Regulator Racing’s Philip Ellis was able to run down and pass JMF Motorsports’ Michai Stephens with 14 minutes to go Sunday (April 27). From there, he pulled away to win GT World Challenge America powered by AWS Race No. 2 at Circuit of the Americas with teammate Jeff Burton. It is the duo’s first overall win of the year and second class win.
“We were lucky with the full course yellow,” Ellis explained to SRO America’s Amanda Busick after the race. “We actually messed up the pit stop by gambling [on time] a little too much. [The field] came back to us.”
Ellis and Burton’s margin of victory was 1.948 seconds over Stephens and Mikael Grenier. Rennsport One’s Jan Heylen and Alex Sedgwick were third, then CRP Racing’s Jason Daskalos and Isaac Sherman. DXDT Racing’s Matt Bell and Blake McDonald were fifth.
Ellis and Burton won overall as a Pro-Am entry. They won Pro-Am by 19.980 seconds over Daskalos and Sherman. Bell and McDonald were third, then GMG Racing’s Kyle Washington and Tom Sargent. Turner Motorsport’s Robby Foley and Justin Rothberg were fifth.
Foley started on pole in his Pro-Am BMW. When the green came out, he proceeded to open up a couple of seconds on the field.
Sargent fell back early, but came into his form after a couple of laps. He was able to close up a three-second deficit to Foley and battle for the lead.
In Pro, Grenier started on pole in his Mercedes in third overall. He was able to get past GMG Racing’s Tom Sargent at the first corner for second, then settled in to ride.
Once again, Random Vandals Racing’s Connor de Phillippi started at the rear of the field due to having his qualifying time thrown out. The reasoning was the same as Saturday. Failing inspection after qualifying wiped out times for both sessions. Saturday saw them come from the rear to win despite that penalty.
On this day, there was trouble almost immediately. On the second lap of the race, de Phillippi and teammate Varun Choksey had contact while battling for position in turn 12. The contact broke the suspension in the right front corner of de Phillippi car and put them behind the wall. De Phillippi and Kenton Koch ended up five laps down at the finish.
Heylen was the main rival to Grenier in class for the entire first half of the race. However, right before the mid-race stops, he collided with Archangel Motorsports’ Aaron Telitz in turn 12, cutting Telitz’s left front tire. Heylen was assessed a penalty for the contact.
The entire race got turned upside-down when Chouest Povoledo Racing’s Aaron Povoledo suffered a failure in the left front corner of his Corvette and stopped in turn 20 during the mid-race pit stops. That brought out a very ill-timed safety car period with a number of teams having not pitted yet, including the two Pro-Am leaders.
Foley came in for his mid-race stop under yellow and had a terrible stop due to air gun issues, putting teammate Justin Rothberg well down the order. Racers Edge Motorsports’ Jason Bell won the race off pit road, then proceeded to spin out under yellow while trying to catch up to the queue.
Michai Stephens ended up with the overall lead after the stops. Alex Sedgwick ended up second after serving his aforementioned penalty right before the yellow came out.
In Pro-Am, Regulator Racing was also bailed out by the caution. Burton pitted to hand over to Ellis a lap too early. During the yellow, Ellis passed through the pit lane in order to cut his drive time (time in the pit lane doesn’t count towards it). That allowed him to jump over the Pro-Am teams that hadn’t stopped.
Daskalos ended up in the class lead after the stops, but Ellis made short work of him on the restart to take the Pro-Am lead. He then passed Sedgwick for second and went after Stephens for the overall lead.
Stephens and Ellis fought for multiple laps for the lead. With 14 minutes to go, Ellis made a move inside of Stephens at turn 12. Stephens was able to hold him off for the right at turn 13. However, Ellis held on strong on the outside and got Stephens for the lead at turn 15.
Once out front, Ellis opened up a small lead over Stephens. That advantage continued to open up ever so slightly as he took the win.
After losing the overall lead, Stephens still had to run hard to hold off Sedgwick. He was able to keep Ellis in sight and held on to win the Pro class in second overall.
Grenier and Stephens’ margin of victory was 1.139 seconds over Heylen and Sedgwick. Both of the Random Vandals Racing BMWs ended up laps down after their early contact.
In Am, Scott Dollahite started his Ford Mustang GT3, repaired after Saturday’s crash, on the class pole in 14th. He then moved out of his lane too quickly on the start and was given a drive-through penalty for his trouble.
Dollahite was easily able to serve the penalty and get back ahead of AF Corse’s Jay Schreibman. A lack of pace on Schreibman’s part meant that Dollahite staying out until the caution trapped him a lap down when the caution came out.
Even a stop-and-go penalty for speeding in the pit lane during the visit under caution couldn’t keep Dollahite and Anthony Lazzaro from taking an easy class win in 12th overall. Dollahite and Lazzaro ended up a full lap ahead of Schreibman and Oswaldo Negri Jr.
GT World Challenge America powered by AWS: COTA Race No. 2
Next up for GT World Challenge America powered by AWS teams will be Sebring International Raceway in May. It will be hot and humid down there with a threat of afternoon thunderstorms because that is normal for mid-May in South Florida. Race No. 1 is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. ET on May 17 and will air live on RACER Network and 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.
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.