CRP Racing’s Jason Daskalos led flag-to-flag Sunday (April 21) to win GT America powered by AWS presented by 5.11 Race No. 2 in Long Beach. It is Daskalos’ third victory in four races to start the season.
“This is great! What a weekend! What a weekend!,” Daskalos said after the race. “My car took a while to come to me [like Saturday], but towards the middle and end of the race, I had a great car and I didn’t make any mistakes.”
Daskalos’ margin of victory was .847 seconds over GMG Racing’s James Sofronas. SKI Autosports’ Johnny O’Connell was third in his Audi, then Justin Rothberg in the Turner Motorsport BMW. Mishumotors’ Mirco Schultis was fifth in his Callaway Corvette.
By virtue of setting the fastest lap during Race No. 1 on Saturday, Daskalos started from pole. He got a big jump at the start as O’Connell was caught napping. GMG Racing’s Kyle Washington went three-wide at turn 1 and moved up to second in his Porsche. Contact was made there, damaging the nose of O’Connell’s Audi.
Washington looked like he could have taken the fight to Daskalos for the lead, but he was assessed a drive-through penalty for changing lanes on the start. Serving that penalty took Washington out of the hunt and moved his teammate James Sofronas to second.
Sofronas was able to run down Daskalos for the overall lead, partially due to slower GT4 traffic. However, he was unable to make any kind of move for the lead. O’Connell was able to keep tabs for the first half of the race. However, he began to drop back, leaving Daskalos and Sofronas to settle the race themselves.
Sofronas made one last run on Daskalos with five minutes to go when they caught GT4 leader Isaac Sherman. He got to Daskalos’ rear bumper, but once they cleared Sherman, Daskalos was home free for the weekend sweep.
Lone Star Racing’s Dan Knox started from the GT2 pole in his Mercedes-AMG GT2. Like on Saturday, Knox was able to have a couple of SRO3 cars in between himself and the rest of the class at the start. A good start propelled him up to fifth overall.
While Schultis was eventually able to drop Knox down to sixth overall, he was easily able to hold on for the weekend sweep. His margin of victory was 26.118 seconds over the Lamborghini of TPC Racing’s Aaron Farhadi. Brent Holden was third.
In GT4, Rotek Racing’s Isaac Sherman started from pole and managed to beat teammate Robb Holland to turn 1 to hold onto the advantage. Meanwhile, Flying Lizard Motorsports’ Todd Parriott spun in turn 4 after contact from Carrus Callas Raceteam’s Nick Shanny. Parriott was able to continue, while Shanny was given a drive-through penalty for causing the spin.
Sherman was able to maintain the advantage fairly easily, but Holland ran into problems that forced him to pit 14 minutes into the race. With Holland out of the picture, Sherman ended up with a substantial lead over Samantha Tan.
Tan tried her best to keep up with Sherman, but could not do so. Meanwhile, The Heart of Racing’s Gray Newell ran her down in the closing minutes to do battle for second. The duo fought hard over the last few laps with Tan keeping the spot. Meanwhile, Sherman easily earned his fourth straight win.
Sherman’s margin of victory was 12.601 seconds over Tan. Newell was third, then ACI Motorsports’ Curt Swearingin. Archangel Motorsports’ Todd Coleman was fifth.
GT America powered by AWS at Long Beach presented by 5.11 Race No. 2 Results
GT America powered by AWS teams will take a week before resuming their season at Sebring International Raceway on May 4. Race No. 1 from the tricky 3.74-mile road course will be at 12:55 p.m. ET and will be streamed live on the GT World YouTube channel.
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.
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