It is time, for the crescendo, the cadenza to the weekend of SRO America competition at Sebring International Raceway amid the orange groves and Spanish moss of central Florida. GT World Challenge America enters its final, regular, 90-minute race of the 2023 season on this Sunday afternoon. Yesterday was a surprise yet dominating victory for the first of the two Wright Motorsports Porsche 992 model 911 GT3R's, the #45 car in the hands of Madison Snow and Jan Heylen. Can they repeat today? Or will another driver duo and team combination, another manufacturer in SRO GT3, steal the limelight? We are about to find out, in this pivotal point of the championship season, with only the crown jewel yet to come, the Indianapolis 8 Hours at "The Brickyard", Indianapolis Motor Speedway, yet to come, in two weeks.
Again, this is the final 90-minute event of the year with the Indianapolis 8 Hours looming on the horizon as we just explained. The challenge ramps up heavily. We have some cloud cover rolling in and it is warm but not oppressively hot. Ryan Myrehn and Calvin Fish will call the action with Amanda Busick in the pit lane and Ash Vandeleigh manning the Twitch stream. RS1 and Racer's Edge, are both Florida-based teams here in front of their hometown crowd. Conquest Racing swept the Road America weekend in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, the last time we were with you for a GTWCA doubleheader.
3.741 miles around with a GT3 track record reset at 1:59.775. Such history here with the 1959 United States Grand Prix, the 12 Hours of Sebring, and of course the SRO America races here in the fall. The majority of this track is laid out over these concrete runways and turn one is an incredible challenge at 150 miles an hour positioning the car right at the apex of the concrete wall at 150+ miles an hour. So hard to see the apex on the 0 board. Then you get to the apex around the signboard. A god chance where you want to have the left side tire on the painted line.
The road surface oscillation is all in there. Watch out and don't run wide. Turn 13, Tower Corner,. with the airport tower. You can come through Collier Corner at a diagonal or go parallel. The car is fully loaded driver's left. Be careful. It is not a water tower. It is an old air traffic control tower at Tower Corner. The most demanding turn is turn 17, Sunset Bend. How do you position the race car? Skim it close t the wall. Use the black line as a reference point. Look at the brdige and a blue dot to place the car underneath.
You get to this point where the bumps are like a mechanical bull. The car is oscillating so much, and you play a game of chicken with the rest of the corner. Sebring is so special and just amazing. Tremendous history and everyone wants to win this thing. We have a different grid than we saw yesterday. Watch for the Porsche's and the BMW's. Neil Verhagen starts from the back losing pole on a technical infraction. Verhagen and Samantha Tan started from the back, incurred a penalty, and came onto the podium. Bill Auberlen in the #94 BimmerWorld BMW M4 GT3 also qualified with a suspension problem, teaming with Chandler Hull.
Eric Filgueiras and Stevan McAleer in the RS1 Porsche 911 GT3R #28 losing points for a penalty. All attention focuses for this second race coming up. The heat will be a factor. Great rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner by the Avon Park High School Show Choir. Samantha Tan tells us that Neil Verhagen knows the BMW M4 GT3 like the back of his hand. Verhagen plans to minimize the mistakes and move forward. Drivers buckling into their cars. The Pirelli tires are now being mounted. Ashton Harrison knows there is high aggression for the championship heading into the Indianapolis 8 Hours with double points on offer.
The Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 is well suited to the infield and their braking they feel is superior to any other GT3 car out there. They are chasing the Porsche and have the BMW hot on their heels. Mario Farnbacher starts third and Stevan McAleer in the #28 RS1 Porsche 911 GT3R (992) is 11th on the grid. Madison Snow will start the #45 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R. We will also watch the sister Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R (991.II) of Elliott Skeer and Adam Adelson. A good qualifying effort too for the #007 TRG Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Derek DeBoer and Ross Gunn.
