Morad, Koch Take Breakthrough Race 1 Win at VIR

Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO

Daniel Morad held off Bill Auberlen and Colin Braun to give TR3 Racing overall victory in the opening Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS round of the weekend at Virginia International Raceway.

Morad pedaled the No. 9 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo to a 0.753-second win over Auberlen’s No. 94 BimmerWorld BMW M4 GT3, in a 90-minute race that saw a number of uncharacteristic mistakes from the front-running contenders.

While Morad’s co-driver Kenton Koch bridged out to an eight-second lead from pole, that advantage was erased when Koch, subbing for regular driver Ziad Ghandour, accidentally dove into the wrong pit box during the mid-race pit stop.

Morad emerged from the stops still in the lead, but then suffered an off-course excursion at Oak Tree corner, briefly handing the top spot to Auberlen.

However, Auberlen had a slight off just two laps later in Turn 5, giving the lead back to the Canadian driver, who held on to take the checkered flag despite a reported ill-handling car.

Auberlen and co-driver Chandler Hull were second, followed by the No. 04 CrowdStrike by Riley Mercedes of Braun and George Kurtz, which picked up Pro-Am class honors with a third place overall finish.

It marked the duo’s third class win of the season.

The No. 53 MDK Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Trenton Estep and Seth Lucas recorded their best finish of the season in fourth, with a third place class finish in Pro.

Neil Verhagen, meanwhile, took ST Racing to its first podium of the season in the BMW driver’s first series outing with a fifth place overall result.

The No. 33 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 completed the Pro-Am class podium in third with a seventh place outright result for Ryan Dalziel and Justin Wetherall.

The 90-minute race ran caution-free, despite numerous spins and incidents early on, including from Charlie Luck, Scott Smithson and Jeff Burton.

An unscheduled early stop for the Pro-Am championship-leading No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche of Adam Adelson relegated he and Elliott Skeer to a 12th place overall result.

There was also trouble for the Pro class No. 93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3 Evo22, which suffered two left-rear punctures over the course of the race.

Race 2 gets underway Sunday at 2:15 p.m. EDT with live coverage on SRO’s GT World 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