We kick off your Sunday of SRO America action in the northern California wine country, at Sonoma Raceway, with race two for GT America. This hearkens back to the way the old and beloved World Challenge championship used to be. 40-minute race, with a single driver at the wheel of the car. Jason Daskalos dominated yesterday. Steve Dinan also triumphed in GT4, for the first time in decades, winning an event. Gorgeous weather is what we have again as we join Ryan Myrehn, Calvin Fish, and Amanda Busick. The top three finished within a second of each other yesterday while today's starting grid is totally different. Jason Harward on the pole in the Lamborghini as he had fastest lap in the race yesterday. This is a tough, technical circuit that really is going to put a strain on the tires as we are set to race on Easter Sunday. Happy Easter, everybody. Steve Dinan has won a race for the first time in 25 years.
Dinan wants to win this race as he rolls off second in GT4. We have SRO3 (GT3) with previous generation GT3 cars that have had their homologations expire. Once again, we have a great field of cars. Steve Dinan and Chris Cagnazzi are two cars we will be taking a good look at. Tire degradation is always a major deal at Sonoma because of the low grip circuit. We have seen the track getting rubbered in. 40 minutes in cool weather this Sunday morning. Tire temp early on is a major deal. Ride the brakes against the gas pedal to build temperature into the tires. That is a great idea before we drop the hammer for racing.
We've got a spinner at the very back of the grid through what looks like some oil dry, some cement dust. Trouble there for one of the GT4 spec Toyota Supra's, Jose DaSilva spins out and will get back on his way. Cold tires will catch you out. Behind the safety car the speeds are limited for a reason. Thank goodness Dasilva did not hit anything. Bryan Putt who won in class in GT4 yesterday, Gray Newell is there, Marco Radisic, who won on the St. Petersburg, Florida, street course. Jason Bell, Hutton McKenna, there are a number of drivers who could win today. Get the tires to bite into this abrasive old surface. Turns two and three are very important and if drivers know this track, they will be in good shape.
Zelus Motorsports has an SRO3 and a GT4 car in the race today. We have a great mix of cars and drivers today. The new and old Porsche Cayman's are at the top of the tree and we have a melting pot of cars including the older GT3 entries. Daskalos in the older Audi and the Callaway C7 Corvette of Mirco Schultis. Who is comfortable with having a car that is a wee bit loose at the beginning? Will cars that have more pace come to the fore? Jason Daskalos and his whole team have been a quick study. Jason Harward, the other Jason in the field, he is racing in both GT America and GT World Challenge America and so he gets extra track time.
We will have a split start between SRO3 and GT4. The GT4 contenders were confused by the split start and incurred penalties yesterday. Let' not do that again. SRO3 ready for a start with the Lamborghini on pole. Jason Harward, the pole man. Green flag! Punch it! Away we go! Up the hill for the first time Jason Daskalos in the Audi wants to drop Mirco Schultis in the Callaway Corvette by the wayside already! He is not messing around and says, "eat my dust, Mirco!" Jeff Burton in another Lamborghini gives poor old Schultis the same treatment and the German Corvette ace is going to have to play a serious game of catch up. Well, well, well. Steve Dinan will get a massive jump in GT4.
Chris Cagnazzi in the Mercedes gets tagged by Jason Bell in the Aston Martin. Chris Cagnazzi with a repaired Mercedes AMG GT4 and a new part of the tail in a different color, he is going to have a fight on his hands. Dropping into The Carousel for the first time of asking, Harward leading the motor race ahead of Daskalos and Jeff Burton. In the background, look, George Kurtz is already having a bite of the cherry trying to find his way around Mirco Schultis in that beautiful Callaway Corvette. Daskalos is monstering Harward. The Jason and Jason show is on again. Daskalos will not allow Harward to scamper away.
Whoops! A spin there, through The Carousel for the #69. Todd Coleman aboard the second TGR Smooge Racing Toyota Supra GT4. Aha. We saw Coleman team up with Aaron Telitz for a great showing in race one of Pirelli GT4 America yesterday. More spinners. Schultis has rotated the Callaway Corvette. It looks like he may have been tagged by George Kurtz who was right on Schultis' six and applying the blowtorch. Schultis is trying to point the Callaway in the right direction. This is in the chicane at turn nine. As the race goes along, Mirco Schultis gains speed. He is probably on cold tirs. The GT4 fight is hot and heavy as we see Steve Dinan has been caught by Ross Chouest. Poor old Dinan is dropping like a stone. He may have mechanical woes with that CarBahn with Peregrine Racing Audi R8 LMS GT4 Evo.
