Cortes Wins First Career Win; Gidley Clinches Title Despite DNS

Photo: Andrew Miterko/SRO

Joel Cortes claimed his first career GT America powered by AWS win, while Memo Gidley clinched the SRO3 class title despite not starting the race due to a driveshaft issue.

Cortes claimed a flag-to-flag victory in his RS1 Porsche 911 GT3 R, finishing 2.256 seconds ahead of the No. 50 Chouest Povoledo Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Ross Chouest.

The No. 45 Ruckus Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo of Scott Blind completed the podium in third, behind Tony Davis, who needed to win or finish second to keep his slim championship hopes alive.

Davis, in the No. 04 HP-TECH Motorsport Ferrari 296 GT3, started the 40-minute contest from seventh but made passes on Jon Manship, Dave Musial Sr. and Kyle Washington in quick succession.

However, he was unable to catch the lead pack in the remainder of the caution-free race.

Gidley, whose No. 56 SKI Autosports Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II stopped on track during the pace lap, delayed the race start by one lap.

However, Gidley, who entered the weekend with a 92-point lead, locked up the title by Davis’ race result, despite scoring zero points.

It marked Gidley’s second GT America title in the last four years and also the second championship for the Kent and Melissa Hussey-owned team after winning the championship with Johnny O’Connell in 2024.

David Lecko ended up the highest-placed non-GT3 spec car with his No. 89 RacingSupport Ginetta GTP8, which finished eighth overall.

The No. 610 Colorado Motorsport with Flying Lizard BMW M4 GT4 EVO of Craig Lumsden, who was due to skip the race because of loaning his car to his son Zach and Kris Wilson for Pirelli GT4 America action, completed three laps in the race but retired due to handling issues.

It was the only GT4 starter as Zachary Lee elected to skip Saturday’s race as his No. 11 McCumbee McAleer Racing Ford Mustang GT4 is also being put into action in GT4 America, but will compete tomorrow.

Race 2 gets underway Sunday at 9:25 a.m. CST with live coverage on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel.

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