TKO Motorsports’ Memo Gidley was never seriously threatened Sunday morning (April 30) as he drove away from the field to win GT America powered by AWS Race No. 2 at NOLA Motorsports Park. It is his fourth win of the year and his first weekend sweep.
Gidley won by 9.377 seconds over Crowdstrike Racing with Riley Motorsports’ George Kurtz, but it was clear that he took it easy over the final laps of the race since the margin was as high as 16 seconds. CRP Racing’s Jason Daskalos was third, then Wright Motorsports’ Adam Adelson. SKI Autosports’ Johnny O’Connell was fifth in his Ferrari.
Gidley started from the pole and didn’t take long to open up a gap on Daskalos. Less than 10 minutes into the race, he had a five-second lead.
Meanwhile, Daskalos had to do battle with Kurtz. Todd Treffert and Adelson were right there as well. While Daskalos struggled for a time, he eventually stabilized.
What was a great run for Treffert went south when he had contact with Kurtz and spun his Mercedes in turn 4. Treffert was able to get back underway, but had to make an unscheduled pit stop for repairs. He would ultimately finish a lap down in 10th.
That meant that the fight for second came down to Daskalos and Kurtz. With the help of GT4 racer Gray Newell, Kurtz was able to sweep past Daskalos with four minutes to go to take second. Regardless, no one could prevent Gidley from taking the weekend sweep.
In GT4, Rotek Racing’s Robb Holland started on pole in his Porsche and opened up a small advantage on the field. Flying Lizard Motorsports’ Elias Sabo was second early on, but Archangel Motorsports’ Todd Coleman was able to dispatch of him.
15 minutes into the race, Coleman ran down Holland and made a move for the lead in turn 13. Contact was made and Holland ended up in the grass.
While Holland did not lose the lead here, it did stack up the GT4 field. Sabo then attempted to make a move on Coleman for second, but Coleman ran him wide. There was more contact between Coleman, Sabo and Holland. That brought Ross Chouest and Tony Gaples into the mix as well. Coleman was not penalized for his actions, but the stewards did give him a warning for a breach of driving standards.
When the SRO3 drivers reached the GT4 leaders, Sabo was able to get past Coleman for second. Adelson ultimately opened the door for Sabo to get his Aston Martin to the inside of Holland in turn 13 to snatch the lead just past halfway.
Once in the lead, Sabo was able to pull away from the rest of the GT4 pack. Coleman was able to get around Holland for second, then had contact with the GT3 Porsche of Alex Vogel, spinning Vogel out. No penalty came out of that.
Coleman made one last run on Sabo on the final lap, but had a slight issue that allowed Sabo to take an easy win. The margin of victory was 5.986 seconds over Coleman. Holland ended up third, then Chouest and Gaples.
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.
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