Chouest Takes Strategic Win in Wet-Turned-Dry Barber Race 1

Photo: Brian Cleary/SRO

Ross Chouest claimed victory in a wet-turned-dry opening GT America powered by AWS race of the weekend at Barber Motorsports Park.

The Chouest Povoledo Racing driver, who was one of only two drivers to have started the 40-minute sprint race on slick Pirelli P-Zero tires, drove his No. 50 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R to a 9.835-second win over pole-sitter Memo Gidley in the No. 56 SKI Autosports Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II.

Chouest took the overall lead while on a drying track with 20 minutes to go after the remainder of the field, except for the No. 20 FAST MD by Remstar Audi of Farhan Siddiqi, pitted for slicks after starting on wet-weather tires.

It marked Chouest’s second consecutive series win after breaking through for his first career victory in GT3-spec machinery last time out at Road America.

Gidley wound up second after the No. 32 GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Kyle Washington spun with two laps to go, dropping him to a third place result.

It came despite a five-second post-race penalty for Washington’s car due to a pit stop infringement when the team pitted for slicks.

Championship contender Washington, however, crucially finished ahead of SRO3 class points leader Justin Rothberg, in the No. 29 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO, who was fourth.

Gidley was the first car to pit for slicks, while from the lead, on Lap 9, which was followed one lap later by Washington and the majority of the other competitors in a race that typically does not feature pit stops.

Tony Davis, in his and HP-TECH Motorsport’s series debut, meanwhile, completed the top-five in the No. 004 Ferrari 296 GT3.

Siddiqi, who also started the race on slicks, held off the No. 19 RS1 Porsche of Joel Cortes for sixth at the line, with Jason Bell bringing up the rear of the eight-car field in the No. 2 Racers Edge Motorsports Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo.

Race 2 of the weekend gets underway Sunday at 9:05 a.m. CST with live coverage on SRO’s 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