Chouest Povoledo Racing’s Ross Chouest inherited the lead after an unexpected pit sequence Saturday (Sept. 6). From there, he was able to hold on to win GT America powered by AWS Race No. 1 at Barber Motorsports Park. It is his second straight victory.
“When I walked up to the car, the agreement was to go on wet [tires],” Chouest told SRO America’s Amanda Busick after the race. “The crew said no, we’re going on slicks. I think everyone was on the fence. Thankfully, [it was] a gamble that paid off.”
Chouest’s margin of victory was 9.835 seconds over SKI Autosports’ Memo Gidley. GMG Racing’s Kyle Washington was third, then Turner Motorsport’s Justin Rothberg. HP-Tech Motorsport’s Tony Davis was fifth.
During the final TC America race of the weekend previous to this race, a short thundershower moved over the circuit, soaking it. By the time this race started, the rain had stopped, but the track was still wet.
Normally, GT America do not have pit stops. However, given the change in climatic conditions, teams were allowed to change to rain tires without penalty. Most teams took that up. A last minute decision saw Chouest and Farhan Siddiqi start on slicks.
At first, this seemed to be a bad choice. The Louisiana native ended up spinning his Corvette out on the pace lap. Siddiqi almost did so as well.
Gidley lead the field to green in his Audi and opened up a small gap over Rothberg. At the time the race started, the cars were kicking up spray from their tires. Not even 10 minutes into the race, a dry line started to form after the sun came out.
With the track drying, drivers were forced to search for moisture in order to cool their tires. Meanwhile, Chouest didn’t have to do that. He could actually be less careful as the race went on.
Gidley was able to drive off to a six-second lead, but Washington was the fastest drivers on the track once it started drying out.
Pit stops for drivers to switch to slicks started 15 minutes into the race. That put SKI Autosports at a big disadvantage since they don’t do live pit stops on a regular basis. A slow stop dropped Gidley down the order while Washington’s stop was nearly 20 seconds quicker.
At the time the stops began, Chouest was 65 seconds behind Gidley. Afterwards, he ended up in the overall lead, three seconds ahead of Washington and 15 ahead of Gidley.
Washington was faster than Chouest and ran down the Corvette. However, Chouest was able to put Flying Lizard Motorsports’ Jason Bell between himself and Washington and open his margin back up.
In the closing laps of the race, Washington was still charging hard and making time on Chouest. However, he went a little too hard and spun out with two laps to go in turn 8. That was all Chouest needed to take the win.
GT America powered by AWS: Barber Park Race No. 1 Results
With the track drying every lap, the fastest lap was up in the air until the very end. Rothberg turned in a lap at 102.533 mph that held up as the fastest lap of the race. That means that he will start on pole for Race No. 2. That race is scheduled for 10:05 a.m. ET Sunday morning and 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.