Drivers know what to expect. Drivers starting today's race ran the second stint yesterday. Triarsi Competizione may or may not be back in 2024. We'll see. It is 86 degrees Fahrenheit, humidity at 57%. Warm, but not as hot as it could be. The cars roll off on the formation lap. TRG now receiving sponsor support from FreeLife Coaching. We have a 14-car field, and we will see plenty more for the Indianapolis 8 Hours with the Intercontinental GT Challenge GT3 cars joining us. Eric Filgueiras sees the shemozzle from yesterday as hard racing.
The BMW are beginning to bring themselves into the picture. This is going to be exciting. RS1 will have quite the trio coming up for the Indianapolis 8 Hours. Watch this space. Overnight setup changes for the #28 RS1 Porsche 911 GT3R. There is the one pit stop in this motor race that we will see. Not a lot you can play with in these shorter races. The tires lasted better yesterday than we thought they would. The undercut is not a massive advantage necessarily in this situation. We'll have to see if the race stays green or if there is a yellow. The Pro and Pro-Am classes are going to be tight. Ryan Dalziel on the pole position in the #33 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 sharing with Justin Wetherill.
We don't know if they will be back in 2024. Safety car lights off. Manny Franco, Ryan Dalziel's co-driver, looking on. Watch for turn one. This is going to be wild. The safety car pulls to the pit lane. Ferrari, Porsche, Acura, Mercedes, Aston Martin in the top five. Green flag! Let's go! Bill Auberlen beginning to push. Ryan Dalziel to the lead and Elliott Skeer on the attackl up to third place side by side with Jan Heylen! Both Porsche's won in their classes yesterday. Dalziel weaving to avoid the bump. Skeer back on the attack. Side by side! Mario Farnbacher dropping down the order, smoking a bit.
Colin Braun is harrying Skeer. Maybe there is an overflow pipe and oh no, there's more smoke coming out the back of the car! They have smoke billowing from the car. Maybe it is just overflow with the fluids topped up. Through Sunset Bend for the first time as Ryan Dalziel is 2.2 seconds ahead running away like a scalded cat. Elliott Skeer fightng his teammate as Colin Braun is right on Jan Heylen's six. The Acura is flying Plummet Airways! Farnbacher is dropping like a stone! He is slow. More smoke in Tower Corner. Is there a motor problem in the back of that Acura NSX GT3? Neil Verhagen has gained five places.
Jon Mirachi says that the Acura has lost power, and the temperatures are hot. The car is overheating. Bill Auberlen passes Trenton Estep. Bimmerworld BMW vs. MDK Motorsports Porsche. Neil Verhagen passes by Bryan Sellers. Trenton Estep is his next target. The BMW dusts him. Nothing he can do with the massive power of the BMW six-cylinder turbo. Discretion the better part of valor for Estep. Samantha Tan's pace is good too. The #93 Acura NSX GT3 needs to have a chance to compete before heading to Indianapolis Motor Speedway in two weeks. They have not won since race two at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, back in May.
The BMW's clearly have pace. Meanwhile, Ryan Dalziel motoring ahead of Elliott Skeer and Jan Heylen feeling the pressure from Colin Braun and Ross Gunn. CrowdStrike Fastest Lap to Neil Verhagen at 2:01.207. The Racer's Edge Acua is being pushed back behind the wall. Game over! Heartbreaking for the Pro-Am champions in 2022. There's oil all over the rear of the car. Tranmission fluid and engine oil all over the place. The motor was overheated. They will score nil points and so the #28 RS1 Porsche team will make hay while the sun shines.
Neil Verhagen behind Bill Auberlen who is challenging Ross Gunn in the Aston Martin. Only ten minutes on the board. An hour and 20 minutes to go. Neil Verhagen has similar pace to Bull Auberlen and Auberlen is pushing Gunn who is the cork in the bottle. All the cars are GT3 homologated but the driver rating are all different. Pro vs. Pro-Am. Auberlen wide and Verhagen is going to try passing but Auberlen takes the spot away again. Auberlen protects the line. Braun and Gunn are third and fourth and now, Auberlen, in a Pro class car and then Verhagen a Pro-Am.
