The Blancpain GT World Challenge America weekend at Road America saw R. Ferri Motorsports and RealTime Racing celebrate, as their wins came in a hotly contested field where the Pro Cup cars had to worry with themselves and the Pro-Am Cup entries in fast pace in the two races.
The No. 61 R. Ferri Ferrari was on pole for Race 1, and Daniel Serra defended the top spot on pure speed from the No. 58 Wright Porsche of Patrick Long, while K-PAX Bentleys were sitting in third and fourth and watching patiently the action in front.
K-PAX opted to work different pit strategies for their Bentleys as they were running third and fourth and were going nowhere, with the No. 9 going first for service while the No. 3 followed the No. 58 Wright Porsche in the next lap. As for the No. 61, its pit stop was just a bit later than the others, and a flawless service secured their track position.
Most top positions stayed the same until a yellow flag near the end, and the Pro Cup cars except the No. 61 were having the company of the Pro-Am Cup cars in the pack, but somehow the No. 58 held to second until the No. 9 get it on a power challenge at the main straight and the No. 43 RealTime Acura getting in for third later.
What suprised then was the No. 9 having a problem and spinning in the final third, and while the No. 43 stayed in second, the Wright Porsche were working their ways to third and fourth over the No. 3 Bentley.
The No. 61 R. Ferri Ferrari held to its overall victory while the No. 43 RealTime Acura finished second and was the Pro-Am Cup winner.
The all Acura front row was kept at the start of Race 2, though it was led by the No. 43 RealTime car while the No. 80 Gradient one in pursuit. With the professional drivers doing the job in the Pro-Am Cup entries, the first Pro Cup car, the No. 9 K-PAX Bentley, sitting only in fourth overall.
The top-3 held their way after the pit stops, but holding track position would be quite the mission for the amateurs as the pros were coming in on fire, with track condition being the only hindrance, and in fact took about 20 minutes for the Pro Cup cars to get in the Pro-Am Cup pack.
Somehow the No. 61 R. Ferri Ferrari benefited from the chaos in the final minutes, specially as a brief Yellow Flag was called, and with the Pro Cup lead secured, Daniel Serra would go for the overall lead, still occupied by the No. 43 RealTime Acura. Serra closed in with a few minutes to go, but it was only enough to have the No. 43 locked on target as the overall victory never left the Acura NSX GT3.
R. Ferri’s Toni Vilander left Road America as the Pro Cup champion, with most of the titles set to be decided at the season finale at Las Vegas on October 19th and 20th.
PHOTOS - Gavin Baker/SRO
PHOTOS - Gavin Baker/SRO
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