Gidley Dominates Sunday COTA Race

Photo: Andrew Miterko/SRO

Memo Gidley claimed a controlling victory in Sunday’s GT America powered by AWS round at Circuit of The Americas, claiming a sweep of the weekend for the SKI Autosports driver.

Gidley, in the pole-sitting No. 56 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II, stretched into a significant lead early in the 40-minute contest and didn’t come under threat, despite several battles behind.

He finished 1.434 seconds ahead of the No. 32 GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo of Kyle Washington, who recovered more than six seconds in the second half of the race.

Washington, who started third, made an aggressive move on the No. 04 HP-TECH Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo of Tony Davis on to claim second on Lap 2 and set the fastest lap of the race in the process.

Davis, who finished runner-up on Saturday after a last-lap pass for the win by Gidley, appeared to en route to a third place result, an off-course excursion in the final 15 minutes dropped him to fifth, but was elevated to fourth.

It promoted the No. 115 One11 Competition Ferrari of Jason McCarthy to third, marking a podium in his first weekend of series competition.

Scott Blind lost out on a top-five finish when he spun his No. 45 Ruckus Racing Porsche into the Esses with less than five minutes to go, although managed to return to action after his trip through the gravel.

Ross Chouest and Dan Knox were classified fifth and sixth in their Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R and Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo entries, respectively, with RS1’s Joel Cortes finishing seventh.

Blind ended up tenth in the 15-car SRO3 class field.

David Lecko, in the lone Cup entry, again finished comfortably ahead of the GT4 class-winning No. 83 RCX Motorsport Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport of Joseph Petkes, who also swept the weekend.

RESULTS: Race 2

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