Random Vandals Racing’s Kenton Koch was able to take over the overall lead Sunday (May 18) at the end of the pit stop window. From there, he was able to hold on to win GT World Challenge America powered by AWS Race No. 2 at Sebring International Raceway with teammate Connor de Phillippi.
The win is de Phillippi and Koch’s fourth win of the season and wraps up a Sebring weekend sweep. For Koch, it’s a personal weekend sweep as he won both of the Pirelli GT4 America SprintX races as well.
“It’s been a dream weekend,” de Phillippi told SRO America’s Jonathan Grace after the race. “We’ve made no mistakes. The car’s been great to drive. We executed. We didn’t exploit our weakness. Just a great drive.”
The margin of victory was 2.104 seconds over Rennsport One’s Jan Heylen and Alex Sedgwick. JMF Motorsports’ Mikael Grenier and Michai Stephens were third, followed by Random Vandals’ Bill Auberlen and Varun Choksey. Turner Motorsport’s Robby Foley and Justin Rothberg were fifth.
Foley started from the overall pole in his BMW and managed to beat DXDT Racing’s Matt Bell to turn 1. Random Vandals Racing’s Connor de Phillippi moved up to second on the start as well.
Foley was able to pull out to a small lead of a little over a second over de Philippi in the opening laps. De Phillippi, who led in the Pro class, slowly started reeling in Foley after the half-hour mark.
Regulator Racing’s Jeff Burton had the worst possible start to the race. He spun out twice on the first lap. That put him nearly half a lap behind almost immediately. It meant that without a caution, they were doomed to finish in the back.
Further back, CRP Racing’s Isaac Sherman was given a drive-through penalty for shoving LAB Motorsport’s Kyle Marcelli off the road exiting turn 3. The penalty dropped Sherman to 14th overall.
When the mid-race stops came around, Foley chose to stay out as long as possible. Meanwhile, de Phillippi stopped early in the pit window to put Koch in the car.
Foley stopped from the overall lead with 41 minutes to go for full service, including Rothberg swapping into the driver’s seat. The stop was good enough for the Turner squad to keep the Pro-Am lead, but not good enough to keep the overall advantage.
Koch took the overall lead from Rothberg before Rothberg could get to the end of the pit lane. Sedgwick moved up into second and tried to keep pace with the green and white BMW.
Further back, Rothberg ended up in a fierce battle for the Pro-Am lead with McDonald. With 27 minutes to go, McDonald tried an outside move on Rothberg. The two drivers ran side-by-side for multiple corners before Rothberg was able to pull back in front.
The move ultimately backfired on McDonald as Stephens was able to get past him. That wasn’t for position in class, but meant that Rothberg had another car between him and McDonald.
The race’s sole full course yellow came out with 21 minutes to go when LAB Motorsport by GT Racing’s Jean-Frederic Laberge spun exiting turn 13 and hit the barriers. Laberge tried to drive his Porsche back, but was unable to so do.
Prior to the caution, Stephens was able to pass Rothberg for third overall, allowing him to drive up to the rear bumper of Sedgwick.
Unfortunately for McDonald, he did not get a good restart. Auberlen in the second Random Vandals BMW got past on the restart, then Archangel Motorsports’ Todd Coleman took second in class.
McDonald and Coleman battled hard for second. Coleman had the added detriment of a five-second post-race penalty hanging over his head, which made him try to run harder.
With under 10 minutes to go, Coleman went too fast into the hairpin and ended up in the grass. That dropped the sole McLaren 720S GT3 out of the mix.
The caution really bailed out Regulator Racing. When Laberge crashed, Philip Ellis was running 13th overall, more than 100 seconds out of the lead.
SRO America officials made the caution from the Laberge crash into a quickie caution since Laberge’s car wasn’t disabled on the track (it ultimately stopped in the auxiliary pit lane used for the FIA World Endurance Championship). As a result, Philip Ellis wasn’t able to fully catch up to the rear of the field before the green came back out.
Despite that, Ellis went on a charge in the closing 15 minutes, picking off drivers one-by-one. Coleman’s off-course excursion was a free position for him. Then, he ran down and passed Kyle Washington to get on the podium.
With Coleman out of the picture, McDonald ran Rothberg back down in the last couple of laps in an attempt to take the class win for himself. Ellis was there as well.
On the final lap, Ellis was able to take second from McDonald entering turn 3 after getting extremely loose exiting turn 1. From there, he tried to run down Rothberg.
Ellis got only one shot at Rothberg for the lead in turn 16. He moved to the inside, but couldn’t quite get alongside. From there, Rothberg was able to hold on for the class win in fifth overall.
Rothberg and Foley won by .417 seconds over Ellis and Burton. Bell and McDonald were third, then GMG Racing’s Washington and Tom Sargent. Coleman and Aaron Telitz were fifth.
There was only one Am class entry in the race. The Ford Mustang GT3 of Scott Dollahite and Stefano Gattuso finished 11th overall.
GT World Challenge America powered by AWS: Sebring Race No. 2 Results
The series will now take a couple of months off before returning to action at VIRginia International Raceway. The seventh race of the season is scheduled for July 19 with live coverage 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.