Rennsport One’s Joel Cortes, a late entry for the weekend, inherited the lead when SKI Autosports’ Memo Gidley had issues on the pace lap. From there, he led flag-to-flag to win GT America powered by AWS Race No. 1 Saturday (Sept. 26) at Barber Motorsports Park. It is his first career victory.
“[The race] was good,” Cortes said after the race. “The team did an amazing job with the car. We made some changes and they did an excellent job.”
Cortes won by 2.526 seconds over Chouest-Povoledo Racing’s Ross Chouest. Ruckus Racing’s Scott Blind was third, followed by HP-TECH Motorsports’ Tony Davis. GMG Racing’s Kyle Washington was fifth.
Gidley was supposed to start from the pole in his Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II, but trouble broke out before he could even get to the line. The Audi ground to a halt in turn 12 coming to green. Reports indicated that the car simply lost drive.
That provided a chance for Davis to prevent Gidley from clinching the SRO3 championship. Cortes, who was supposed to start in second, ended up alone on the front row for the start.
With Gidley unable to truly go, Cortes was able to open up a small lead over Chouest, but the Corvette racer was able to close the gap and challenge.
This challenge was short-lived as Cortes was able to pull the margin back out. Meanwhile, Chouest had to deal with Blind.
Even though Gidley was eliminated before the green flag came out, Davis still had work to do in order to take the SRO3 championship to Sunday. He had to get up to second in his Ferrari. However, he wasn’t able to stick with Chouest or Blind.
As the race continued on, Cortes was able to expand his lead to nearly four seconds. That was more than enough for him to relax en route to victory. Previous to Saturday, Cortes’ best finish had been third.
Even though Gidley was unable to get back out after being towed in, Davis’ fourth-place finish meant that Gidley ended the race with an 80-point lead. With only three races remaining and 25 being the most one can gain in a race, Gidley clinched the SRO3 Championship.
“Life’s all about experiences and I think nobody on this team, including myself, has ever won a championship while either under the car or looking at the car,” Gidley said afterwards. “That’s what happened today. ‘Rowdy’ has delivered all year long. This is living the dream for me.”
GT America powered by AWS: Barber Park Race No. 1 Results
As a consolation prize, Davis ended up with the fastest lap of the race at 102.213 mph. He will start Race No. 2 from the pole.
Race No. 2 is scheduled to go green at 10:25 a.m. ET Sunday morning. Coverage will begin at 10:15 a.m. ET 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.
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