ST Racing has been on a roll this year in the SRO Fanatec GT World Challenge America series. Coming into rounds five and six at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas, the duo of Samantha Tan and Neil Verhagen (shown above) had been on the Pro-Am class podium in all four of the previous races in the #38 M4 GT3, with a pair of second place finishes at Sonoma and a win and a third at Sebring. The team made it a perfect weekend at COTA, scoring class wins in both races.
In race one on Saturday, Samantha Tan put in a great opening stint to move up to second in class before handing over to Neil Verhagen, who drove the car to second overall and first in the Pro-Am class. They carried that momentum into race two on Sunday, with Verhagen starting from the pole right ahead of Turner Motorsport driver Robby Foley. Foley made it past Verhagen early in the race and held on to the overall and class lead until pitting, with the Turner car coming out ahead of the ST Racing car after pitting at the same time.
Samantha Tan and Neil Verhagen celebrate their second win of the weekend. View BimmerLife’s recent podcast interview with these two here.
Samantha Tan put pressure on Rothberg immediately for the class and overall lead and got past him with a great move up the inside of a right-hand sweeper. Tan then held the overall lead for several laps before ceding to a pair of Pro class cars, then cruised to the team’s second class victory of the weekend. Rothberg also put in a great drive under extreme pressure from Mercedes driver (and defending class champion) George Kurtz to stay in second in class. In the Pro class, the ST Racing duo of Bill Auberlen and Varun Choksey finished third in both races, though there were only four cars in the class at COTA.
Turner Motorsport finished second in the Pro-Am class in GT World Challenge race two.
Tan and Verhagen have been a great team this year and are formidable competitors in the hotly contested Pro-Am class. “I made a mistake on lap one and was pretty disappointed in myself,” said Verhagen after race two. “As the stint went on, I was able to edge my way back in the fight, but it was hard to pass. Samantha was able to use the benefit of the new tire in the stint to reclaim the lead. Well done to her, she did an amazing job and it was great to see that she was able to make up for my mistake.”
In GT America (which is a single-driver sprint race series featuring GT3 and GT4 spec cars), Turner Motorsport driver Rothberg had two solid races, finishing fifth in race one and fourth in race two in the SRO3 (GT3) class. There was a second M4 GT3 on the GT America entry at COTA, as Fast Track Racing had their #30 car entered for John Roberts, who finished a solid ninth in race one and fourteenth in race two. It was the first race for Fast Track Racing with the M4 GT3, and they plan to return this year for the races at Road America in mid-August and the 8-hour finale at Indianapolis in early October. In the GT4 class, Carrus Callus Racing driver Nicholas Shanny finished fourth in class in both races.
Fast Track Racing debuted their M4 GT3 in the GT America races at COTA.
Next up for SRO GT4 America and TC America are rounds seven and eight at VIR on the weekend of July 19th-21st. —David Haueter
[Photos courtesy SRO]
Tags: BMW Racing sro wins