CRP Racing’s Jason Daskalos led flag-to-flag Sunday morning (Sept. 8) and held off a late charge from SKI Autosports’ Johnny O’Connell to win GT America powered by AWS Race No. 2 at Barber Motorsports Park. It is Daskalos’ sixth win of the year and allows him to expand the points lead that he snatched by winning on Saturday.
“This [win[ was crucial to our championship chances. We’re all even now,” Daskalos told SRO America’s Amanda Busick after the race. “We’re thrilled as a team. We’re going to win this championship for Sheldon [Miller, engineer].”
Daskalos’ margin of victory was .613 seconds over SKI Autosports’ Johnny O’Connell. GMG Racing’s Kyle Washington was third, then Flying Lizard Motorsports’ Jason Bell. Turner Motorsport’s Justin Rothberg was fifth.
By virtue of setting the fastest lap on Saturday, Jason Daskalos started from the overall pole. He was able to get a good start and open up a gap on Rothberg.
Further back, Flying Lizard Motorsports’ Jason Bell spun out his Aston Martin in turn 5. He lost a substantial amount of time trying to get back underway, but managed to continue at the rear of the field.
A lap later, Tim Savage appeared to lose his brakes entering turn 5. He drove across the crash and ended up clouting the side of Chouest-Povoledo Racing’s Ross Chouest to bring out the safety car.
Savage’s Aston Martin was substantially damaged and unable to move. Meanwhile, Chouest drove the car back to the pits before retiring. The team has a lot of work ahead of them since the same car is scheduled to be raced in Race No. 2 for Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS later in the day.
Daskalos seemed to catch the rest of the SRO3 class napping on the restart and pulled away from the pack. GMG Racing’s Kyle Washington was able to get past SKI Autosports’ Johnny O’Connell for third.
The advantage was short-lived as Alan Grossberg spun his GT4 McLaren and got stuck in the gravel and brought out another safety car. Grossberg was pulled out of the gravel, but was two laps down by the time he resumed.
After the restart, Daskalos and Rothberg battled for a number of laps for the lead. Unfortunately, he ended up cutting his right front tire. The long crawl to the pits and the tire change put Rothberg a lap down.
The incident left Daskalos with a four-second over Washington. An encounter with Grossberg led to Washington and O’Connell splitting the McLaren. Washington hesitated in his move and that was all O’Connell needed to take second.
Once in second, O’Connell began running Daskalos down. Quick laps allowed him to get within a couple of car lengths of Daskalos’ Mercedes.
In GT4, Isaac Sherman started from pole once again. ACI Motorsports’ Curt Swearingin was alongside, but couldn’t really hang with Sherman. Instead, Swearingin had to do battle with The Heart of Racing’s Gray Newell.
Ultimately, Sherman was able to pull away from the rest of the class on each restart. He was never seriously threatened en route to his 11th win of the year. The win marked his fourth weekend sweep of the year and clinched the GT4 title.
Sherman’s margin of victory was 4.550 seconds over Swearingin. Newell was third, then Nick Shanny and Todd Parriott.
GT America powered by AWS: Barber Park Race No. 2 Results
The GT America powered by AWS season will conclude at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as part of the Indianapolis 8 Hour weekend. Race No. 1 is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 4 at 1 p.m. ET and will be streamed on the GT World YouTube channel and on SpeedSport1.
About the author
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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