CRP Racing/Daskalos Motorsports’ Jason Daskalos led flag to flag from pole on Saturday, April 6 to win the AWS-powered GT America Race No. 1 at Sonoma Raceway. This is the year in a row that Daskalos has won the first GT America season match, after accomplishing the feat last year on the streets of St. Petersburg.
Daskalos’ margin of victory was 4. 306 seconds over the Audi of SKI Autosports’ Johnny O’Connell. CrowdStrike Racing’s George Kurtz through Riley third, and then GMG Racing’s James Sofronas fourth on the road.
In the closing laps, Sofronas was fighting for fourth place with Turner Motorsport’s Justin Rothberg. With 3 minutes remaining, he touched at Turn 7, causing Rothberg to go wide.
Sofronas received a driving penalty for the incident. The penalty imposed after the chequered flag was transformed into a time penalty.
As a result, Sophronas rose from fourth to eighth place. As a result, Mirco Schultis of Mishumotors took fourth place, while Ross Chouest of Chouest-Povoledo Raicng finished fifth.
Flying Lizard Motorsports’ Elias Sabo was fastest in Saturday morning’s practice, but opted to retire from GT America to focus on the AWS-powered Fanatec GT World Challenge America. As a result, Daskalos started from pole in the overall standings at the wheel of his Mercedes-AMG GT3.
The start is a bit uneven. Tim Savage hit the wall on the front straight before he even reached the start and finish line, while Sofronas almost veered off his Audi.
CrowdStrike Racing’s George Kurtz through Riley controlled to pass Johnny O’Connell on the first lap to take second place, then pushed Daskalos to take the lead. Daskalos controlled to hold Kurtz until they neared the end of the GT4 field. The slowdown in traffic allowed Daskalos to pull away again.
Kurtz controlled his way to Daskalos’ rear bumper before passing out significantly in the closing laps. That allowed O’Connell to take second place.
Although Kurtz’s fall gave Daskalos a decent lead, he didn’t back down at all. On the last lap he scored the second fastest sector of the race on the way to victory.
TPC Racing’s Aaron Farhadi started from pole GT2 in his Lamborghini. He was able to take advantage of Savage’s upheavals to put the Aston Martin between him and his fast competitors.
The GT2 race necessarily ended after nine minutes of racing. Farhadi had a six-point lead, while Alan Grossberg and Brent Holden collided and spun at Turn 7 as they battled for second place. Holden was found guilty of the incident and had to serve a fine. Driving penalty.
Farhadi controlled gently to hold on to his Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2 and take the lead. In the end he was 84. 126 seconds ahead of Holden.
In GT4, Rotek Racing’s Isaac Sherman started from pole in his Porsche. Sherman was able to run from the front, while ACI Motorsports’ Curt Swearingin was able to move up to second place.
Sherman slowly pulled away from the box during the race as Swearingin fell into the clutches of The Heart of Racing’s Gray Newell and Archangel Motorsports’ Todd Coleman.
Newell managed to overtake Swearingin with Coleman at his side. However, none of the Aston Martin drivers can do anything to prevent Sherman from taking the first win of his career.
The margin of victory was 8. 07 seconds over The Heart of Racing’s Gray Newell. Archangel Motorsports’ Todd Coleman was third, followed by Swearingin and Flying Lizard Motorsports’ Todd Parriott.
The fastest lap of the race was through Sofronas at 94. 778 mph. This earned Sofronas the overall pole for Race 2. The occasion is scheduled for 11:55 a. m. ET Sunday morning and will be streamed on GT World’s YouTube channel.
Phil Allaway serves 3 main roles in Frontstretch. Es the administrator of the site’s FREE email newsletter, which runs Monday through Friday and on weekends. He ensures the honesty of TV stations with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and is the site’s sports car racing host. editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press secretary for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, New York. It covers all the action on the steeply sloping track, from normal DIRTcar Modified races to occasional visits from roving series, such as the Super DIRTcar Series.