Jason Daskalos was dominant once more in the GT America powered by AWS series’ SRO3 class as he took the top step of the podium for the second time this weekend at Barber Motorsports Park. In the GT4 class, it was Isaac Sherman who walked away with another victory and the championship crown.
SRO3
Saturday’s winner and Sunday’s polesitter Daskalos had a great start from the front of the field in his No. 27 CRP Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3, with Justin Rothberg trying to stay close to him in the No. 29 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3.
In the opening laps, Ross Chouest was applying pressure on Johnny O’Connell as there was barely any distance between their No. 50 Chouest Povoledo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 and No. 3 SKI Autosports Audi R8 LMS GT3 machines. However, the battle was brought to an early close, as Chouest’s race ended abruptly when the No. 007 ProSport Competition Aston Martin Vantage GT3 commanded by Tim Savage lost control, taking the Mercedes out in the process.
The incident brought out an early safety car, and Daskalos got another clean getaway as the race went back to green, only for a second full course caution to emerge later in the same lap due to a GT4 car running off into the gravel.
The race resumed once again at the halfway mark, but the drama wasn’t over yet. Rothberg’s BMW suffered a tire puncture, bringing him back into pit lane as he dropped down the running order. Meanwhile, O’Connell was able to get past Washington to reclaim a position to move up into second place.
His Audi appeared to be coming back to life, with a pace advantage rapidly cutting into Daskalos’ lead as the final laps approached. The gap was reduced to less than a second, but Daskalos was pushing with all his might to stay ahead.
It was a tough fight all the way to the line, but Daskalos was able to keep his Mercedes firmly ahead, picking him his second consecutive win and extending his championship points lead in the process ahead of O’Connell, with Kyle Washing rounding off the podium in race two.
Washington was given a drive-through penalty, converted to a 39s post-race time penalty, for incident responsibility. As a result, Jason Bell was promoted to third place in the No. 2 Flying Lizard Motorsports Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 EVO.