Daskalos Takes Last-Lap Win; O’Connell Hits Trouble

Photo: Brian Cleary/SRO

Jason Daskalos has taken victory in Saturday’s GT America powered by AWS race at Barber Motorsports Park after last-lap contact between his No. 27 CRP Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo and the then-leading No. 29 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 of Justin Rothberg.

The two cars came together in Turn 16 on the final lap, resulting in rear-end damage to the BMW, and gave Daskalos victory.

The incident, which was under review by race control, resulted in no further action.

Rothberg, who started on pole, withstood an opening-lap challenge from Johnny O’Connell, who briefly got around the Turner driver before the positions exchanged in Turn 8.

Rothberg then extended his lead over the duration of the 40-minute contest, until coming under attack by Daskalos in the late stages through traffic.

Daskalos finished 0.196 seconds ahead of Rothberg at the line of the highly fought-after 40-minute contest.

O’Connell, meanwhile, appeared to be en route to a third place result until he suffered a right-rear puncture after contact with a GT4 car with less than ten minutes remaining.

It promoted the No. 32 GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Kyle Washington to third, ahead of Ross Chouest in the No. 50 Chouest Povoledo Racing Mercedes-AMG in fourth and Jason Bell’s No. 2 Flying Lizard Motorsports Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, which completed the top-five.

O’Connell’s seventh place class result handed the SRO3 championship lead to Daskalos with three races to go.

GT4 class honors on Saturday went to Isaac Sherman, who inched closer to locking up the championship with his tenth victory of the season.

Sherman’s No. 098 Rotek Racing Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport finished ahead of the second-placed Curt Swearingin in the No. 7 ACI Motorsports Porsche.

Gray Newell completed the class podium in the No. 25 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT4.

Race 2 for GT America gets underway Sunday at 8:40 a.m. CDT with live coverage on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel and on Twitch.

RESULTS: Race 1

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John