Kurtz Snatches First Victory of Season at Sebring

Photo: Brian Cleary/SRO

George Kurtz drove to his first GT America powered by AWS victory of the season following a controlling flag-to-flag run Saturday at Sebring International Raceway.

The CrowdStrike by Riley driver, who started on pole for the first 40-minute sprint race of the weekend, held off a hard-charging Jason Daskalos to lead a Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 1-2 finish.

It marked Kurtz’s first GT America win since Road America last year when he swept the weekend.

Johnny O’Connell muscled his way past GT3 rookie Justin Rothberg to take the final step of the SRO3 class podium in the final ten minutes to give SKI Autosports another top-three result.

O’Connell’s No. 3 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II was classified ahead of the No. 29 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 following the duel through GT4 class traffic.

Mirco Schultis completed the top-five, holding off Ross Chouest for the position.

GT2 class honors went to Alan Grossberg in the No. 102 TPC Racing Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2, who finished seventh overall.

Isaac Sherman, meanwhile, maintained his undefeated streak in GT4, winning again on Saturday in his No. 098 Rotek Racing Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport.

Sherman, who started second in class, passed pole-sitter Curt Swearingin early in the race and held off the ACI Motorsports driver for victory.

The No. 25 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT4 of Gray Newell completed the GT4 class podium in third.

The race largely ran without incident, except for an early full course caution for the No. 2 Flying Lizard Motorsports Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Jason Bell, who stopped on track after making a pit lane start.

Race 2 gets underway Sunday at 8 a.m. EDT 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