Hard to brake in the hairpin on the dirty side of the road. Let Neil Verhagen open the door and see if the BMW's can push. He is trying to move past Ross Gunn and then Colin Braun. Auberlen looking for Jan Heylen in the next Pro level car, the #45 Wright Motorsports Porsche. Verhagen has gone from 12th to sixth in just 13 minutes! Verhagen tries Ross Gunn, but no. In the Pro-Am fight, we watch Neil Verhagen chasing Ross Gunn. Neither of them has had their same full-season teammates and again it will be interesting to see third drivers nominated for the Indianapolis 8 Hours in two weeks.
Points are going to be paid only at the 8-hour mark at the end of the race in a couple weeks, no mid-race points on offer. Neil Verhagen able to tuck the front end farther into the apex as Verhagen going to fifth past Ross Gunn, a copy and paste from race one yesterday. Still an hour and 15 minutes to go. George Kurtz and Colin Braun have struggled with car setup here at Sebring and they were sliding around like crazy yesterday. More cloud cover today but the track is consistent and similar conditoons to yesterday's race.
Last year in a Creventic endurance race ST Racing scored the first victory for the BMW M4 GT3 globally, in the 12 Hours of Mugello in Tuscany, Italy. Ross Gunn sizing up Colin Braun and Bill Auberlen doing the same to Gunn. Auberlen and Hull are third in points. It will be nil points for Racer's Edge and RS1 are not at the top. They are still languishing down in 11th spot. Jan Heylen has stormed from 14th to third! Amazing! Ryan Dalziel in the lead. Hull and Auberlen are undefeated in the Indianapolis 8 Hour winning in GT4 and scoring the highest position for an American entry in the race last year.
The two DXDT Mercedes' are running liner stern. Bryan Sellers followed by Corey Lewis. Auberlen struggling to try and get in the picture with such drivers as Heylen, Braun, and Gunn. Maybe his setup is not quite there. Stevan McAleer, the points leaders in the Pro class coming into the race, mired in traffic currently. They have not had as good a qualifying effort for race two than race one. There is a variance in speed between the Pro drivers and the Am drivers. Wright Motorsports has raced here at Sebring year in and year out for a long time.
Braun/Kurtz and Skeer/Adelson would be only one point apart if the race ended now. 184-183. Auberlen digging deep. He is truly going for it trying to give Chandler Hull a good spot to be a winner. Chandler Hull is not looking at the points, but the goal is to gain them, still. Indianapolis is their focus. Sebring has not been a happy hunting ground for Racer's Edge in SRO. In Pro, there is a 27-point spread for the top three. 50 points on offer for winning the Indianapolis 8 Hours. You have third drivers, and cars from overseas coming back like Craft Bamboo, WRT, GruppeM, and more. We'll see the entry list this coming week for Indianapolis.
Ryan Dalziel is motoring away from everyone else with nearly half an hour on the board. I think the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance finale is also next weekend. So, we might have more SRO content coming your way sooner than you might think. The only driver quicker than Dalziel now is Neil Verhagen. Pit stop time coming in ten minutes or so. Four of the top eight cars set their fastest laps last time by. Again, the pit window will open in ten minutes. In the Pro-Am lineups, the Am drivers finish on Sunday.
Elliott Skeer cuts a lap half a second faster than the race leader. Oh my. Elliott Skeer is the 2015 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA champion. Neil Verhagen, short shifting in turn 17 over the bumps to settle the tail of the car down. Neil Verhagen has gone up 11 places from 14th to third! Amazing! Verhagen grabs the curb and slides sideways! Samantha Tan is getting suited and booted, getting psyched to go for a win. We have about three more laps before the pit window opens here. Verhagen is the quickest of the top three drivers. He is closing in on Skeer hand over fist with the pit window opening soon and we are close to the halfway mark.