A little contact there, Gray Newell roughing Dinan up a wee bit. Yikes. Coexist with your other competitors and give each other space. Marco Radisic, meanwhile, has ducked to pit lane aboard the #22 SRQ Motorsports BMW M4 GT4. Radisic in trouble again, who won on the streets of St. Petersburg. Sean Whalen at Zelus Motorsports has moved up seven places to the GT4 lead ahead of Chris Cagnazzi and Jason Bell. Bryan Putt sends it around the outside for a pass. Replay of the start, Cagnazzi did not control the start well enough and Steve Dinan poked his nose through. So, the marshals and Race Control will be taking a good hard look. Hutton McKenna in one of the Porsche Cayman's is moving up while we see some damage to the #21 Toyota Supra in the hands of Nick Shanny. That is the first of the TGR Accelerating Performance cars.
More drama as Elias Sabo is high sided on a curb aboard the #8 GT4 Aston Martin Vantage run by Flying Lizard Motorsports. A frantic start to race two at Sonoma as Harward leads Daskalos by 7/10ths of a second. Ross Chouest has gone by Sean Whalen in GT4 and now, Adam Adelson is going to poke his nose into this scrap. He makes a pass aboard the Premier Motorsports Porsche Cayman, car #120. Rob Holland is going to have a bit of the cherry as well. The deck is being shuffled indeed. Game over for Steve Dinan. He has pulled to the side of the road and taken his helmet off. A tech issue for the #930 Audi. So, it could be game over and Steve will be in his civvies watching the rest of the race from the pit lane.
Full Course Yellow with the stranded Audi on course needing to be rescued. So, the gap between Jason Harward and Jason Daskalos is now nil. Harward ahead of Jason Daskalos, Jeff Burton, George Kurtz, and Justin Wetherill. We have three Jason's in this motor race. Elias Sabo is still stranded and needing rescue, and oh my goodness. Heavy damage to the front of the Aston Martin of Gray Newell. Wow. That car will need a trip to the panel beaters. Gray Newell now down in 18th in GT4. The front grille is caved in, and the bonnet has been nearly completely ripped off. Gray Newell was fifth in points last year and won at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in race two. That is the car they are also using for SprintX. Their other cars got stuck on a cargo ship after racing in Dubai with Creventic in January and have not come back yet.
They got put on the wrong ship and have not returned, and so the team is compromised as far as cars and spare parts. Maybe they can fix the car in two hours before we see them in the GT4 America race a wee bit later on. Ross Chouest and Chouest Povoledo Racing had the same problem yesterday and it is a double-edged sword running two classes with two different entries. Jason Bell is moving up well into third after starting eighth while Hutton McKenna has moved from fifth to second. McKenna ran Porsche Cup in 2021 and is back in there this year. McKenna Porsche were supporters of Alex Job Racing years ago and now they are back with their iconic livery of white and yellow with red lettering. We look at AWS Race Vision and the overall top speeds. Fastest of all is George Kurtz at 138 and a half miles an hour followed by Jason Daskalso at 137.3, Jason Harward at 136.7, 135.4 for Jeff Burton, and 133.5 for Justin Wetherill.
The fast speeds are achieved up the hill into turn one. Early doors yet, but we could see speeds climb in the last half hour of the action here today. Justin Wetherill is new to this series in SRO but he is a veteran in Ferrari Challenge and won the Coppa Shell Am class championship in 2020 and was third in 2021. At CarBahn, Steve Dinan slowed for a yellow and he got divebombed by other cars. Mirco Schultis spun of course and he is clawing his way back. Jason Daskalos has had a good start. Jason is a restaurant owner and has a restaurant called Vintage who does a big cookout which was extra special last night after he won.
