SKI Autosports’ Memo Gidley took the lead away from Turner Motorsport’s Justin Rothberg on the first lap Saturday (May 17). From there, he held on to take his first GT America powered by AWS win of the year at Sebring International Raceway.
“We had a great start and that was awesome going around the outside and inside [of Rothberg],” Gidley told SRO America’s Amanda Busick after the race. “Then, I found out that we had a five-second penalty. We had a couple seconds’ lead at that point, so I knew that we needed to keep pushing, pushing, pushing. We just had enough.”
The margin of victory was .364 seconds over Rothberg. GMG Racing’s Kyle Washington was third, then Mishumotors’ Mirco Schultis.
Rothberg started from pole in his BMW in a depleted field as only eight cars took the start. However, his lead did not last long as SKI Autosports’ Memo Gidley got a big run exiting turn 1.
Gidley was able to beat Rothberg into the braking zone at turn 3 and made that move stick to take the overall lead.
Once out front, Rothberg was able to keep tabs with Gidley and not let the Audi pull out. This ended up being key as 12 minutes into the race, the stewards issued Gidley a five-second post-race penalty due to a crewmember reaching into the car too close to the start of the pace lap.
As a result, all Rothberg needed to do to get the win was to simply keep Gidley in sight. However, as the race continued on, Gidley began to pull away.
Further back, Schultis was third in his Callaway Corvette and running very well until he slid off-course at turn 13. He managed to keep his car out of the wall, but dropped back to fifth.
With 12 minutes to go, Gidley had a lead of over four seconds before lapped traffic allowed Rothberg to pull in to less than three seconds back. Once the traffic was cleared, Gidley was able to open his lead to more than six seconds.
From there, Gidley held on to take the victory. The margin was ultimately large enough at the finish so that Gidley kept the victory after the five-second penalty was applied.
In GT4, JTR Motorsports Engineering’s Anthony McIntosh started from pole in his Toyota GR Supra. Much like Rothberg, his lead was short-lived as 89x Motorsports’ Michael Fitzpatrick took the lead away on the first lap.
McIntosh was able to stay with Fitzpatrick for the opening 10 minutes of the race. Then, Fitzpatrick got a little loose under braking for turn 3. That allowed McIntosh to slip back past to retake the lead.
For the rest of the race, McIntosh managed to hold onto a small lead. At times, the lead was as high as 1.5 seconds, while there was a point in which Fitzpatrick got the lead down to a little more than half a second.
In the final laps, McIntosh was able to expand his lead back out and take the win. The margin of victory was 2.249 seconds over Fitzpatrick.
GT America powered by AWS: Sebring Race No. 1 Results
Washington turned in a lap at 109.585 mph. This stood up as the fastest lap of the race and gives him the pole for Race No. 2 on Sunday.
Race No. 2 for GT America powered by AWS is scheduled for 9:05 a.m. ET Sunday morning. The race will stream 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.
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.