JMF Motorsports’ Philip Ellis, driving in place of Le Mans-bound Lorcan Hanafin, took the lead away from teammate Mikael Grenier with 15 minutes to go Sunday. From there, he pulled away to win GT World Challenge America powered by AWS Round No. 4 at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta with Jason Daskalos.
“Initially, we didn’t look too strong. I didn’t think that we were going to be able to catch up,” Ellis told SRO America’s Amanda Busick after the race. “I guess we just managed [the tires] a little better at the beginning of the final stint and the other guys ran out of tires.
The margin of victory was 2.525 seconds over AF Corse’s Matias Perez Companc and Frederik Schandorff. Archangel Motorsports’ Todd Coleman and Aaron Telitz were third in their McLaren, followed by GMG Racing’s Tom Sargent and Kyle Washington. Kellymoss’ Colin Braun and Michael Clark were fifth.
In Pro-Am, Daskalos and Ellis won by 3.753 seconds over Coleman and Telitz. Sargent and Washington were third, then Braun and Clark. Wright Motorsports’ Dave Musial Jr. and Ryan Yardley were fifth.
Teams were greeted with mixed conditions at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta as rain had fallen after GT America powered by AWS Race No. 2. As a result, teams were forced to chose whether to start on wet tires or slicks. with portions of the track drying quickly. Most chose wet tires, while a few went for slicks. One team, Random Vandals Racing, actually chose to pit on the formation lap to switch to slicks.
Perez Companc started from pole in his Ferrari. He was able to hold on for a lap, but JMF Motorsports’ Michai Stephens was able to take over with an outside pass in turn 1.
There were some early issues. Kellymoss’ Todd Parriott spun out in the chicane and dropped to the back of the pack. A lap later, TR3 Racing’s Brayton Williams spun his Mercedes in turn 7 after contact from McCann Racing’s Michael McCann Jr. Neither driver hit anything, although McCann was assessed a penalty for avoidable contact.
The hope was that the track would stay moist for long enough to not affect pit strategy. That was not in the cards.
Cameron Lawrence was running down Stephens for the overall lead when he chose to pit for slicks 12 minutes into the race. The other Pro teams followed shortly afterwards.
Stephens still had the Pro lead afterwards, but had Lawrence and Perez Companc right on his tail. A half-hour into the race, Lawrence was able to make the pass for the class lead.
Once in the lead, Lawrence pulled out to a decent advantage over Perez Companc. However, Juan Pablo Martinez and Derek DeBoer collided and crashed on the run to the chicane to bring out the first yellow 54 minutes in. Both drivers were able to exit their cars without assistance and walk to a medical vehicle.
Lawrence led until the second round of stops, when he exited the car in favor of Alex Sedgwick. A couple of laps later, trouble struck when the Ford Mustang GT3 Evo lost power. The crew was unable to fix the issue, ending their day on the spot.
When Sedgwick broke, Perez Companc took the overall lead, but that was short-lived. Turner Motorsport’s Robby Foley suffered a mechanical failure on his BMW and stalled exiting turn 7 to bring out the caution.
That brought the entire field to the pit lane. Grenier managed to win the race off pit road, but violated the 78-second minimum pit lane delta in the process. As a result, 1.27 seconds would be added to the team’s time post-race. That meant that he needed to shake off Schandorff.
Shortly afterwards, things got worse when an additional five-second post-race penalty was added for improper pit procedures during the aforementioned round of stops. For lack of better words, this was due to Grenier improperly changing speeds after leaving his pit stall.
In Pro-Am, Coleman started on pole in his McLaren. After Williams spun out of second in class, the second JMF Mercedes of Daskalos moved up to second.
McCann was able to get past Coleman for overall position a few laps into the race. That opened the door for both Daskalos and Riley Motorsports’ Slade Stewart to get past.
Daskalos and Stewart chose to start on slicks and assumed the top spots overall when the leaders pitted. Daskalos ran for 34 minutes before he stopped for the first time, many laps longer than anyone else.
Alternate strategies jumbled up the Pro-Am class. TR3 Racing’s Daniel Morad chose not to pit during the second caution and led in class. However, once he did stop, Ellis ended up in the class lead and Morad a lap down.
Despite being down a lap, Morad was still quick and managed to get between Ellis and the rest of the Pro-Am contenders. Andy Lee tried to make the move on Morad and ended up losing spots.
Ellis was able to run away from the rest of the Pro-Am pack and ran down the overall leaders. He was able to pass Grenier with 15 minutes to go, then pulled away for the overall win.
Grenier still had a chance to hold on for the Pro win, but he started to fade significantly late. That allowed Schandorff to take the class lead and drive off to the win in second overall.
Perez Companc and Schandorff ended up 11.895 +seconds ahead of Grenier and Stephens on the road. Once the 6.27 seconds’ worth of post-race penalties were added, the final margin of victory was 18.165 seconds. McCann and Zachary Vanier were third.
GT World Challenge America powered by AWS: Road Atlanta Results
Next up for GT World Challenge America is a trip to Road America. That race will be Aug. 30 and will stream live 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.
Thanks for choosing to comment on this article. A name and email address are required to post a comment. The email address is not publicly visible or shared. Please keep in mind that comments are moderated according to our comment policy.