Good pit strategy, pace and a bit of luck with the competition made the No. 04 DXDT Mercedes AMG GT3 of Colin Braun and George Kurtz succeed in their quest to break Racers Edge’s winning streak in GT World Challenge America powered by AWS, winning the Race 2 at Virginia in the final meters after a long battle.
Again the No. 93 Racers Edge Acura had the advantage of starting from pole position, and Trent Hindman held the machine in the top spot at the first minutes, with some pace advantage over the DXDT Mercedes No. 04 and 63, which were second and third at the moment.
The overall top-5 had similar pace until the pit window, when Hindman took advantage of traffic to push harder and open the gap, only to be outpaced in the pit window by better work from the crew of the No. 04 DXDT Mercedes, which put it slightly ahead of the No. 93 Racers Edge Acura, a situation that would force George Kurtz to at least match the pace of Shelby Blackstock. To bring relief to Kurtz, the No. 93 had to serve a drive through penalty due to pit lane speeding, and the sister No. 80 Acura was way behind in third place.
With the overall battle becoming a Pro-Am Cup affair while the No. 20 Wright Porsche was an Am Cup intruder, Kurtz had to be aware of what was behind him, though the third placed No. 63 DXDT Mercedes put some pressure in the No. 80 Racers Edge Acura, which held the advances of the chasing pack, while bringing the No. 1 TR3 Ferrari closer and closer. The No. 20 eventually stopped due to a technical issue, which left the Pro-Am Cup cars alone in the chase for the No. 04 and brought the Safety Car to the track.
The green flag saw the No. 63 DXDT Mercedes having no success in defending fourth place from the No. 33 Winward Mercedes, which then chased the No. 1 TR3 Ferrari to have a go for third place, and by coming closer to the No. 80 again, the No. 04 had some room to capitalize and extend the lead. Trying to take advantage of Kurtz’ slight mistakes while hunting speed, Martin Barkey tried a last attack to put the No. 80 in front, but he could only come really close to the winning No. 04 DXDT Mercedes at the finish line, which also conquered the Pro-Am Cup.
GT World Challenge America - VIR Race 2 results
With the retirement of the No. 20 Wright Porsche, the No. 31 TR3 Ferrari just needed to finish the race to win the Am Cup, while the Silver Cup No. 93 Racers Edge Acura didn’t find a way out its problems after the drive through penalty. Repeating Saturday’s success, the GT Sports Club America’s GT2 winner was the No. 311 311RS Porsche GT2 from Ryan Gates.
Sonoma Raceway will be the venue for the next GT World Challenge America double header, on 8th and 9th August.
PHOTO - SRO
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