Round four of GT America brings the teams and drivers to Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, for another doubleheader of single driver, sprint races. This unmistakable circuit, playing host to a race that is reminiscent of SRO America’s heritage. SRO3 is going to see a massive battle between drivers like George Kurtz, Johnny O’Connell, and Memo Gidley. Kurtz of course is the reigning champion. We are going to see hot and heavy motor racing in GT4 as well. Multiclass racing is going to be a feature and the qualifying session in mixed wet/dry conditions really jumbled the grid. Johnny O’Connell on the overall SRO3 pole and in GT4, the pole man is Ross Chouest leading the championship with Jason Bell at his elbow. We have 24 degrees Celsius, 75 degrees Fahrenheit ambient temperature. Tabo Helmund, motorcycle world champion Kevin Schwantz, and Herman Tilke, designed this track.
In low downforce cars it is hard to drive this circuit, but it is going to be incredible. The massive tower is a landmark here at Circuit of the Americas. Adam Adelson is ready to go and he is far stronger at the wheel of a GT3 car than he was in a GT4 machine. We started the GT America journey way back in February at St. Petersburg, Florida, have been to Sonoma Raceway in California, NOLA Motorsports Park in New Orleans, Louisiana, and now to Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. Adelson is not the only contender. Watch out for Jason Daskalos and Memo Gidley as well. Gidley has won four of the six races we have had.
Daskalos down in eighth and Memo Gidley in fourth spot. Memo Gidley, a longtime open wheel, and sports car racer. Johnny O’Connell, a four-time SRO champion. George Kurtz, the defending champion in GT America, is still looking for a win in this division. Kurtz is on top of his game. The Mercedes might be stronger in the downforce area. O’Connell racing for SKI Autosport, he is racing one of the oldest cars in the field the Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 which is a who different animal compared to Ferrari’s brand-new challenger in Fanatec GT World Challenge America, the 296 GT3. The 458 Italia is long in the tooth. The 458 has the naturally aspirated V8. The 296 GT3 is a turbo V6 of course.
Robb Holland has had three podiums in four races. He is always in the fight. The engines have fired. The grid making their way onto the track for the formation laps to get heat into the Pirelli tires. Track position is the key. Watch the blue Audi of series veteran James Sofronas, making his 350th start in SRO America and a many-time champion. Sofronas’ first start in World Challenge was in 1994 at Road America back when the championship was called the SCCA World Challenge Super Production Series. He was driving an Oldsmobile Achieva which was a two-door compact car made for the masses by the long defunct Oldsmobile brand of General Motors with a Quad 4, 2-liter 4-cylinder engine in it.
Sofronas is a two-time GT4 champion in 2017 and 2018 as well. We have a notable driver change in the #043 Porsche 911 GT3R in SRO3. OnlyFans Racing by P1 Groupe by MRS has American driver Peter Pejascevich at the wheel of it instead of the regular driver, Alex Vogel. Marc Austin, from Budda, Texas, is making his GT America SRO3 season debut on home soil aboard the #011 Mercedes AMG GT3. Reigning GT4 class champion Ross Chouest has the class pole aboard the #50 Chouest Povoledo Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR with the similar machine of Jason Bell at his elbow in the #2 car.
We have another series debutant in GT America here at COTA in the form of the #11 BMW M4 GT4 in the hands of John Roberts. Jay Logan also returns to the grid for GMG in his Porsche Cayman, car #71. Todd Coleman will not start the race today aboard his Aston Martin Vantage GT4 he campaigns with Archangel Motorsports. Qualifying occurred in the damp of course so the grid does not really tell us what will happen. We might just see a GT4 battle early doors between Paul Kiebler, Nick Shanny, Gray Newell, and Elias Sabo. Chouest and Bell are joined at the hip every weekend. Elias Sabo won race two at NOLA Motorsports Park of course.
