the car! Recover it. Regroup. Keep it together. Now it is on. Jason Bell will be racing angry to atone for his mistake. There’s just not enough time maybe to get to the lead at least he can see. C.J. Moses is running ninth overall carrying the Crowdstrike and AWS colors.
Ross Chpuest leads over Sean Quinlan and Jason Bell, with
only a minute and a half to go. This is
in GT4, a total scrap for the finish. Brendon
Iribe leads overall, and we will see maybe a couple more laps. GT3 has one lap. GT4 has a lap and a half but poor Jason Bell
has dropped like a stone. The body
language of the Aston Martin looks fine, but he has lost buckets of time. Quinlan wants to move on Ross Choueest. No white flag yet for these blokes. Quinlan is in on Chouest who crowds him. Quinlan takes the lead! One to go.
Chouest wants by in the stadium section.
He will square him up off turn 15. Back to power, pressuring Quinlan in the BMW M4. Hang on to your hollyhocks here lads. White flag. One lap to go. Three and a half miles. At the front, Brendon iribe wins on debut in GT America for Inception Racing by Optimum! James Sofronas comes in second with Charlie Luck winning Masters, and George Kurtz in fourth place. Kurtz was stymied but still had a good race. Quinlan vs. Chouest has a mile and a half to go. Burton finishes in third in Masters behind Wilzoch.
Chouest is close but is he close enough? The BMW has more power on the straight. Here comes Chouest. C.J. Moses finishes ninth and here is the lone GT2 car, the Lamborghini of Scott Schmidt. The GT4 battle will be in favor of Quinlan, perhaps. The answer is yes. Qunlan wins GT4! Wow! What a motor race! Steve Cameron Racing wins GT4! Gray Newell finishes fourth for The Heart of Racing, being coached by Ian James.
Here are your winners in Austin, Texas, race two.
Overall/GT3: #70 Brendon Iribe Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3
Masters:
#45 Charlie Luck Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R
GT4:
#119 Sean Quinlan Stephen Cameron Racing
BMW M4 GT4
Invitational: #381 Scott Schmidt TPC Racing Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo GT2
That’s all, from Austin, Texas. We will see you, next time, from Virginia
International Raceway, in early June, for the next event of GT America in
2021. Take care everybody. Bye bye.
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