Rothberg Extends Points Lead With Saturday VIR Win

Photo: Brian Cleary/SRO

Justin Rothberg extended his points lead in the SRO3 class with victory in the first GT America powered by AWS race of the weekend at Virginia International Raceway.

The Turner Motorsport driver took a flag-to-flag victory in the 40-minute contest, with Rothberg in the No. 29 BMW M4 GT3 EVO taking a 4.844-second win over the No. 56 SKI Autosports Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Memo Gidley.

It came despite a late-race restart following an accident for the No. 2 Racers Edge Motorsports Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Jason Bell, who was running fourth overall prior to the full course caution with 15 minutes to go.

Bell reported no rear brakes on his Aston, which also led to the fire extinguisher bottle going off inside the cockpit.

Rothberg, meanwhile, claimed his fourth win of the season.

Ross Chouest held off a hard-charging Kyle Washington for the final podium position in the No. 50 Chouest Povoledo Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.

Washington attempted to pass Chouest heading into Turn 1 in the closing moments but ran slightly off-track in his No. 32 GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R, dashing any hopes of a late-race improvement.

CJ Moses in the lone GT2 entry finished fifth overall in the No. 58 GMG Racing Audi R8 LMS GT2.

GT4 class honors, meanwhile, went to the No. 89 89X Motorsports Aston Martin Vantage GT4 of Mike Fitzpatrick.

It came after teammate John Dean, in his series debut, pitted with an overhearing issue just past the halfway mark after running second in class.

The second and final GT America race of the weekend gets underway Sunday at 9:15 a.m. EST, 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