SKI Autosports’ Memo Gidley led flag-to-flag Sunday morning (April 26) to win GT America powered by AWS Race No. 2 at Circuit of the Americas. It is his fourth consecutive victory to start the season.
“You get spoiled in this type of situation,” Gidley told SRO America’s Amanda Busick after the race. “Everything is taken care of so well, all you have to do is focus on driving. Someone’s gotta win some races. Might as well be me.”
Gidley’s margin of victory was 1.434 seconds over GMG Racing’s Kyle Washington. One11 Competition’s Jason McCarthy was third, then HP-TECH Motorsport’s Tony Davis. Chouest Povoledo Racing’s Ross Chouest was fifth.
By virtue of having the fastest lap of Race No. 1 on Saturday, Gidley ended up with the overall pole. This time, he was able to get a huge jump on the rest of the field. Within a couple of laps, he had nearly four seconds on the field.
Behind Gidley, Washington was looking to make up a disappointing finish in Race No. 1. There, a spin late in the race dropped him to a ninth-place finish.
Here, Washington was able to take second on lap 2 from Davis. Once there, he was able to quickly pull away as Davis had to do battle with Ruckus Racing’s Scott Blind.
While Gidley was able to pull away to a lead that neared six seconds, Washington had a scrum behind him. Blind was able to eventually get third from Davis, but had to do with McCarthy and Davis.
Davis was able to get third back from Blind. McCarthy was able to follow him past, then made an aggressive move at turn 11 to take third. Contact was made and Davis got pushed wide into the grass. The bouncy off-course excursion dropped Davis back to fifth.
Blind spent the entire race in the top-five until he lost control exiting the Esses. The yellow and purple Porsche spun through a gravel trap before coming to rest with his front wheels in the gravel. Thanks to the 911 GT3 R being rear-wheel drive, Blind was able to pull himself out of the trap and continue, but he dropped all the way to 10th.
In GT4, RCX Motorsport’s Jozsef Petkes had no issues scoring a weekend sweep. Flying Lizard Motorsports’ Craig Lumsden had issues during the rac and dropped a lap dwon.
GT America powered by AWS: COTA Race No. 2 Results
Next up for GT America teams is a trip to Sebring, Fla. Race No. 1 from Sebring is scheduled for May 9 at 3:35 p.m. ET with live coverage on the GT World YouTube channel.
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the Frontstretch email 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 Frontstretch 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.