Jason is not thinking about food right now. He wants a sip of the champagne on the podium once again should he win this motor race. We are set to go back to green and the tires are warm enough to maybe start getting clag on them. Scrub the front tires so they respond when you hit the accelerator. The brakes are used to generate the heat and weaving back and forth cleans the tires, so they have more traction. Flat left rear tire, and a bit of contact as poor old Bryan Putt is stranded out on the circuit. So, he has had a mixed bag this weekend so far here at Sonoma having succeeded and podiumed in GT4 America at Sonoma yesterday.
George Kurtz went on a tear and nearly won the race yesterday and he could be in the pound seats again. He swept the weekend in GT America with pole and fastest lap here at Sonoma a year ago. Kurtz finished second in class in the 24 Hours of Dubai for SPS Automotive Performance who he has also run for at the 24 Hours of Spa. Plus he is racing in prototypes in the IMSA championship for the endurance races there. Kurtz and Colin Braun have switched to Riley Motorsports compared to racing with the multi-car team at DXDT in years past. Bill Riley and his pit crew have massive amounts of experience, while decades ago, they built their own race cars in sports cars and for a brief while, in IndyCar.
In modern sports car racing of all kinds, it has shifted away from the old garagiste mentality of building your own race cars, and more towards being provided with great equipment by a manufacturer, that you can only tweak on within very limited parameters. These cars are all homologated. Engineers and designers are very innovative, but now, the rules have to be restricted to have parity between the manufacturers, and so, you have to look deeper at details and car setups. It is a darn shame that we will have the yellow's slicing their way into the pie of the time window of this 40-minute sprint as we look again at Chris Cagnazzi leading in GT4 in another Mercedes AMG, the GT4 spec model. Cagnazzi has always campaigned Mercedes AMG's but is now doing so under the Cameron Racing banner.
They had loads of success with Sean Quinlan in this series and also with Quinlan teaming with Greg Liefooghe in in GT4 America. Now, the team has completely refocused as I believe Sean Quinlan (as we spoke about yesterday, is not retired, but taking a year away from motor racing). Quinlan and company ran an M4 BMW in recent seasons. Now the team is working under the AMG Mercedes flag. Cagnazzi is teamed with Guy Cosmo who is a veteran driver and a good coach. Cosmo worked with Steve Cameron in prototype racing years ago with Finlay Motorsports in the old Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series in their Daytona Prototype era. So that was in the early to mid 2000s and into the 2010s if memory serves me right.
There is good chemistry, and the team is on home base here at Sonoma Raceway. They have worked through setups as you need a completely different approach for a race at 9:30 A.M. in the morning as opposed to 4:00 P.M. in the afternoon as we saw yesterday. 22 minutes on the board. The track conditions change in a major way depending on when you go out, especially on a test day, and you are always chasing the racetrack and you want the race track to come back to you. Know when not to chase the track. Have a good notebook on the circuits you are racing at and that will help in a major way. Bringing back the idea of tire degradation, that whole deal might be tossed out the window because of this safety car scramble.
Maybe we can reverse that theory and say, drivers might actually find a sweet spot on their tires right now when we get to the initial restart and maybe a lap after. That is another of the catalog of scenarios. So, lots of variables. How are you going to slice the cake insofar as the first half and the second half of these races? The tires degrade but the early performance of the tires is what you want to check into. It is about the short run performance. If this were an enduro like we see with SRO in Europe you want to play the long game, but not in this race. Team boss and Team President at Zelus Motorsports, Tigh Isaac, is confident that Jason Harward has improved as a driver and that they can contend for a victory here in the final 20 minutes.
Harward is open to learn from his mistakes and keep pushing. With Jeff Burton also on the team, he is a character. He is fast, determined, driven, and has self-confidence. Five cars on the team, which sees four GT3 cars and then the Aston Martin GT4 doing double duty in Sprint and GT America as well. The team has grown tremendously between 2021 and 2022. Tigh Isaac is a former speed skater for Team USA. Speaking of speed, we are backmto green with less than 19 minutes to go. George Kurtz gets by Burton and wants past Daskalos. Kurtz almost does a bit of agricultural racing but keeps the AMG Mercedes on the road. Daskalos is hanging on while we see Jeff Burton on the rebound trying for third spot. Daskalos, chasing Harward, looks to the inside. Nothing there. Discretion the better part of valor for the time being.