Shanny and Kiebler have scored their best qualifying results of the year. Toyota Gazoo Racing have improved driver comfort with the GT4 class Supra. Safety car lights out. We’re ready to race! Here they come. It is time to race. SRO3 away first! Flagman Tom Hansing waves the green! Here’s O’Connell in the lead with Kurtz right on his tail. Great start for the pole man. Ross Chouest defending from Jason Bell and we see Tony Gaples off the road trying to make a move. O’Connell, Kurtz, and then Anthony Bartone. Kurtz is applying the blowtorch to Johnny O’Connell, guarding the inside.
Bartone is being harried by Daskalos already. James Sofronas in the Audi R8 goes to the outside making his move on Memo Gidley as Jason Daskalos has gained five places from eighth up to third! Sofronas is really going for it in the Evo Audi R8. Jay Logan tags Tony Gaples and we have Gray Newell ahead of the argy bargy between those two blokes. Robb Holland is gaining and now, O’Connell slides wide and George Kurtz is going to pull the pin or try to. Hit your marks and make the car, the Ferrari 458, as wide as possible.
Kurtz is probing for track position trying to find a weakness in O’Connell’s tactics. The downforce plays out through the corners and into the braking zones. Mechanical grip ahoy too thanks to all the downforce these GT3 cars have. Sofronas is hanging tough and he has the speed to hassle Anthony Bartone. Bartone is tutored by Andy Pilgrim. Drag racing in the Bartone family and have now added road racing and sports cars to their team. Anthony Bartone has speed and is learning race craft. Kurtz’s margin has ballooned to 1.1 seconds, and he is whistling off into the distance leaving poor old Johnny O’Connell behind to fight for the scraps with Daskalos right on his six.
Adelson in the Porsche to the inside of Memo Gidley in the Mercedes. Gidley falls down the order a wee bit and must regroup. Some impatient drivers indeed as O’Connell, the pole man, is the cork in the bottle. Johnny O’Connell is trying to find lap by lap consistency. He was happy in qualifying to go out on wet tires while Daskalos qualified on slicks. Sofronas passes Bartone for position. Daskalos tries Johnny O’Connell and O’Connell spins out! Adam Adelson spins in sympathy.
Daskalos committed and O’Connell did not see him. Too much aggression leads to synchronized spinning for those two chaps, and they will be playing catch up for the rest of this motor race. Daskalos is being harried as Bartone is now the villain of the peace in this little scrap. Bartone wants the opportunity. George Kurtz, the President of CrowdStrike has the CrowdStrike fastest lap in the CrowdStrike car. There’s symmetry there. Sofronas is building a gap over the battle between Daskalos, Bartone, and Todd Treffert, the historic HSR racer.
Jason Bell continues to lead Ross Chouest in GT4 as the battle of the Aston Matin’s is joined now by a third one, the #8 entry, Elias Sabo at the wheel of it. Not the first time we have talked about Aston Martin dominating GT4. Robb Holland in the #099 Porsche Cayman is next. Two wins and two podiums for Chouest and he and Aaron Povoledo also won GT America and GT4 America in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway finale last year. Have we spoken too soon? Sofronas is still being hounded, look, by Daskalos.
No word from Race Control about the shemozzle between O’Connell and Daskalos. Something must be amiss for Memo Gidley way down in the GT4 pack. Something is wrong with the Mercedes for Gidley as he continues dropping like a stone. The car sounds healthy. I wonder if he had to hit the pit lane which is a killer in one of these short races. There is some bodywork damage to Johnny O’Connell’s Ferrari. A good battle in GT4 between Paul Kiebler and Tony Gaples. The Blackdog Speedshop Camaro is running very well with Tim Cauphee, a former Newman/Haas Racing crewman along with Ray Sorenson and Eric Miller.
