Gidley Wins Race 1; Rothberg Clinches SRO3 Title at Indy

Photo: Brian Cleary/SRO

Memo Gidley returned to victory lane in the first GT America powered by AWS race of the weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, while Justin Rothberg clinched the SRO3 championship title with one race still to spare.

Gidley in the No. 56 SKI Autosports Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II, took the lead of the 40-minute race early with a pass around pole-sitter George Kurtz after an opening after a multi-car incident behind that eliminated the returning Mirco Schultis in his Callaway Corvette C7 GT3-R after right-rear suspension damage.

The Audi finished 3.300 seconds ahead of Kurtz’s No. 04 CrowdStrike by Riley Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo in second, with Jason Bell scoring a podium finish in the No. 2 Racers Edge Motorsports Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo.

A thee-way fight for fourth between Tony Davis, Kyle Washington and Rothberg went the way of the newly crowned champion, who jumped ahead of the pack with ten minutes to go en route to a fourth place result in his No. 29 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO.

Davis, in the No. 004 HP-TECH Motorsport Ferrari 296 GT3, came home fifth, with Kyle Washington limping his heavily damaged No. 32 GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R home in sixth after spinning on the final lap due to contact with Davis.

It promoted the No. 19 RS1 Porsche of Joel Cortes to seventh, with a damaged Chouest Povoledo Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Ross Chouest classified in eighth after getting caught up in Washington’s spin.

Series debutant Rodin Younessi in the No. 16 AF Corse Ferrari finished ninth overall and in the SRO3 class, with Schultis being the race’s only retirement.

Johnson Wins GT4 in Racing Return

Mike Johnson, returning to racing after a 20-year hiatus, claimed GT4 class honors in his No. 007 Archangel by ProSport Competition Aston Martin Vantage GT4.

The Archangel Motorsports team owner and renowned race strategist controlled the three-car GT4 class, despite running wide into the Turn 1 runoff area on Lap 10 that initially cost him some time.

Johnson, however, cruised to a one-lap win over the No. 83 RCX Motorsport Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport of Jozsef Petkes, who finished second.

The No. 610 Flying Lizard Motorsports BMW M4 GT4 of Craig Lumsden finished a distant third in class.

GT2 honors went to the No. 58 GMG Racing Audi R8 LMS GT2 of CJ Moses after the No. 56 Flying Lizard Motorsports Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2 of Evan King withdrew from the remainder of the event after a massive accident in qualifying that saw the car nearly roll over.

King climbed out of the car under his own power.

The season-ending Race 2 is set for Sunday at 12:10 p.m. EST 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