PWC Weekend Roundup: St. Pete

Photo: Brian Cleary/BCPix.com

***Jack Roush Jr. swept the weekend in GTS, scoring his first career Pirelli World Challenge victories in a pair of action-packed races. Roush edged out Brett Sandberg in Race 1 by 2.674 seconds in his No. 60 Roush Performance Mustang Boss 302R for top honors.

***Roush went back-to-back on Saturday, benefiting from a heavy crash for teammate Nate Stacy in the second half of the 50-minute race. Roush got around Sandberg’s ANSA Motorsports KTM X-BOW GT4 on the restart with 18 minutes remaining for the lead and eventual win. Fifteen-year-old Parker Chase completed the podium in third, in his Ginetta GT4.

***Sunday’s GT/GTA/GT Cup race was affected by yellows, with 38 of the 50 minutes having been run behind the safety car, due to two separate incidents. It included a lengthy 30-minute cleanup for a heavy crash by the No. 00 Motorsports Promotions Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car of Corey Fergus, who damaged the Turn 3 barriers.

***Fergus was transported to Bayfront Medical Center for precautionary measures and was later released after X-Rays came back negative. His impact with the wall dislodged the Porsche’s engine, which was taken back on a tow truck separate from the car.

***Contact between Andrew Palmer and Alvaro Parente and a separate incident seconds later between Adderly Fong and Austin Cindric resulted in the pair of K-PAX McLaren 650S GT3s ending their top-10 runs. Cindric’s car was a retirement after heavy damage with the wall, while both Bentley Continental GT3s continued to finish 7th and 12th, respectively.

***Former MLB all-star Ken Griffey Jr. was on hand Sunday, photographing the day’s action. Griffey, one of the most prolific home-run hitters in baseball history, served as the honorary starter in last month’s Daytona 500, and as an amateur photographer, also shot the race.

***While the GT/GTA/GT Cup cars are back in action at Long Beach, the next round for the GTS category is at Barber Motorsports Park on April 22-24. TC, TCA and TCB return at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in May, which will also serve as the opening round of the new Sprint-X Championship.

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