Sofronas Wins Wild Opening Race of Weekend in Nashville

Photo: Brian Cleary/SRO

James Sofronas claimed victory in the first GT America powered by AWS race of the weekend on the streets of Nashville after a late-race accident for Bret Curtis.

The GMG Racing owner/driver took his Audi R8 LMS ultra to the win under a full-course caution after Curtis lost control of his No. 62 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 just moments after the race’s restart in the closing minutes.

While having started on pole, Sofronas lost the lead to Curtis, who controlled the majority of the 40-minute race before things started to unravel.

An accident involving the No. 66 TRG Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport of Derek DeBoer, who lost control of his car and rammed into the side of Paul Sparta’s No. 98 Random Vandals Racing BMW M4 GT4, saw the restart with five minutes to go.

Curtis then had his incident, smashing into the wall with less than three minutes left on the clock to bring out the race-ending yellow.

The No. 191 Rearden Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo of Jeff Burton finished second overall, enough to take Masters’ class win.

Overall championship leader Charlie Luck completed the podium in the No. 45 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Jason Daskalos came home fourth in his Audi R8 LMS ultra ahead of Elias Sabo’s No. 8 Audi R8 LMS GT2 car, in the car’s North American debut.

Alex Welch, meanwhile, picked up GT4 class honors in the No. 76 ROTR Motorsport Audi R8 LMS GT4.

It came after an early race incident for the No. 26 Prive Motorsports/Topp Racing McLaren 570S GT4 of Thomas Surgent, who led the opening laps.

Race 2 gets underway Sunday at 2:45 p.m. CT with live coverage on SRO’s YouTube Page.

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