George Kurtz Clinches GT America SRO3 Title With Sebring Race 1 Victory
With his seventh overall win of the season, George Kurtz and the #04 CrowdStrike Racing with Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 have clinched the 2022 GT America powered by AWS SRO3 class championship at Sebring International Raceway.
Kurtz prevailed in a fantastic battle for the Race 1 victory against polesitter Jason Harward in the #88 Zelus Motorsports Lamborghini Huracán GT3, a race which came down to some brilliant overtaking moves through traffic.
Needing a second place finish at minimum to win the title, Kurtz got past Harward into turn one on the first lap, before Harward passed him back into the hairpin turn seven. The two top class leaders ran tail to nose as they broke away from the other three SRO3 class competitors.
Jason Daskalos (#27 Daskalos Motorsports Audi R8 LMS Ultra) really needed a strong race, but he couldn’t make up ground from fifth, slowed gradually, then went to the pits after nine laps for emergency service. He would finish three laps down, 21st overall and last in his class.
Not content with clinching the title on a second place finish, Kurtz used his skills in negotiating slower GT4 traffic to his advantage. Kurtz and Harward were three-wide through the Big Bend (turn six) before Kurtz made his pass around the outside at turn seven to take the race lead.
More than half of the race had elapsed, and Kurtz was able to put the pedal to the metal while Harward gradually faded back.
With a 17 second margin of victory, Kurtz clinched the SRO3 title in winning fashion. It’s his second championship in SRO Motorsports Group America competition, following his 2017 championship in the Pirelli World Challenge GTS Am class – along with class victories in the 12 Hours of Sebring and 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.
Not to mention, Kurtz and his GT World Challenge America co-driver Colin Braun are still within striking distance of the Pro-Am class championship!
Kurtz also got the fastest lap of the race, which will earn him the right to start from pole position in Race 2 tomorrow.
Harward finished in second place, and with only a 31 point gap back to Daskalos, the Zelus “Bullnicorn” can still grab second in the SRO3 standings before the end of the season.
Third place in the class was fiercely contested between Mirco Schultis (#70 MISHUmotors Callaway Corvette C7 GT3-R) and Jeff Burton (#191 TR3 Racing Lamborghini), but by a quarter of a second, it was the German driver and his Corvette that held off the Utah lumber magnate for the last podium position in SRO3.
What began as a four-way showdown for the GT4 title has now become a five-way battle royale: Moisey Uretsky dominated from pole position to take his second win of the season.
Uretsky, who was involved in a hefty practice shunt yesterday morning, had his #55 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 put back together that afternoon. He won the pole in his class earlier today, then led the GT4 field into turn one and was seldom challenged for the top spot, breaking away from the field quickly.
That the Accelerating Performance team were even able to keep running this weekend was enough of a miracle, but to cap it off with a victory (and fifth place overall), was an even bigger accomplishment.
While Uretsky was fighting to stay in the championship fight with a race win, Adam Adelson (#120 Premier Racing Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport) started off the race having to fend off his three closest competitors in the standings in his rear-view mirror.
But as top two championship men Ross Chouest (#50 Chouest Povoledo Racing Vantage GT4) and Jason Bell (#2 GMG Racing Vantage GT4) gradually embroiled themselves in a fight for third place, Adelson was able to scoot away to a second place finish.
With five minutes left in the race, the battle between Chouest and Bell escalated immediately: Chouest tried to cover off Bell, but Bell muscled his way through into third place at turn three. Two corners later, Bell spun out and hit the tyre barriers between turns five and six! Chouest was called into investigation for blocking, and Robb Holland (#99 Rotek Racing Cayman RS) looked to be the major benefactor as he dropped into fourth place!
Then, on the final lap, Holland crawled to a stop around turn six, as his Porsche ran out of fuel with just a few kilometres left. Radisic, who was fifth, also came to a stop out of turn seven. And then, in the final sector, Chouest – who was sixth on the road – came to a stop as well, he too had run out of fuel!
With Holland classified in ninth, and Chouest and Bell both outside the points – Adelson now leads the GT4 Drivers’ Championship by one point over Bell, and three points over Chouest. Uretsky moves up into a tie with Holland, and they’re both within 12 points of Adelson heading into tomorrow morning’s race!
With all of that chaos unfolding in the championship fight, Andy Pilgrim steadily drove his #3 Regal Racing/Bartone Bros. Cayman Clubsport MR into third place, getting a GT4 class podium to go with his win in SRO3 last time out in Road America.
After starting from the pit lane as penance for his Race 2 incident at Road America, Bryan Putt (#15 BSport Racing Vantage GT4) recovered to finish fourth in class, followed by Elias Sabo (#8 Flying Lizard Vantage GT4) in fifth, Anthony Bartone (#427 Regal/Bartone Cayman MR) in sixth after a chassis change, and Custodio Toledo (#35 Conquest Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4) seventh after an overnight engine change – ahead of Seth Lucas (#016 Hattori Motorsports Toyota GR Supra GT4) who completed the top eight in class.
Sabo finished with the fastest lap in GT4, which affords him the honour of starting on pole in GT4 tomorrow, alongside Uretsky.
GT America Race 2 starts tomorrow morning at 9:00 AM EDT.
Images © Brian Cleary, Regis Lefebure, Fabian Lagunas / SRO Motorsports Group America
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