Rothberg Wins Season Finale; O’Connell Claims Championship

Photo: SKI Autosports

Justin Rothberg picked up another victory in Sunday’s GT America powered by AWS season finale, while Johnny O’Connell was crowned series champion after an opening corner incident involving Jason Daskalos.

Rothberg took his No. 29 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 to a 8.148-second win over O’Connell’s No. 3 SKI Autosports Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II, which was enough to win the SRO3 class title.

It came after a dramatic start to the 40-minute contest at Indianapolis Motor Speedway that saw O’Connell jump from sixth to second and Daskalos’ championship-leading No. 27 CRP Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo get spun around by the No. 14 GMG Racing Audi of James Sofronas in Turn 1.

Sofronas was handed a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility, with Daskalos dropping nearly one-minute behind. The GMG team owner/driver later retired from the race before coming over to apologize to the CRP team.

Sofronas told Sportscar365 post-race that his car suffered a stuck throttle.

Daskalos, meanwhile, rebounded to finish sixth, although he needed a fourth-or-higher place result in order to claim the title.

The No. 70 Callaway Corvette C7 GT3-R of Mirco Schultis completed the top-class podium, ahead of the No. 32 GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Kyle Washington and Jason Bell’s No. 2 Flying Lizard Motorsports Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, which completed the top-five.

Rothberg, who claimed his fourth victory of the season, finished second in the SRO3 class championship, one point behind O’Connell, with Daskalos having slipped to third in the end-of-season standings.

GT2 race honors went to the No. 58 GMG Audi R8 LMS GT2 of CJ Moses, after Race 1 winner Dan Knox elected not to take part in the season-ending round in his Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT2.

Isaac Sherman wrapped up his impressive season with his 13th GT4 class win out of 16 races, taking his No. 098 Rotek Racing Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport to victory over the No. 25 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT4 of Gray Newell.

Damir Hot completed the class podium in his No. 5 Flying Lizard Nissan Z NISMO GT4.

RESULTS: Race 2

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