Rain and shine for Porsche teams in GT Americas rounds three and four

SRO

The third race of the GT America season took place on Saturday under wet track conditions and the constant impending threat of a downpour, but the field managed to keep it mostly together for the duration of the race and aim for the top-of-the-podium hardware, collected this time by GMG Racing principal James Sofronas. Sofronas' decisive win in the #14 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 captured both overall and class-leading wins. Andy Wilzoch (#460 Flying Lizard Motorsports) took his talents to the track and came home with the SRO3 Masters division win.

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Under cloudy and wet conditions, the green flag dropped and the first of many recoverable-spins occurred up front this situation opened up the field to attack for first position, with the first contenders coming up to challenge for the lead being Brendan Iribe (#70 inception racing McLaren 720S-GT3); Kyle Washington, who managed to capture five positions before the end of the first lap and contend from third place in the #32 GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R (991.2); Sonoma sweeper George Kurtz (#04 Mercedes-AMG GT3) coming up from fourth; and Charlie Luck (#45 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R (991.2) at fifth.

On the next lap, Luck would get into Kurtz in Turn 1 and spin them both, with both recovering but Kurtz returning to the pits to estimate the damage, still almost 20 seconds ahead of the fourth place battle was Washington in third place, Iribe in front was assigned a drive-through penalty for an improper start procedure, while Luck's contact with Kurtz rendered the DXDT Racing car out for the remainder of the race.

Meanwhile, Daskalos had driven his way back up to sixth place overall from the back of the pack while Jason Bell (#2 GMG Racing Aston Martin), Chouest teammmate Chris Cagnazzi (#39 Mercedes-AMG GT4) and Rob Holland (#99 Rotek Racing Ford Mustang GT4) all staged spectacular position-recovering laps to bring themselves closer to podium contention.

Post-penalty, Iribe slotted into fourth place overall while Charlie Luck's was served with stop-and-hold penalty for the contact with Kurtz, the completion of which resulted in Luck himself starting again at the absolute back of the pack. While Luck attempted to claw his way back to the front, an exciting back-and-forth three-way battle ensured between Washington, Harward and Iribe.

In SRO3 Masters, Flying Lizard Motorsports' Andy Wilzoch (#460 Porsche 911 GT3 R 991.2) slotted into place between the fields and maintained a comfortable pace while fending off attacks from Burton and keeping an eye on the recovering Luck who had now completely covered to within two cars overall and into the second Masters position. An eventual unforced error would send Burton spinning and to the back of the field,l but he would not be able to fully recover, and Wilzoch would finish with Luck behind him in second.

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The GT America powered by AWS race closed out the weekend on Sunday with exciting racing in sunny and dry track conditions. In the end it was inception racing's Brendan Iribe who would convert his pole-position start into a win for the #70 McLaren 720S-GT3, but not without a race-long battle to regain and maintain the top spot. After a rocky start, Charlie Luck (#45 Wright Motorsports Porsche) managed to fight his way back to the top of the Masters division. Scott Schmidt represented the best in the Invitational Class in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo, while Sean Quinlan (#119 Stephen Cameron Racing BMW M4 GT4) managed to capture a late-race lead that he held onto until the checkered fell.

At the start of the race Charlie Luck made a great start slotting into fourth place but was hit heading into the second corner dropping him to the back of the filed meanwhile Wilzoch in the Flying Lizard Porsche was now up into fourth place with Kyle Washington the #32 GMG Racing Porsche following closely behind in fifth place. the dulling Porsches would soon by split by # Lamborghini Huracan GT3. Contact further down the filed involving two GT4 cars brought out the first full course yellow of the race.

At the restart Wilzoch continued in fourth place with Washington now up into fifth place, Luck had made good progress prior to the full course yellow and restarted is pursuit to the front in eleventh place, Wilzoch in the Flying Lizard Porsche continued to push to try and close the gap on the leading three but was no under pressure from the Lamborghini of Burton and the Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Kurtz who had managed to get by Washington. Luck was making good steady progress back up the order and was soon on the back of the duelling cars battling for forth place, Washington ran wide wide soon after allowing Luck to make up one more position now making it a five car battle for fourth.

Luck and Washington continued to trade positions for a few laps while up front Wizoch had managed to put some air between himself and that of Burton and Kurtz, Jason Daskalos who was in third place in the Audi R8 was forced to pull over with mechanical issues promoting Wilzoch up into third place. Luck made and impressive move on the inside of Kurtz in the Mercedes to take six place while Burton soon after doing the same to take fourth place of Wilzoch, this unsettled the Flying Lizard driver allowing Luck to move up one position into fifth place but Wilzoch was willing to give the position up that easily and soon retook fifth place back of Luck.

Luck eventually got the better of Wilzoch and retook the position, Luck continued to push and was soon battling for third with Burton and the battle did not last long after Luck found a way past and slotted into third place meanwhile Wilzoch who and held on to fourth place for the majority of the race now found himself down in sixth place after Kurtz found a way past him. With only six minutes left before the chequered flag Luck was unable to close the gap and crossed the line in third place overall and first in the Masters Class , Wilzoch went on to take fifth place overall and second in the Masters Class with Washington taking sixth overall.

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