Sorenson also worked at Newman/Haas back in the CART days with Mario and Michael Andretti and with Nigel Mansell, and Eric Miller from Pratt & Miller is also assisting the team at Black Dog Speed Shop this weekend. That team is based out of Chicago, Illinois. A good, four-way scrap for second place between Sofronas, Daskalos, Bartone, and Treffert. Daskalos and Treffert are both driving for CRP Racing based in Sarasota, Florida. Veteran driver Kenton Koch has been assisting with setup on the cars. A single driver class like this, you don’t have a sounding board for feedback on setup like you do in Pirelli GT4 America or GT World Challenge America.
Kenton Koch himself is an accomplished driver. He can also technically read into a car and know what it needs for handling and setup. The gap is 7.7 seconds between George Kurtz and the rest of the field. Kurtz seems to be managing his tires. Jeff Braun, Bill Riley, and his co-driver Colin Braun in Fanatec GT World Challenge America are all assisting on the pit box this weekend. Insofar as Memo Gidley and TKO Motorsports, the setup just isn’t working in the handling department. Don’t overdrive the car. Just work with what you have as best as possible.
The team will go to work tonight and try to improve for tomorrow’s race. Gidley is 11th of 11 cars in SRO3 and may not score points because only the top ten score. Jason Bell has the lead in GT4 while Ross Chouest has his hands full still, with Elias Sabo. Sabo is happy the forecast is not hot and humid. It is much cooler today for the race. The heat and humidity saps you. Elias Sabo being tutored by Pirelli GT4 America co-driver Andy Lee and team manager Steve Costello. They had a broken shock in dramatic fashion in Free Practice and qualifying yesterday.
Jason Bell has swapped over to the Flying Lizard camp. Jason Bell will be racing with driver coach Michael Cooper in Pirelli GT4 America later on today. Cooper is a great driver coach but he is an accomplished driver too of course. Oh boy! Sabo late on the brakes and is alongside Chouest who almost goes off the road! Pick and choose your spot. Do you cut a break for the other drivers in other classes? Ideally, that is what is supposed to happen. They stayed clean through the turn, thankfully. Great respect from two drivers who have raced wheel to wheel a lot these last few years.
Give your competition a tad bit more breathing room than you might otherwise. Elias Sabo has really stepped up his game as we watch Bartone and Daskalos fighting for the last step on the podium while George Kurtz continues whistling off into the distance. Todd Treffert in fifth place is still learning how wheel to wheel racing works out. Adam Adelson passes Andy Wilzoch in another 992 spec Porsche 911 GT3R. That car has the classic Flying Lizard, orange and silver colors, on it. Treffert is putting his elbows out, which is something you don’t do in historic racing. Modern equipment and a spirnt race are what Treffert is acclimatizing to.
A great corner is that triple apex downhill turn which really loads up the tires. It is a real challenge. Sofronas is balked and now, Daskalos has a Captain Cook and goes through for third spot. Wow. He did not overdrive the corner. Hang your opponent out to dry and get by. Daskalos if he smells blood in the water, reads the traffic, and is aggressive but decisive. Treffert too, slices past Bartone for fourth! Wow! Treffert out of bounds on track limits. The stewards will ping him for that one. Oh dear. John Roberts is off the road in the #11 Mercedes AMG GT3.
I think John Roberts is in the car. No. It should be Marc Austin truthfully. Ross Chouest is still being harried by Elias Sabo as we have gone well past the halfway mark. It was John Roberts in the #011 car. It is a GT4 Mercedes AMG not a GT3. George Kurtz scores the CrowdStrike Fastest Lap which means he will be on pole for race two tomorrow at 2:06.327. Still 15 minutes left on the board in this first race of the weekend for SRO GT America. Tire wear not as significant as it is at a place like Sonoma Raceway but it still is as we see a twitch there from Todd Treffert getting back on the power.