Other drivers getting set for their stints. Eric Filgueiras is readying to get into the #28 Porsche and Justin Wetherill will take over the #33 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3. Fourth, fifth, and sixth overall. Jan Heylen in the overall winning car from yesterday and Madison Snow will get into the car soon. Madison Snow, Corey Lewis, and Bryan Sellers teamed up to win the 12 Hours of Sebring and all three of them are here competing with different cars and teams here in SRO. That victory came in IMSA in GT3. Verhagen resets the CrowdStrike Fastest lap at 2:00.567 reeling in Elliott Skeer.
Samantha Tan was flying in race two at Road America. She clinched the class win. We could see that #38 BMW be a contender. Eric Filgueiras will dive into the #28 Porsche 911 GT3R and do an undercut for fresh Pirelli P Zeros out of traffic. Pit stop now for the #28. A 79 second delta for fuel, tires, and a driver change. RS1 in the lane. Stevan McAleer out and Eric Filgueiras in. RS1 out of Pompano Beach, Florida. This is the undercut. RS1 founded in 2015. They are top contenders. Neil Verhagen sweeps around Skeer. Skeer did not even challenge it.
Ryan Dalziel remains in the race lead. Heylen in the lane to hand the #45 Wright Motorsports Porsche to Madison Snow. MDK Motorsports also in the lane, Trenton Estep handing over the #53 Porsche to Seth Lucas. Tires out of the ovens, or the blankets, but are not completely hot, but not stone cold either. Eric Filgueiras chasing Seth Lucas down. #53 was at the head of the queue when the pit sequence began. Verhagen eking out a 1.2 second gap while Dalziel is consistent continuing to lead by three seconds over Neil Verhagen. This can run two more laps before hitting the pit lane to hand the BMW M4 GT3 to Samantha Tan.
2:01 dead for Colin Braun and Verhagen and Dalziel stay out for one more lap and they have to meet time window by the time the clock hits 40 minutes they have to be in the lane. These Pirelli P Zero tires are incredible as they have life even before changing to a new set and tossing these other ones away handling the heat, the bumps, and a sticky, greasy surface. Neil Verhagen, the Connecticut native, he is a true professional and a sports car racing star. Filgueiras chasing Lucas for a Pro class podium place. Manny Franco now in the #21 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 as Dalziel, Verhagen, and Skeer, will hand over to Wetherill, Tan, and Adelson.
Samantha Tan down and away. A delay for Justin Wetherill dropping to third. Second spot, Adam Adelson for Wright Motorsports, leapfrogging to second place. Tan and Adelson are in the fight and here comes Madison Snow scything past George Kurtz. He is now going to chase down Wetherill, Tan, and Adelson. RS1 used the undercut and it worked. Filgueiras has passed Lucas and is now chasing Jeff Burton in the #91 DXDT Mercedes-AMG GT3. He sends it to the inside. Filgueiras is going to push, push, push. Seth Lucas also passes Burton into tower corner.
Samantha Tan inherits the lead of the motor race as co-driver Neil Verhagen is cooling off. Tan has the measure of Adelson as Franco cuts his way through the Pro-Am traffic. Franco has to clear the two Mrrcedes' ahead of Jeff Burton and Scott Smithson. These are the two DXDT cars. Samantha Tan at the top of the shop and Neil Verhagen wearing a bucket hat, keeping cool. He was pushing flat out, not leaving a single stone unturned. He made just one mistake. He left everything on the table and is floored with his effort and the ST Racing team.
35 minutes left on the board. Tan is quickest and she has a boatload of confidence. Tan is displaying better pace than Madison Snow as we watch the squabble for tenth between Burton, Smithson, and Franco. Franco has to solve the riddle being posed by both of these Mercedes'. Chandler Hull and George Kurtz battling for fifth overall and the Hull/Auberlen team are second in the Pro class. Snow leads Hull and Kurtz is a distant fourth in the Pro-Am class. Kurtz and Hull have pulled double duty and Hull has run both a GT4 car and a GT3 car.
