James Wins Race 2; Sofronas Takes GTS Title Sweep

Photo: Brian Cleary/PWC

Ian James claimed a flag-to-flag victory in Sunday’s Pirelli World Challenge GTS season finale at Watkins Glen International, which saw James Sofronas claim his third class title.

James held off the No. 55 PF Racing Ford Mustang GT4 of Jade Buford by 0.660 seconds, following a late charge from the Race 1 winner.

The win for James, his fifth of the season, helped propel Panoz to the GTS manufacturers’ championship, unofficially, with a third place result for Lawson Aschenbach enough for Blackdog Speed Shop to take the teams’ title.

Aschenbach, however, lost out on the GTS Sprint drivers’ championship, with Sofronas finishing sixth in the No. 14 GMG Racing Audi R8 LMS GT4.

It marked a clean sweep of GTS titles for Sofronas, who won the GTS SprintX championship last month at Utah Motorsports Campus and locked up the overall championship on Saturday.

The No. 69 Racers Edge Motorsports SIN R1 GT4 of Harry Gottsacker and Patrick Gallagher in the No. 10 PF Mustang GT4 completed the top-five overall in Sunday’s 50-minute season finale.

Hedlund Wins GTSA, Courtney Takes Title

Mike Hedlund scored his first career GTSA victory, in a dominant run for Flying Lizard Motorsports driver.

Hedlund edged out the No. 99 JCR Motorsports Maserati GT4 of Jeff Courtney by nine seconds, with Courtney wrapping up the class championship, despite having gearbox issues throughout the race.

It came after another disappointing race for Drew Staveley, who entered the weekend as the class points leader but faded in Race 2, compounded by a late-race pit stop.

The No. 2 GMG Audi of Jason Bell completed the class podium in third.

The race saw only a single full course caution, due to an accident for the No. 40 PF Mustang GT4 of James Pesek on Lap 11.

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