Discretion? Nope. Valor, yes. Daskalos has a lunge! Not yet. Rein it in. Keep your powder dry. Oh criminy. Problems again, look at the uphill turns. That's a Supra and a Cayman tangled up there. Nick Shanny in the Toyota and who is the bloke in the Porsche who just drove away? Let's rewind the tape and we can see Sean Whalen has spun his Aston Martin and come across right back into traffic! Contact for the two other cars who go off the road in avoidance of Whalen's automobile. It may be day done for Nick Shanny. He has a broken toe link, a broken suspension. So he will have to wait to go for it until the next weekend of racing coming up at the new Ozarks track in Missouri, next month, and you will hear more about that weekend of racing when this race is complete.
A local yellow for now with less than 18 minutes left on the board. Harward and Daskalos may be leaving Kurtz for dead here. Some penalties handed out by Race Control. Todd Coleman must serve a drive through for jumping the initial race start. Steve Dinan has a penalty too, but it is negated because he is out of the motor race. Full Course Yellow, now. Full Course Yellow. In that earlier scrum we saw at the top of the hill, the other driver was Alain Stad aboard the #19 NOLASPORT Cayman GT4. Safety car scramble. Hutton McKenna has passed Chris Cagnazzi. When we go back to green flag racing we shall have about ten minutes left on the board and it will be a sprint to the end of this one.
So, we continue under the safety car. The rules of the starts and restarts are different as to when you can pull out of line and make a pass. The polesitter should control that. Jason Harward, for the time being, has set the Crowdstrike fastest lap at 1:41.497. He is currently leading the motor race. George Kurtz is a mere nine thousandths of a second slower. Kurtz third in class and in the overall. So, the Mercedes could be in with a real shot here just as Kurtz was yesterday. Daskalos and Burton are in the fight. Nick Shanny walks away from the car. Shanny sharing with Terry Borcheller in SprintX competition. Nick Shanny is retired from a successful business and is now being mentored by and learning from a legend like Terry Borcheller who is a two-time winner at the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
Great to see Terry Borcheller back racing again. Guy Cosmo and Chris Cagnazzi's crew were working on the car to get it ready for today's race after the GT4 wreck and Guy Cosmo says Cagnazzi was just an innocent bystander in the wreck yesterday. Cosmo is hoping his teammate can bring it home on the podium. You have to have a short memory as a racing driver. Live, drive, have fun, make the car go fast. Chris Cagnazzi has business and other racing commitments, so, they won't be in for the full 2022 campaign but we will see them a few times. GT America has run on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida already. After Sonoma, here is what is planned.
The series moves next to Virginia International Raceway, Watkins Glen in New York, the Nashville, Tennessee, street course, one race ending at sunset, going over the bridge, and then finishing out the season at Road America, Sebring, and Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The fanbase is wide from young kids who have posters of these cars on their bedroom wall to older folks who have had successful businesses and have the capital and the wherewithal to buy one of the street going versions of these great sports cars. Mirco Schultis, fifth in SRO3. Daniel Keilwitz and Eric Curran have driven this car and now Mirco Schultis has the car in his hands. Callaway Corvette C7 chassis number one which ran very successfully in Germany in the ADAC GT Masters championship. There may be future GT3 customer Corvette's coming and we have seen Cadillac build a GT3 car before.
GT3 cars have more downforce but also more aerodynamic assistance and are more costly to run while GT4 has a tad less horsepower without the aero assistance, but the GT4 cars are more raceable and more drivable in many cases. They are a good handling car, and they can follow other cars in a better manner. We saw yesterday in Pirelli GT4 America an incredible finish. It is a natural transition from a touring car to a GT4 car. Under seven minutes remain. Safety car lights off atop the Acura NSX. Jason Harward should be ready to fend off the challenges of Jason Daskalos and George Kurtz, both. Green flag. Harward does get the jump over Daskalos.
