Memo Gidley Clinches GT America SRO3 Championship In Race 1
Eight years after a crash at Daytona almost claimed his life and derailed his career, Memo Gidley was crowned GT America powered by AWS champion in the premier SRO3 category in Race 1 from Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Gidley clinched the championship with a commanding victory from pole position on Friday afternoon.
The former IndyCar, Grand-Am, and IMSA veteran put his #101 TKO Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 on pole during GT America qualifying in the morning. He lined up first on the 20-car grid and drove away from the field over the following 40 minutes of action.
Gidley stretched his lead over the field out to as much as ten seconds before taking his time in the closing minutes, and he went on to his seventh win of the 2023 season by 2.648 seconds with minimal drama along the way.
Johnny O’Connell, another well-travelled veteran of North American sports car racing, finished second in his #3 SKI Autosport Audi R8 LMS, after wrestling the position away from Jason Daskalos.
Daskalos entered the race 18 points behind Gidley and needed to finish ahead, but he faded from contention for the win and was embroiled in a battle just to hold on to a podium place.
His hopes of salvaging a podium were ruined due to a five-second penalty for cutting the chicane at turns five & six and gaining a lasting advantage. Daskalos finished third on the road after battling hard with George Kurtz on the last lap, but Kurtz and his #04 CrowdStrike by Riley Mercedes would finish third, and Daskalos’ #27 CRP Motorsport Mercedes dropped to sixth.
Mirco Schultis survived a clash with Daskalos and an off-track excursion in turn one to finish fourth in his #70 Mishumotors Callaway Corvette C7 GT3-R, ahead of the #32 GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R (991.2) of Kyle Washington in fifth.
Kurtz set the fastest lap of the race today and will start Race 2 on Sunday from pole position.
History was made in the GT2 class as Lone Star Racing founder Dan Knox gave the Mercedes-AMG GT2 its first win in America.
Knox started behind class polesitter Kevin Woods and his #094 Chicago Performance & Tuning KTM X-Bow GT2, but it took Knox twelve minutes to get past and into the class lead.
Woods kept the pressure on afterwards, but Knox was able to stay ahead and take a significant GT2 class win – in the first GT America race with multiple GT2 class entrants.
CJ Moses’ #58 GMG Audi R8 LMS GT2 finished third in class.
Robb Holland snatched GT4 class victory in the final minutes to keep his hopes of winning the series championship alive heading into Sunday morning’s final race.
Using the timing of faster traffic around him to his benefit, Holland made the move in his #099 Rotek Racing Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 to get past Jason Bell at turn seven with just three minutes remaining.
Holland held on by three-quarters of a second for his sixth win of the season, ahead of the #2 Flying Lizard Aston Martin Vantage GT4 of Bell.
Bell officially has a 28-point lead going into the finale on Sunday, but accounting for the fact that his lowest-scoring round of the season will be dropped from the final rankings, his effective championship lead is now down to 11 points over Holland. Holland will also start on pole position tomorrow after setting the fastest lap of the race.
GT4 polesitter Gray Newell rounded out the podium in the #25 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin, followed by the outgoing class champion Ross Chouest in the #50 Chouest Povoledo Racing Aston Martin in fourth.
Images © Brian Cleary / SRO Motorsports America
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