Skeer, Adelson Pick Up Race 1 Win for Wright

Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO

Elliott Skeer and Adam Adelson picked up overall victory in the opening Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS race of the season at Sonoma Raceway.

Skeer took his No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R to a 14.393-second win over the No. 04 CrowdStrike by Riley Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Colin Braun in the 90-minute contest that saw an intriguing alternate strategy by the pole-sitting No. 91 DXDT Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

Philip Ellis started on pole in the Pro-Am class entry and bridged out into a 21-second lead before the early round of pit stops for the teams that elected to start their Bronze or Silver-rated drivers.

The margin came despite a brief safety car period for the No. 8 Flying Lizard Motorsports Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Elias Sabo, whose car became high-sited on the opening lap and needed assistance.

Ellis’ co-driver, Bronze-rated Jeff Burton, rejoined the field after the mandatory pit stop and driver change with more than 20 seconds over the field, although it was quickly erased with Skeer taking the overall lead in the matter of ten minutes.

It marked Skeer and Adelson’s first overall victory as a Pro class entry, having made the step up from Pro-Am for this season.

Burton, meanwhile, faded to a eighth place overall finish, sixth in Pro-Am.

Braun and co-driver George Kurtz picked up Pro-Am class honors with the runner-up overall finish, ahead of the second-place Pro class finishing No. 28 ST Racing BMW M4 GT3 of Bill Auberlen and Varun Choksey.

ST’s sister BMW finished fourth overall, thanks to a late charge by BMW factory driver Neil Verhagen, who passed both Adam Carroll’s Esses Racing Mercedes-AMG and Burton in the final 15 minutes.

The No. 29 Turner Motorsport BMW of Robby Foley and Justin Rothberg completed the Pro-Am class podium with a fifth place overall result.

Carroll, meanwhile, held off a hard-charging Bryan Sellers in the No. 08 DXDT Mercedes-AMG to finish sixth and seventh overall, respectively.

Racers Edge Motorsports’ chances of a podium finish was dashed just after the round of pit stops when Zach Veach, who was running third overall, was forced to serve a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane.

Veach and fellow Fanatec GT debutant Luca Mars were classified ninth overall in their No. 93 Acura NSX GT3 Evo22.

The No. 50 Chouest Povoledo Racing Mercedes-AMG completed the top-ten.

The second and final Fanatec GT America race of the weekend is set for Sunday at 2:15 p.m. PDT (5:15 p.m. EDT) with live coverage on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel and on Twitch.

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