Sofronas Dominates Rain-Soaked Opening Race

Photo: Keith Rizzo/SRO

James Sofronas claimed a commanding victory in the opening GT America powered by AWS race of the weekend at a rain-soaked Circuit of The Americas.

The GMG Racing team owner/driver piloted his Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo to a 23.175-second win over the No. 88 Zelus Motorsport Lamborghini of Jason Harward in the 40-minute race.

While having started on pole, Sofronas came under immediate attack from the No. 70 inception racing McLaren 720S GT3 of Brendan Iribe until the series debutant was handed a drive-through penalty for an improper race start due to spinning on the pace lap and regaining his starting position.

Having rejoined in fourth after the penalty, Iribe quickly moved back up the running order until spinning for a second time.

Damage from contact between the No. 45 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Charlie Luck, who was assessed a penalty, and George Kurtz’s No. 04 DXDT Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo took championship leader Kurtz out of the race early with a broken toe link.

It opened the door for Jason Daskalos to finish third in his Audi R8 LMS ultra, with Iribe fourth in the GT3-spec McLaren.

Kyle Washington completed the top-five overall in the No. 32 GMG Porsche while Andy Wilzoch picked up top honors in GT3 Masters in his first-gen Porsche 911 GT3 R fielded by Flying Lizard Motorsports.

Thomas Surgent appeared to be on track to claim the win in GT4 until his Prive Motorsports/Topp Racing McLaren 570S GT4 stopped on track with smoke billowing from the car on the final lap.

It handed the class win to Ross Chouest’s No. 89 RENNtech Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT4.

Twenty-two of the 25 entered cars took the green flag, with several drivers sitting out the race due to the challenging conditions, which had delayed the start by nearly an hour.

Race 2 of GT America is set to get underway Sunday at 4:05 p.m. CT.

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