It’s been an exciting season in the SRO GT World Challenge and GT America series, with BMW teams fighting for championships in both series with the M4 GT3. The penultimate rounds at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama had BMWs on the podium in three of the four races among the two different series, and championships are now set to go down to the finale at Indianapolis.
The GT World Challenge Pro-Am class championship has come down to a battle between BMW teams ST Racing and Turner Motorsport, with ST Racing drivers Samantha Tan and Neil Verhagen leading the championship but Turner drivers Robby Foley and Justin Rothberg closing the gap. The points difference between the two teams narrowed a little more at Barber.
It all went wrong for ST Racing at the start of the first GT World Challenge race at Barber. Samantha Tan started the race and was trying to go up the inside of Justin Rothberg in the Turner car (shown above) on the first corner, when she hit the curb and ran into the back of Rothberg, forcing him into a spin as she continued. Fortunately, the Turner car was not hit by other cars during the spin, but it dropped the car to tenth in class. Rothberg and Foley fought back to finish on the Pro-Am podium in third, while the ST Racing car was given penalties for both avoidable contact and a start violation, ultimately finishing in seventh.
Random Vandals Racing finished second in the Pro class in GT World Challenge race one.
In the Pro class, the Random Vandals Racing #99 M4 GT3 was in only it’s second race but showed great speed with driver Conor Daly and Kenton Koch in race one. Daly also races in Indy Car and was fresh off a podium finish at the Milwaukee Mile. Both drivers put in strong stints to finish second in the Pro class behind the #63 Corvette, which has won seven straight races. The #28 ST Racing M4 GT3 of Bill Auberlen and Varun Choksey finished fourth in the Pro class.
In race two, Turner driver Robby Foley started from the pole and built a four-second gap to the second place ST Racing BMW of Neil Verhagen car during his stint. For several laps at the start of the race, it was a BMW 1-2-3, with Foley leading Verhagen while Kenton Koch ran in third place overall and first in the Pro class behind Verhagen. As the race progressed, the Turner car dropped to second with Rothberg at the wheel, as he was passed by the #91 Mercedes driven by works driver Philip Ellis. Rothberg hung onto second in class, with the #38 BMW of Verhagen and Tan finishing right behind them in third as Tan bounced back to put in a strong drive in race two.
ST Racing drivers Samantha Tan and Neil Verhagen finished third in GT World Challenge Pro-Am in race two.
It looked like Random Vandals Racing was going to get their first win in the Pro class and overall in race two, as Conor Daly was in the lead in the #99 M4 GT3 for his stint. With five minutes left in the race, he pulled into the pits for a splash of fuel, the result of a fuel pickup problem in the pits that led to not enough fuel being put in the car during the pit stop. That pit stop dropped them to last place, but it moved ST Racing drivers Bill Auberlen and Varun Choksey up into second overall and in the Pro class behind the winning #63 Corvette, which has now won eight straight races.
Bill Auberlen and Varun Choksey finished second overall and in the Pro class in GT World Challenge race two.
Turner Motorsport and Justin Rothberg also put in strong performances in the GT America races (which are one-driver sprint races with no pit stops). Rothberg started on the pole and was leading the race until the last lap, when Mercedes driver Jason Daskalos made contact with the BMW while fighting for position and took the lead on the last lap. Rothberg finished second, despite bodywork hanging off the rear spoiler from the contact with the Mercedes, which was deemed a racing incident. Rothberg started second for race two and looked set to be on the podium again before dropping back with a flat tire with fourteen minutes left in the race.
Justin Rothberg was on pole for race one at GT America and finished second.
The championships in both GT World Challenge America and GT America are up for grabs in the finale at Indianapolis on October 3rd-6th. The battle between ST Racing and Turner Motorsport for the GT World Challenge Pro-Am class title should be a good one, as they bring in third drivers for the 8-hour finale. —David Haueter
https://www.gt-world-challenge-america.com/
https://www.gtamerica.us/
[Photos courtesy SRO]
