Weekend Recap: SRO America at Sebring & More
Catch up on all of the sports car racing action from a busy weekend at Sebring International Raceway and more...
Caldarelli, Pepper Clinch GTWC America Title With Sweep of Weekend
Andrea Caldarelli and Jordan Pepper completed a sweep of the Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS weekend at Sebring International Raceway, while Wright Motorsports’ Jan Heylen and Fred Poordad clinched the Pro-Am class title with a fourth place class finish.
Caldarelli took the No. 3 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo to a 18.908-second overall win ahead of the No. 33 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Russell Ward and Mikael Grenier in second.
It came just one day after the Lamborghini factory driver and his South African co-driver locked up the Pro class championship.
Caldarelli took over the lead on the race’s restart with 28 minutes to go, getting around Poordad, who emerged as the overall leader following Heylen’s controlling opening stint in the No. 20 Porsche 911 GT3 R.
Poordad dropped down the running order on the restart but held his ground to earn enough points to lock up the championship ahead of the season-ending Indianapolis 8 Hour later this month.
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Stephens, Mullan Sweep Sebring in GT4 America
Michai Stephens and Colin Mullan have claimed a sweep of the Pirelli GT4 America weekend at Sebring International Raceway following Stephens’ late-race pass for the overall win in Sunday’s 60-minute contest.
Stephens got around the No. 54 Black Swan Racing Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport of Tim Pappas for the outright lead with two laps to go heading into Turn 1 and stretched his advantage to finish 1.370 seconds ahead of the Pro-Am class-winning No. 47 Nolasport Porsche of Matt Travis in second.
Pro-Am champion-elect Travis managed to make a last-lap pass for the category win over Pappas, who dropped to a third place overall result after passing the No. 34 BimmerWorld BMW M4 GT4 of James Walker Jr. for the lead with 15 minutes to go.
Pappas and co-driver Jeroen Bleekemolen came home second in Pro-Am, with Walker Jr. and pole-sitter Bill Auberlen, who led the opening stint overall, completing the class podium.
Up front, it marked the second overall win for the Conquest West Silver pairing of Stephens and Mullan in as many races.
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Gidley Returns to Victory Lane in GT America Action
Memo Gidley has completed a sweep of the GT America powered by AWS weekend at Sebring International Raceway, in an incident-filled Race 2 on Sunday morning.
Gidley took his TKO Motorsports-badged, Flying Lizard Motorsports-run Bentley Continental GT3 to a narrow 0.350-second win over Jason Harward in the Zelus Motorsports Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo in second.
The former IndyCar driver overcame a false start as well as a restart with 11 minutes to go to give the ex-K-PAX Racing Bentley its second win in the series.
Rodrigo Sales finished third in the Compass Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo ahead of Jason Daskalos’ Audi R8 LMS ultra in fourth.
The Flying Lizard Porsche of Andy Wilzoch was fifth overall, ahead of the GT2-entered GMG Racing Audi R8 LMS GT2 of Elias Sabo, who took another class win.
Jason Bell scored top class honors in GT4 after getting by Race 1 class winner Sean Quinlan early in the 40-minute contest.
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Van der Linde, Auer Win as Lawson Keeps DTM Lead
Kelvin van der Linde and Lucas Auer shared out the DTM wins at Hockenheim whilst Liam Lawson maintained his points lead heading into next weekend’s Norisring finale.
Van der Linde initially drew level on points with Red Bull AF Corse Ferrari driver Lawson by taking a clear victory from pole position on Saturday, however the Abt Sportsline Audi pilot endured a penalty-ridden Race 2 that saw him fall 14 points behind.
The South African dominated Race 1, which had an early safety car after Arjun Maini’s Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo sustained damage in the first squeeze into the Turn 6 hairpin.
Van der Linde led at the restart from championship rivals Maximilian Goetz and Lawson.
After successfully negotiating some of the late-stopping cars, net leader van der Linde sped away to his fourth victory of the year while both Goetz and Lawson fell into the clutches of a charging Albon, who had stopped slightly later and so had fresher tires.
Lawson then pulled off an undercut move on Goetz at Turn 6 in the closing laps to briefly snatch third, before van der Linde’s Abt teammate Mike Rockenfeller surged past both drivers, including Lawson on the final lap, to complete the podium.
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