Koch, De Phillippi Take Saturday Sebring Win for Random Vandals

Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO

Kenton Koch and Connor De Phillippi claimed their third GT World Challenge America powered by AWS victory of the season in the opening race of the weekend at Sebring International Raceway.

De Phillippi pedaled his No. 99 Random Vandals Racing BMW M4 GT3 Evo to a 1.759-second win over the No. 18 RS1 Porsche 911 GT3 R of Jan Heylen, with Varun Choksey making it a double podium for the Paul Sparta-owned team.

Koch, in the opening stint of the caution-free contest, ran second to the overall pole-sitting No. 91 Regulator Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Philip Ellis, who controlled the opening stint before pitting to co-driver Jeff Burton with 40 minutes to go.

Bronze-rated driver Burton inherited the outright lead but lost it to De Phillippi with 32 minutes remaining, and dropped to finish second in Pro-Am.

The Pro-Am victory went to the No. 11 DXDT Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Matt Bell and Blake McDonald for the second time this year.

Bell passed Burton for the class lead and eventual win in the final ten minutes, recovering a 37-second lead by Ellis at one point.

The No. 29 Turner Motorsport BMW of Robby Foley and Justin Rothberg completed the Pro-Am class podium in third, seventh overall.

Fourth in the race and in the Pro class went to the No. 34 JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG of Mikael Grenier and Michai Stephens, who lost the points lead to Koch and De Phillippi.

The No. 88 Archangel Motorsports McLaren 720S GT3 Evo of Aaron Telitz was eighth, ahead of the No. 92 LAB Motorsport by GT Racing Porsche that was taken to the finish by Kyle Marcelli.

Scott Dollahite and Stefano Gattuso, meanwhile, picked up Am class honors in their No. 6 Dollahite Racing Ford Mustang GT3, which finished 12th overall.

The start of the 90-minute race saw Gray Newell stall his No. 24 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo that led to Jason Daskalos’ No. 27 CRP Racing Mercedes-AMG run into the No. 32 GMG Racing Porsche of Kyle Washington.

Washington spun later in the lap, while Daskalos pitted with nose damage, dropping the CRP entry one lap behind, while Washington’s co-driver Tom Sargent rebounded to finish 10th overall, just ahead of Newell’s co-driver Darren Turner.

A drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane dropped the No. 50 Chouest Povoledo Racing Corvette down the order to a 14th place result after a strong opening stint by Ross Chouest.

The No. 2 Racers Edge Motorsports Aston Martin finished 14th after an unscheduled stop for Michael Cooper late in the running.

Race 2 gets underway Sunday at 1:45 p.m. EST with live coverage on SRO’s GT World YouTube and Twitch channels, as well as on MAVTV.

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