AF Corse’s Schandorff, Perez Companc Claim Barber Win

Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO

Frederik Schandorff and Mathias Perez Companc put themselves back into Pro class championship contention following victory in Sunday’s GT World Challenge America powered by AWS round at Barber Motorsports Park.

The duo in the No. 12 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo scored their second victory of the season, thanks to a pass for the lead by Schandorff on the No. 8 McCann Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo of Zachary Vanier with 48 minutes to go.

The McCann Porsche went on an alternate strategy early in the three-hour contest, which saw co-driver Michael McCann out front prior to making the car’s final stop with 1 hour and 3 minutes to go.

Schandorff finished 5.638 seconds ahead of the No. 34 JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Michai Stephens and Mikael Grenier, who passed Vanier for the runner-up position with 40 minutes to go.

Vanier ended up fading to fourth overall in the race, but still retained a Pro class podium, with the Canadian holding off the No. 29 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Robby Foley, who along with Justin Rothberg, finished fourth in Pro.

Archangel Motorsports broke through to take its long-awaited first class victory in Pro-Am.

Aaron Telitz drove the No. 69 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo to a 16.873-second margin over the No. 28 RS1 Porsche of Jan Heylen, finishing third overall alongside Todd Coleman.

It came following a successful overcut strategy by the Mike Johnson-led team, which saw Telitz emerge from the final round of pit stops ahead of the Belgian.

Heylen’s co-driver, GT3 rookie Danny Dyszelski, who passed eventual overall race winner Perez Companc for second overall at the time during his opening stanza.

The Road America class-winning duo of Daniel Morad and Brayton Williams in TR3 Racing’s Mercedes-AMG appeared to be set for another podium finish until Morad sustained splitter damage while going over a curb and drove off course with 15 minutes to go.

Earlier in the race Morad came under pressure from the No. 32 GMG Racing Porsche Tom Sargent, who attempted to pass the Canadian but sustained left-front suspension damage in the process.

It dropped the Porsche Motorsport North America Selected Driver, who topped every timed session of the weekend, to fifth but Sargent made a late-race charge to third, despite a coming together with countryman Scott Andrews while battling for fourth in Pro-Am at the time.

Andrews, in the No. 04 HP-TECH Motorsport Ferrari, was handed a ten-second post-race time penalty for incident responsibility, but it did not affect his fifth place class finish, behind the No. 27 JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG of Philip Ellis, who was in a late-race fight with Sargent.

Sargent and co-driver Kyle Washington, meanwhile, have retaken the Pro-Am championship lead after the No. 31 Wright Motorsports Porsche of Ryan Yardley and Dave Musial Jr. finished the race seventh in class.

The race saw two full course cautions, both in the opening hour, the first for the No. 99 Random Vandals Racing BMW of Derek DeBoer, who found himself in the gravel.

Jay Schreibman’s stranded No. 163 AF Corse Ferrari shortly after the first restart, which led to another yellow, and ultimately dropped the lone Am class entrant two laps behind.

The final two hours of the race ran caution-free.

The No. 88 Kellymoss Porsche was the the race’s retirement after Loek Hartog had contact with the No. 71 Rebel Rock Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Robin Liddell, leading to damage to the cow-liveried Porsche, as well as incident responsibility.

Morad’s TR3 Mercedes-AMG was also listed as not getting to the finish after his late-race damage.

RESULTS: Race

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