Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO
George Kurtz and Colin Braun claimed overall and the Pro-Am class win in Sunday’s Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS race at Sonoma Raceway, while Pro honors came down to the final lap.
Kurtz took the No. 04 CrowdStrike by Riley Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo to a 8.925-second victory over the No. 9 TR3 Racing Mercedes of Ziad Ghandour and Daniel Morad in the second and final race of the weekend.
While Braun jumped into an early lead at the start, some six seconds ahead of Morad, the positions flipped following the mid-race pit stops and driver changes that saw Ghandour emerge some four seconds ahead of the fellow Bronze-rated driver.
The gap, however, quickly dwindled, with Kurtz retaking the lead with 29 minutes to go and cruising to the end.
The No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Adam Adelson and Elliott Skeer, which won on Saturday, completed the Pro-Am podium in their Type-991.2 Porsche, with Wright’s sister entry of Charlie Luck and Jan Heylen in fourth.
Samantha Tan dropped from fifth to seventh overall in her Pro-Am class No. 38 ST Racing BMW M4 GT3 in the closing stages after co-driver and pole-sitter John Edwards fell to third during his opening stint.
Pro class honors went to the No. 93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 of Ashton Harrison and Mario Farnbacher, which finished sixth overall following Harrison’s last-lap battle with Manny Franco.
Harrison briefly lost the position to Franco, in the No. 21 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3, after side-to-side contact, before the HPD junior factory driver made a pass to the inside of the Ferrari entering the hairpin to retake the lead and claim a dramatic class win.
It came after an early race spin by the then class-leading Farnbacher after contact from the No. 16 ACI Motorsport Porsche of Spencer Pumpelly, who was handed a drive-through penalty for the incident.
Farnbacher dropped to 11th overall at the time but mounted a comeback drive prior to the driver change to Harrison, who took the class lead from the No. 53 MDK Motorsports Porsche of Seth Lucas with 20 minutes to go.
Lucas faded to third at the end, having lost second to the Ferrari, which received a power increase, weight break and ride height adjustment following Race 1 in a mid-weekend Balance of Performance adjustment.
Race 1 overall and Pro class winner RS1 was fourth in Pro with Eric Filgueiras and Stevan McAleer, despite a late-race spin for Filgueiras while battling with Lucas for third.
A slow pit stop relegated the No. 94 BimmerWorld BMW to fifth in class and 11th overall, behind the No. 007 TRG Aston Martin Vantage GT3, which completed the top ten in its first weekend with Ross Gunn and Derek DeBoer.
The No. 43 Bartone Bros Racing by RealTime Mercedes, which was the only Am class competitor this weekend, finished 15th overall in the race, which ran caution-free.
RESULTS: Race 2
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