The GT3 car has much better braking than the GT4 car, and oodles more downforce. This will likely be a six-point swing and one point difference in the Pro class with double points on offer for the Indianapolis 8 Hours. Bartone Brothers with RealTime Racing might be making their last start. I don't think they will contest at Indianapolis. They ate in Pro-Am, Anthony Bartone and Adam Christodoulou. They are headed to Europe for next year and GT World Challenge Europe it sounds like. They could be at Indianapolis, and we'll see about that. Great to see RealTime back and they will be back next year.
Great to see the Bartone family involved, too, the drag racing legends. Derek DeBoer and Seth Lucas battling, trying hard to keep up with Eric Filgueiras. Adam Adelson and Madison Snow, squabbling with both of the Wright Motorsports Porsche's. Adelson opens the door letting Snow through. Team boss John Wright should be happy about this. Triarsi Competizione had trouble with the driver's door shutting on the pit stop and that is why they lost time. Samantha Tan has been quickest car on track ever since she took over the car.
Madison Snow is 12 seconds or so in-arrears. No need to take risks. But Adam Adelson better get a wriggle on and book it to keep from being swallowed up by teammate Adam Adelson who is getting scrappy. Burton, Smithson, and Bartone, three Mercedes-AMG's going for it. Will we see Bartone Brothers at Indianapolis? I don't know. Andy Pilgrim at RealTime Racing says this has been a growing period for Anthony Bartone, learning how to road race, like a sponge. So they will race with SRO in Europe and Asia in the near future.
Pilgrim, a Corvette brand ambassador for many years. Andy Pilgrim a former SRO champion with Cadillac Racing and a five-time podium finisher at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Hull passes Adelson and now we also are seeing Manny Franco chasing down Derek DeBoer. Six podiums for Hull and Auberlen but just a single win to show for it in 2023. Race wins are crucial with the SRO points structure and maybe they will be back in 2024. Jeff Burton has run down Derek DeBoer for fifth in the Pro-Am division.
Jeff Burton has motored away from teammate Scott Smithson. Samantha Tan could very well win this race but still 20 minutes left on the board. DeBoer, Burton, Smithson, these are the cars we are cfocusing on as Manny Franco is now running down Seth Lucas. Ferrari 296 GT3 vs. Porsche 911 GT3R (992). Smithson and Burton racing each other, the two DXDT teammates. The points standings are still very close. A one-point margin between first and second and 29 points back to third place. Not one event or one weekend. A complete season.
Burton spins down the Ulmann straight losing the tail! Oy yoy yoy! He's stuck in the middle of the road and thankfully gets back on the button. What a bear! Just too fast into the turn, pinched the curb slightly. Samantha Tan leads Madison Snow by 10.3 seconds, starting 14th, and stone last on the grid, but now in the lead. No Full Course Yellows to aid their cause either and they finished second from the back in race one yesterday. In Pro, a 30 point swing between Filgueiras and McAleer and Auberlen and Hull.
Nil points for Racer's Edge Acura with Ashton Harrison and Mario Farnbacher. They will be resetting before Indianapolis in two weeks. Could mother nature throw a spanner in the works? There are sprinkles around but no sign yet of a classic pop-up Florida shower. Scott Smithson now challenging Derek DeBoer and Anthony Bartone now in the picture as well. Smithson wants it but gets stymied on corner exit. Bartone guarding the inside, settling back in line. Inside the final 15 minutes of the last 90-minute sprint race of the year.
DeBoer handling the pressure well. Smithson drops a wheel and is absolutely going for it, Bartone literally eating his dust. BMW and Samantha Tan fastest at 162 miles an hour. Everyone else within a mile an hour or two. Derek DeBoer had rarely driven a GT3 car before 2023 but has stepped up into these cars and done it with aplomb. His father raced top alcohol dragsters and his grandpa was a dirt track racer. He won the 2015 Aston Martin Le Mans Festival in a GT4 Aston Martin factory car. Keep the car online.
