Dempsey Takes Last Gasp Win Over Gidley In Race 1 At Indy

Peter Dempsey climbed up from the back of the SRO3 field to claim the first GT America powered by AWS victory for the Maserati MC20 GT2 in the opening race of the weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Dempsey, in the No. 100 Risi Competizione-entered car, was forced to start from the rear of the SRO3 field due to the car’s rear-wing not being in compliance following post-qualifying inspection on Friday. However, the unfavorable starting position wouldn’t faze the Irish driver.

Dempsey charged up to second in the opening laps of the race and continued to close the gap as the race begin to close.

He made a move for the lead on Memo Gidley in the No. 56 SKI Autosports Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II with under five minutes remaining, powering past the newly-crowned SRO3 champion to take the top spot overall.

Gidley applied pressure on Dempsey on the final lap, but lapped traffic stunted his opportunity to regain his lead.

Gidley, who was searching for a record-breaking 11th victory this season, was able to hold on to second on the podium and in class.

Ross Chouest completed his strong run up from a seventh place starting position to round out the top three in his No. 50 Chouest Povoledo Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.

Damir Hot in his No. 25 ACI Motorsports Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport finished ahead of Craig Lumdsen in Colorado Motorsport with Flying Lizard’s No. 413 BMW M4 GT4 EVO in the two-car battle in GT4 to earn the top honors in the class.

Daniel Lecko would also have his own battle in his Cup-class entered No. 89 Ginetta GTP8 for RacingSupport with Invitational class driver, Mike Johnson in Archangel Motorsports’ No. 17 Aston Martin Vantage GT4.

Lecko would get the upper hand early in the race to finish ahead of Johnson.

Race 2 is scheduled for 11:40 a.m. EST on Sunday, with live coverage streamed on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel.

RESULTS: Race 1