Rothberg Sweeps Long Beach Weekend with Race 2 Victory

Justin Rothberg swept the GT America powered by AWS weekend on the streets of Long Beach after jumping to the overall lead in the first corner of the opening lap to become the first repeat winner of the season.

The Turner Motorsport driver wasted no time bringing his No. 29 BMW M4 GT3 EVO to the head of the field, passing pole-sitter Blake McDonald into Turn 1 seconds after the drop of the green flag in the 40-minute sprint race.

Kyle Washington and GMG Racing stablemate James Sofronas followed suit, leaping past the DXDT Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R on Lap 1 to claim second and third, respectively.

With clean air, Rothberg led every lap of the race to take a 2.482-second win over second-place finisher Washington in his No. 32 GMG Porsche 911 GT3 R.

McDonald’s Corvette came alive mid-race, however, with the DXDT driver engaging in a tight battle with Sofronas and Washington for the podium positions, which came to blows on the final lap.

McDonald initially forced his way into third after making final lap contact with Sofronas’ Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II at the hairpin, with the GMG team owner/driver nosing into the outside wall as a result.

While Sofronas eventually continued, McDonald was handed a post-race time penalty for incident responsibility, demoting him to eighth and handing the final podium position to Elias Sabo in the No. 80 Flying Lizard Motorsports BMW.

George Kurtz finished fourth in his No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, with Ross Chouest completing the top five.

Adrian Kunzle swept his SRO America debut weekend, taking the GT2 class win for MLT Motorsports over CJ Moses on Sunday.

Paul Sparta and Saturday GT4 class winner Judson Holt resumed their battle from Race 1 in the early stages, with the Random Vandals team principal fending off the Fast Track Racing BMW M4 GT4 EVO before a loose nail forced him to relinquish the lead and take to pit lane with a right-rear puncture.

Ricco Shlaimoun took second in the No. 7 ACI Motorsports Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport.

Mishumotor’s Mirco Schultis suffered right-rear suspension damage in the opening stages, managing to limp his Callaway Corvette C7 GT3-R to the pit lane after running in the top five.

On the opening lap, Gray Newell spun his No. 24 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo after tussling with Schultis at Turn 2, temporarily lodging his Heart of Racing Team entry into the flowerbed of the fountain before continuing to pit lane.

In the final ten minutes, Jeff Burton slowed on track and brought his Regulator Racing Mercedes-AMG into the pits.

Jason Bell, meanwhile, made multiple trips down pit lane with early reported front-end damage to his RacersEdge Vantage GT3 Evo.

RESULTS: Race 2