DXDT Racing’s Alec Udell was able to take advantage of Wright Motorsports’ Adam Adelson going wide in turn 1 Sunday (Aug. 18) to take the overall lead. From there, he pulled away to score the weekend sweep in Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS Race No. 2 at Road America with teammate Tommy Milner. It is the duo’s third straight Pro weekend sweep and the fifth overall win in six races.
“Tommy [Milner] had a great first stint, but he got caught in a little bit of dirty air,” Udell told SRO America’s DJ Clark in victory lane. “We had a little bit of a battle with Adam [Adelson] in the opening laps of the stint. Then, there were some cars coming out of the pit lane; a traffic jam, if you will. I was able to take advantage of that [to take the lead] and held on to the finish.”
Milner and Udell’s margin of victory was 6.655 seconds over teammates Bryson Morris and Bryan Sellers. Adelson and Elliott Skeer were third in their Porsche, then ST Racing’s Samantha Tan and Neil Verhagen. Racers Edge Motorsports’ Luca Mars and Zach Veach were fifth.
Turner Motorsport’s Robby Foley started from the overall pole in his BMW. Behind Foley, Skeer was able to get past Milner to take the Pro lead in turn 1.
For much of the first half of the race, the field stuck together fairly well. Skeer was unable to get away from Milner.
After the pit stops, Adelson came out with the class lead with Udell right on his tail. Udell pressured Adelson for the lead, but could not get by.
The majority of the Pro-Am cars coming out of the pits at the end of pit window significantly affected the race. Adelson came up on them quickly, then swept to the outside of turn 1 to get past them.
Adelson ended up going way too wide and ended up in the runoff. That allowed Udell to take over the class lead. Barely a lap later, Udell was in the overall lead.
In Pro-Am, Foley led the race from pole. The top-seven cars were all within eight seconds of each other a half-hour into the race. That included Tom Sargent, who ran fourth in his Porsche for nearly his entire stint in the car.
Sargent settled in roughly three seconds behind Foley and was able to match pace with Foley. When Foley made his pit stop, Sargent chose to stay out for an extra lap.
Turner Motorsport’s stop was not the best. That, and some quick laps from Sargent and Sellers resulted in Justin Rothberg ending up third.
A few laps into Rothberg’s stint in the car, he cut his right front tire and was forced to drive nearly a full lap at reduced pace to get back to the pits. By the time he got there and the tire was replaced, Rothberg was two laps down.
Kyle Washington ended up with the Pro-Am lead after the stops, but debutante Bryson Morris was right there. It was only a matter of a few laps before Morris was able to take the class lead away.
Morris’ primary competition was Tan in the ST Racing No. 38. Tan was somewhat similar to Morris on pace, but really couldn’t gain much on him.
Meanwhile, Regulator Racing’s Philip Ellis was screaming up from the rear of the field after getting in the car at the earliest opportunity. He was able to run down Rennsport One’s Jake Pedersen and take fourth from nearly 20 seconds behind. A couple of laps later, he took third from Elias Sabo.
Despite this move from Ellis, no one could do anything to prevent Morris from taking the Pro-Am victory in his first weekend with DXDT Racing. It is the team’s first Pro-Am victory since VIR in 2021, when Erin Vogel and Michael Cooper took the class win in Race No. 1.
Morris and Sellers’ margin of victory was 3.767 seconds over Tan and Verhagen. Ellis and Jeff Burton ended up 39 seconds back in third, then Pedersen and Trent Hindman. Sabo and Andy Lee were fifth in their BMW.
In the Am class, AF Corse’s Oswaldo Negri Jr. started from the pole, but was penalized for his team carrying transporting tires in their tire warmers prior to the race. Negri was forced to serve a drive-through penalty for the infraction.
That gave the Am lead to Esses Racing with Mercedes-Benz of Austin’s Alan Metni. Despite this, Negri was able to make the time deficit and retake the lead prior to the pit stops.
During the stops, the Esses Racing team with Will Hardeman driving was able to retake the lead. However, there’s a reason why they did. Their pit stop was under the 86-second minimum time and they sped on pit road.
That resulted in two separate penalties. The speeding was a stop-and-30-second hold, while the short stop was a drive-through. The penalties combined cost them a lap and put them way behind.
Negri and Jay Schreibman ended up holding on to take the Am win. They ended up 9.686 seconds ahead of Metni and Hardeman.
Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS: Road America Race No. 2 Results
Fanatec GT World Challenge America America powered by AWS teams will be off for the next two weeks. The 11th race of 2024 will be held at Barber Motorsports Park on Sept. 7. Coverage will be streamed live at 4:10 p.m. ET on the GT World YouTube channel and on SpeedSport1.
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.