McAleer Holds On for Win in Mixed Condition Race 1 at NOLA

Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO

Stevan McAleer held off challenges from Bill Auberlen and Alessandro Balzan to take overall victory in Saturday’s mixed-condition Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS race at NOLA Motorsports Park.

McAleer took his No. 28 RS1 Porsche 911 GT3 R to a 0.297-second win over Balzan’s No. 21 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3, which capitalized on an accident for Mario Farnbacher in the No. 93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 while battling for the lead.

Farnbacher lost control in a wet patch after driving wide in an attempt to get around McAleer but ended up in the gravel trap with 20 minutes to go.

It set up a 13-minute shootout to the checkered flag, which saw Auberlen in the No. 94 BimmerWorld BMW M4 GT3 pressure the RS1 driver in the closing laps but dropped to third after initially passing McAleer into Turn 1 and ran wide.

McAleer’s co-driver Eric Filgueiras led from the green after a two-plus hour delay due to heavy rain and track flooding, and stretched out into a ten-second lead over the Conquest Ferrari of Manny Franco.

A switch to slick tires saw the RS1 Porsche’s advantage double but was neutralized when Colin Braun and Jan Heylen came together, resulting in a left-rear puncture for the No. 45 Wright Motorsports Porsche that led to the race’s first full-course caution.

The race restarted with 22 minutes to go, which quickly led to another yellow for Farnbacher’s incident.

Auberlen and Chandler Hull completed the overall and Pro class podium in third, followed by the Pro-Am class-winning No. 120 Wright Porsche of Elliott Skeer and Adam Adelson in fourth.

Bryan Sellers and Scott Smithson completed the top-five overall in the No. 08 DXDT Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

The sole Am class entry, the No. 43 Bartone Bros Racing by RealTime Mercedes of Andy Pilgrim and Anthony Bartone, meanwhile, finished 15th overall out of the 16 cars that finished.

Race 2 is scheduled to start at 1:45 p.m. CT in Sunday with live coverage on SRO’s GT World YouTube Page and on SRO’s Twitch channel.

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