Turner Motorsport’s Justin Rothberg led flag-to-flag from pole Sunday morning (Sept. 7) to win GT America powered by AWS Race No. 2 at Barber Motorsports Park. It is his sixth win of the year.
“The car fell really good today,” Rothberg told SRO America’s Amanda Busick after the race. “We had some understeer problems yesterday and the Turner guys took care of that. That was my biggest problem. Once that was taken care of, I just had to put my head down and hit my marks.”
Rothberg’s margin of victory was 9.182 seconds over SKI Autosports’ Memo Gidley. Rennsport One’s Joel Cortes was third, then FASTMD Racing’s Farhan Siddiqi. GMG Racing’s Kyle Washington was fifth.
In the championship, Rothberg has a 37-point lead with two races remaining. With only 50 points available for the winner, he can clinch during the first race in Indianapolis.
By virtue of setting the fastest lap in Race No. 1 Saturday, Rothberg started from pole in his BMW. It did not take long for Rothberg and Gidley to pull away from the rest of the field to settle the race themselves.
Behind them, Washington went wide exiting turn 3 and caked his grille with grass. He was ultimately forced to give up third in order to pit to get the grass removed.
When Washington pitted, it moved Race No. 1 winner Ross Chouest up to third. He had Tony Davis on his tail.
11 minutes into the race, Davis tried to get to Chouest’s inside entering turn 5 and contact was made. Both drivers ended up off the road.
They were able to continue, but both drivers were adversely affected. Davis ended up with nose damage that necessitated a pit stop for repairs. He was then judged responsible for the incident and had to serve a drive-through penalty. A speeding violation during that penalty resulted in a stop-and-go penalty. Eventually, Davis finished two laps down.
Chouest ended up with damage to his rear diffuser from the contact. That resulted in the diffuser rubbing against the rear exhaust. Within a couple of laps, that caused first smoke, then a fire. Chouest was ultimately forced to pit to get the fire extinguished, then retired from the race.
At the front, Rothberg was able to pull out a couple of seconds on Gidley in the opening laps. It seemed like Gidley’s Audi was set up for the long run as opposed to a quick start. However, Rothberg was able to keep his pace up over the full 40-minute distance.
As the race continued on, Rothberg continued to expand his advantage by a small amount each lap. Ultimately, no one could prevent him from taking a dominant victory.
GT America powered by AWS: Barber Park Race No. 2 Results
Next up for GT America teams is the final weekend of the season at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on the undercard of the Indianapolis 8 Hour. Race No. 1 is scheduled for Oct. 17 at 4:50 p.m. ET and will be streamed 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.