Hutton McKenna is the GT4 leader. Here's a move! Harward is going to press down the inside of Daskalos down the hill and into the turn! Pardon me. It is Daskalos looking inside of Harward. Harward closes the door! Daskalos looking for the undercut diving downhill again as they are headed for the Carousel. George Kurtz inching forward has Jeff Burton on his back door. Mirco Schultis, too, is nosing in with the Callaway Corvette and you know he wants by Burton. This could be a five way fight for the victory. Burton runs wide in the Lambo and Schultis goes to the inside! Burton wants it. It's a drag race. Mid-engine Lamborghini vs. front engine Callaway Corvette.
Burton deep on the brakes and Schultis tries coming back but is getting the door slammed in his face. Harward making good his escape as Kurtz is monstering Daskalos for second place. Schultis will soon have his hands full with Kyle Washington as well in the Porsche, the GMG car #032 which is another GT3 entry. George Kurtz is out of contention. He is serving a drive through penalty for jumping the first restart. A bitter pill to swallow for the Riley Motorsports Mercedes team. Kyle Washington, same penalty for the GMG Porsche boys. This will shake things up in the final four minutes. Meantime, in GT4, Hutton McKenna has run off like a scalded cat and so the battle for the podium will be Chris Cagnazzi vs. Jason Bell, and Ross Chouest.
Adam Adelson lurking back there as well. So, the fight is far from over. Deary me. Cagnazzi runs wide and Bell could slide right through the open door here. While Cagnazzi and Bell scrap, Hutton McKenna says, "see ya later!" and is whistling off into the distance. Bell wants it. Cagnazzi slams the door in his face. A slight touch in the exit of the turn. Bell not forcing the issue. Adelson on the outside of Chouest too, look, through the Carousel. Adelson off in the dirt, and now he's vulnerable to Rob Holland making a move! This is it. The money is on the line in GT America at Sonoma! Holland to the outside and Adelson had to give it up, going to the braking zone.
Holland is a wheel-to-wheel racing expert having raced years ago in the British Touring Car Championship. So, he's a real scrapper. Holland will have to do all he can now to fend off Moisey Uretsky's challenge too. McKenna has lit the afterburners as Cagnazzi is not finished yet. Holland wants by Adelson. These two in identical cars, the Porsche Cayman GT4. Holland is in the new 2022 spec car while Adelson has the older Cayman platform. Adelson's team has a new Cayman but have reverted back to the old one after the new car suffered crash damage last time out on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida.
Two-minute warning. McKenna controlling GT4. Harward now leads Daskalos in SRO3 by 1.8 seconds. Burton is two seconds in-arrears to Daskalos. Mirco Schultis in the Corvette runs fourth, half a second behind Burton's Lamborghini. White flag this time by for Harward. He has settled in and made hay while the sun shines has the Utah native, driving for Zelus Motorsports, also from Utah. One lap to go until a possible first win. Cagnazzi still fending off Bell and Chouest while Adelson and Holland continue to scrap too. Cagnazzi will hold station and has settled into accepting his place in the final results. Final lap of the motor race.
Schultis reeling in Burton for third. This is for the final step on the podium. Schultis will fight to the bitter end. Burton holds on through the chicane as Jason Harward is going to win his first career race in GT America! Wow! No longer the bridesmaid! Hutton McKenna will also score a first career win in the GT4 ranks at Wright Motorsports. McKenna wins it!
So, here are your winners in race two at Sonoma.
Overall/SRO3: #88 Jason Harward Zelus Motorsports Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo
GT4: #30 Hutton McKenna Wright Motorsports Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport
16 races in his career for Jason Harward and now he has won with a very consistent race car. He's ready for more racing. He would jump in the GT World Challenge car right now to run that race. He controlled the race very well and had zero mistakes. Zelus Motorsports has a massively bright livery on the car which is a trend across many of the cars. For Hutton McKenna, he has been calm, cool, and collected, and raced another car at Long Beach, bringing the Cayman to Sonoma and the whole team made everything work out.
He is carrying on his family's legacy. He will be a future champion perhaps. So, this wraps up GT America race two at Sonoma and we will see them next at Virginia International Raceway in mid-June on Father's Day weekend. So, more great racing to come then just a couple days before the official beginning of summer. No GT America at Ozarks, but there is sure to be more great racing to look forward to. See you in June at the legendary VIR. More racing to come later today though, so for now, so long from Sonoma, but do not go anyplace. There are more events coming up. Stay tuned.
No comments:
Post a Comment