Gidley Never Won Title ‘Sitting By the Car’ as SKI Eyeing Step Up

Photo: Andrew Miterko/SRO

Memo Gidley said he “never won a championship sitting by the car” but the mixed emotions were made up by the SKI Autosports driver taking his tenth GT America powered by AWS victory of the season in Sunday’s race at Barber Motorsports Park.

Gidley clinched the SRO3 title under a bizarre set of circumstances on Saturday as his No. 56 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II stopped on track while on the formation lap for Race 1 of the weekend.

While not scoring any points in the race due to driveshaft failure, Gidley’s closest title challenger, Tony Davis, needed to either win or finish second in the race, but the HP-TECH Motorsport driver came home fourth.

With the title already in hand, Gidley rebounded on Sunday to take a controlling victory, tying George Kurtz for having the most victories in a single GT America season.

The 55-year-old could become the sole all-time leader, with two races still to go next month at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

“It’s just been an amazing weekend,” said Gidley. “We struggled a little bit early on, and then in qualifying, the Rowdy was just hooked up.

“It was a joy to drive. And then at the start of the race, before the green flag even, we stopped. But the team turned it around and fixed the car.

“I’ve never won a championship sitting by the car, but today’s race was the best one we’ve had all year because we had to start back a ways and make our way up.

“It was a battle. The team gave me a setup that I could charge with right from the beginning, and that paid dividends for us. The Rowdy Audi was awesome.”

It marked Gidley’s second GT America title after his first championship in 2022 and the Kent and Melissa Hussey-owned operation’s second in the last three years, with their first coming with Johnny O’Connell.

“Kent and Melissa and Phil [Creighton] and Rossella [Manfrinato] gave me a great car to win today,” added Gidley. “These guys are awesome. They’re family.

“It’s just such a great team. I want to stick with them for life, so that’s my goal. I’m so happy to win the championship this weekend and win the race. It’s great to be here and leave a winner.”

Melissa Hussey, meanwhile, confirmed to SRO America pit reporter Amanda Busick that the Georgia-based team will return next year with Gidley, but have ambitions of stepping up to GT World Challenge America powered by AWS.

While they “haven’t worked out particulars” yet she said that fans and competitors “may see us” in GTWC America “at some point.”

It would come as another boost to SRO America’s flagship championship, which is set to have a record GT3 grid at the upcoming Desder Indianapolis 8 Hour.

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