The car is getting lighter as you burn off fuel. The Daskalos and O’Connell incident was reviewed. No further action. Sabo spins off the road from third in GT4 right in front of the overall leader! He thankfully did not lose a spot and has oodles of time over Robb Holland, I think. That is the fight for the last podium place in GT4. Todd Treffert could get his best result of the 2023 season in this race. He did not run the opening events at St. Petersburg, Florida, way back in February. Daskalos wants to be as quick as the veteran drivers like a Memo Gidley or Johnny O’Connell, but he is a real scrapper. Jason Bell has checked out and now, Treffert goes deep under braking and nearly crunches into Sofronas!
You can race very innovative lines around the circuit here at COTA. Which line is more efficient? Which one is easier on the tires? Adam Adelson has made his move on Andy Wilzoch but Wilzoch is still going for it. Andy Wilzoch’s wife supports his racing and travels with her husband to the races. Wilzoch wants the challenge of racing and is not always out there for trophies. He is a Porsche fan and will stick with that platform. However, he is not sure he is as well suited with the new 992 generation Porsche 911 GT3R.
Treffert is giving James Sofronas everything he can handle. Treffert bobbing and weaving to try passing Sofronas. No dice. He is going to try again for sure. Sofronas, the veteran, he is not going to fall for another bloke selling him the dummy. Anthony Bartone has now entered the conversation and he is also someone who is going for it, very appreciative of the tutelage of Andy Pilgrim. Andy Pilgrim relocated to Florida from Bowling Green, Kentucky, has the Englishman who was born in Nottingham I believe and is a sports car racing veteran. Treffert, meanwhile, is still trying to give Sofronas fits.
Sofronas does not know Treffert’s driving style. Meantime, Johnny O’Connell, too, is coming into the picture but we have only five and a half minutes of this race remaining. Kurtz leads the motor race over Daskalos by 13 and a half seconds. Sofronas wants a podium in his 350th start but his rivals are not going to roll over and have their tummies scratched like a big dog. George Kurtz goes through turn 20 and has a massive lead as we just mentioned. Second place, Jason Daskalos is a long way behind. This is the seventh race of the GT America season. Insofar as Jason Daskalos, he can gain 18 points on Memo Gidley for a total of 150 points closing in on Gidley.
He will halve the championship lead as Jason Bell has spun! Ross Chouest takes the GT4 lead on what might be the penultimate lap. A huge lockup in turn one up the hill! That is strange! Was that an ABS failure? Wow. Ross Chouest now leading in GT4! Holy moly! Elias Sabo though is going to pull the pin and try catching Ross Chouest in this last minute of the race. Final lap for George Kurtz looking for his first GT America win of 2023. Up the hill they go for the last time. What does Bartone have left in the locker to try and make a move on Treffert?
Robb Holland is going to try sticking it around the outside of Sabo! This will stymie his pursuit of Jason Bell. Ross Chouest can score his third win of the year if he holds on for one more lap. Sabo has Hpolland right on his back door. This is a three-way fight in GT4. Through the rhythm section they go. Jason Bell has to settle down and score whatever he can. George Kurtz dominates race one for GT America at Circuit of the Americas this weekend. Daskalos holds on for second. Treffert and Bartone battle with Sofronas. Daskalos second, Sorfronas third, Bartone fourth, and Treffert fifth.
Holland working over Sabo. Cuts underneath, goes for the crossover and they make contact! Holland pushes Sabo into a spin! The stewards will have a word about that one. Ross Chouest scores win number three of 2023! He extends his points lead over Bell. Holland third on the road with Gray Newell in fourth place. Sabo gets the worst of it.
Overall/SRO3: #04 George Kurtz Crowdstrike Racing by Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo
GT4: #50 Ross Chouest Chouest Povoledo Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4
We shall have to see what happens with the Robb Holland shemozzle earlier on. Will he incur a penalty from the stewards or not? An extremely exciting GT America first race here at COTA! We’ll see you tomorrow for race two. Jason Bell could very well have had an ABS issue. We cannot confirm that yet and we’ll see. Treffert scores his best career finish. Can anyone catch the Crowdstrike car? We’ll have to find out in race two tomorrow. We’ll see you then. What an opening stanza to GT America in Austin, Texas!
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