The Barber Park GT America Race No. 2 saw Memo Gidley‘s for the taking.
SKI Autosports’ Memo Gidley charged from the rear of the field to overtake HP-TECH Motorsport’s Tony Davis with 18 minutes to go Sunday morning (Sept. 27). From there, Gidley pulled away to win his 10th GT America powered by AWS race of the season at Barber Motorsports Park.
“Today’s race was the best race of the year because we had to start a ways back and work our way up,” Gidley told SRO America’s Amanda Busick after the race. “‘Rowdy’ was on fire today.”
Gidley won by 1.471 seconds over Ruckus Racing’s Scott Blind. Davis was third, then Chouest Povoledo Racing’s Ross Chouest and Rennsport One’s Joel Cortes.
By virtue of setting the fastest lap in Race No. 1 Saturday, Davis started from the pole. For Cortes, Saturday was the highest of highs. Sunday was not.
On the first lap, Cortes spun his Porsche exiting turn 1. He didn’t hit anything, but dropped to the rear of the field.
Gidley was on the move early. Since he failed to take the start Saturday due to driveshaft failure, he had to start in last place. By the end of the first lap, he was already up to third.
On lap 2, he was able to get past Chouest for second entering turn 12. At that point, Gidley put the pressure on Davis for the lead.
Unlike with the rest of the field, Davis was able to put up much more of a fight. While their battle raged on, the duo pulled away from the rest of the pack.
The advantage increased from three seconds to five, then eight and 10. Chouest was able to hold onto third for much of this time, but Blind eventually took the spot away and ran off on his own.
One of Gidley’s best chances to get past his rival occurred 15 minutes in when Davis caught the slower GT4 BMW of Colorado Motorsport with Flying Lizard’s Craig Lumsden. The leaders were forced to split Lumsden at an awkward part of the track, but Davis was able to keep the top spot.
Slower traffic ultimately decided the race, though. Just past halfway, the leaders caught McCumbee-McAleer Racing’s Zachry Lee. That was just enough for Gidley to get alongside on the frontstretch. Once they got to turn 1, Gidley cleared Davis for first place.
Once out front, Gidley began to pull away from Davis. Meanwhile, once he got in front of Chouest, Blind was able to equal or better the lap times of both Davis and Gidley. As a result, he was running down Davis for second in the closing laps.
Further back, Wright Motorsports’ Jon Manship spun exiting turn 14a after contact from Cortes. Manship’s teammate Dave Musial Sr. spun to avoid the incident. Both drivers were able to continue, but lost significant time.
With a lap to go, Blind was able to take advantage of the slower Lumsden to sweep around Davis for second. However, no one could keep Gidley away from the top of the podium.
GT America powered by AWS: Barber Park Race No. 2 Results
There is one race weekend remaining for GT America teams. That will be at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in two weeks. Race No. 1 is scheduled for Oct. 10 at 8:05 a.m. ET 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.
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