Smithson tries down the inside, releases the brakes, and spins DeBoer around! DeBoer continues and now, Burton passes through. Smithson will draw the ire of the stewards for that move. The incident is under review as George Kurtz is running well. Derek DeBoer's wife is the operator of the sponsor of the car, Free Life Coaching. Drive through penalty incident responsibility for Smithson. Inside the final ten minutes of the motor race. Smithson misjudged his braking point. Samantha Tan leads by a healthy margin. Madison Snow cutting into the margin but not too much.
Neil Verhagen cut the fastest lap at 2:00.567, the CrowdStrike Fastest Lap. She has seven seconds in hand to second place. ST Racing will head for Indianapolis with a boatload of confidence. ST Racing leads Wright Motorsports by seven and a half seconds. Samantha Tan over Madison Snow while Justin Wetherill and George Kurtz are both closing in on Adam Adelson. Snow and Heylen look to sweep Pro class wins at Sebring this weekend. Will Samantha Tan keep pushing or accept what she has?
Chandler Hull running third in the #94 BimmerWorld BMW M4 GT3. George Kurtz drawing a bead on Justin Wetherill. We'll have two laps to go. The skies at Sebring are gray but the rain showers will miss us as the race is almost over. Kurtz reeling in Wetherill hand over fist. The Ferrari 296 built by Oreca after years of Michelotto building the cars. The Vincent Van Gogh liveried ST Racing BMW and under the white flag, Samantha Tan is 3.7 miles away from her first overall win in Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS.
Adam Adelson is clear of the fight between George Kurtz and Justin Wetherill. Kurtz could be strong into the hairpin at turn seven. Wetherill under pressure but holding fast. No drama at the front and Samantha Tan, Neil Verhagen, and ST Racing win Sebring race two! Madison Snow sweeps the weekend in the Pro class. 6.4 seconds the margin of victory. Chandler Hull secures a podium for BimmerWorld. Wetherill on the Pro-Am podium with Ryan Dalziel. Manny Franco and Alessandro Balzan are coming in. Fifth place. Eric Filgueiras and Stevan McAleer get a Pro class podium.
Jeff Burton racing Derek DeBoer for 11th and 12th. Smithson out of the picture. For the final time. It will be Derek DeBoer hanging on by 3/10ths of a second. Car #38 comes from last to first! Cue the dance music for the results sheet.
Overall/Pro-Am: #38 Verhagen/Tan ST Racing BMW M4 GT3
Pro: #45 Heylen/Snow Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R (992)
This victory means the world to Samantha Tan completing all levels of the SRO ladder from touring cars all the way up to GT3. She is a racer, not just a racing driver. Wright Motorsports sweeps the Pro class this weekend with Madison Snow and Jan Heylen. A great effort for Wright Motorsports. The team car finishes second with Adam Adelson and Elliott Skeer. Our next race will be a true endurance race, racing into the night at the Indianapolis 8 Hours with a three-driver lineup, coming up in two weeks, and we should see a fabulous entry list for that race coming up.
The champagne flies! Celebration ensues. Drink it up. It's Sunday. We've got two weeks until Indianapolis as I mentioned. The points championship will come into focus as we get set for the Indianapolis 8 Hours. Incredible to see Neil Verhagen come in and gel with the ST Racing team and surely, they've found the magic sauce. Verhagen, an American driver, but knows the European tracks much more, racing in Europe for a long time. The title fights are on in Pro and Pro-Am as we get set for Indianapolis as I've mentioned a handful of times, but the excitement, the thrill of this big race is going to be massive.
We will put a bow on the championship at The Brickyard. It'll be fabulous! Join us there, won't you? For now, from Sebring International Raceway in Central Florida citrus country, so long everybody. Take care.
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