Gidley Takes Last-Lap Victory in Race 1 at COTA

Photo: Andrew Miterko/SRO

Memo Gidley made a last-lap move on Tony Davis to remain undefeated in GT America powered by AWS competition this season, scoring victory in Race 1 at Circuit of The Americas.

The SKI Autosports driver got alongside Davis’ pole-sitting HP-TECH Motorsport Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo on the back straight to take a 1.424-second victory in a thrilling conclusion to the 40-minute contest.

Davis enjoyed a race-long battle with SRO3 points leader Gidley, which saw the two cars exchange the lead in the early stages.

Ross Chouest completed the podium in his Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, thanks to a five-second post-race time penalty for a pre-race procedure violation for his No. 45 Ruckus Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo that crossed the finish line in third.

The penalty demoted Blind to fourth.

The No. 115 One11 Competition Ferrari of Jason McCarthy was fifth, with Kyle Washington, in the No. 32 GMG Racing Porsche, was on track for a top-five finish until he suffered a spin in the final ten minutes.

Washington, who entered the weekend second in the points, had to settle for a ninth place result in the largest SRO3 grid in recent memory.

The sole Cup class entrant, David Lecko, in the No. 89 RacingSupport Ginetta GTP8, finished ahead of the GT4 class-winning No. 83 RCX Motorsport Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport of Joseph Petkes.

Petkes finished 22 seconds ahead of Craig Lumsden in the No. 410 Flying Lizard Motorsports BMW M4 GT4 EVO.

Race 2 is set for Sunday at 9:40 a.m. CST 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