GMG Racing’s James Sofronas led flag-to-flag Sunday morning (Aug. 18) to win GT America Race No. 2 from Road America. It is Sofronas’ first win of the season in a part-time campaign.
“I’ve been coming here since 1994 and this feels good,” Sofronas told SRO America’s DJ Clark in victory lane. “We’ve had the pace [this year]. We’ve won poles and led laps. The Audi in [the second sector was] amazing, so I just had to hold [Justin Rothberg] off through the Kink and pray that he didn’t get a good run.
Sofronas’ margin of victory was .379 seconds over Rothberg in the Turner Motorsport BMW. SKI Autosports’ Johnny O’Connell was third, while CRP Racing’s Jason Daskalos was fourth. Mishumotors’ Mirco Schultis was fifth.
In the points. O’Connell currently holds an eight-point lead over Daskalos with four races to go. Rothberg is 19 points back.
By virtue of setting the fastest lap in the wet in Race No. 1 Saturday, Sofronas started from the overall pole and opened a small gap over Rothberg.
Rothberg then ran Sofronas down for the lead. He attempted a move to the outside at turn 5 and clipped one of the curbs, still moist from Saturday’s rains. He briefly lost control and went wide, allowing Sofronas to expand his lead.
After this moment, Rothberg was able to settle in and turn the fastest laps of the race to catch back up to Sofronas. The two drivers then battled fiercely for the lead.
Lapped traffic did get in the way of the battle at times, but Rothberg was able to stay with Sofronas. On the final lap, he attempted a dive for the lead at Canada Corner, but Sofronas was able to hold the move and take the win.
In GT4, ACI Motorsports’ Curt Swearingin started from pole in his Porsche with points leader Isaac Sherman in tow. Sherman stayed behind until he was able to get a run exiting turn 13.
The two drivers ran through turn 14 and most of the frontstretch side-by-side. After all that, Sherman was able to clear Swearingin in turn 1 for the lead.
Once out front, Sherman slowly pulled away, opening up a gap of nearly seven seconds. Further back, The Heart of Racing’s Gray Newell spun out on the first lap exiting turn 6 and had to spend the rest of the race playing catch up.
The biggest race of the day in GT4 ended up being a battle for fourth between Newell, Nick Shanny and Farhan Siddiqi. The three drivers fought hard before Newell eventually snagged fourth and drove away. Siddiqi ended up cutting a tire on his Audi R8 GT4 and was forced to stop.
Sherman was never threatened once he got he got the lead. He was able to keep his Porsche straight and take his ninth victory of the year.
Sherman’s margin of victory was 7.623 seconds over Swearingin. Newell was able to get up to third after his spin while Flying Lizard Motorsports’ Todd Parriott was fourth. Shanny was a lap down in fifth.
GT America powered by AWS teams will be off for the next two weeks. The 13th race of 2024 will be held at Barber Motorsports Park on Sept. 7. Coverage will be streamed live at 2 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.