Regulator and JMF win GTWC America races at Road America

The GT World Challenge America weekend at Road America had contrasting days with cotrasting winners, with the Saturday being finished earlier as thunderstorms turned racing impossible and crowned the No. 91 Regulator Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo of Jeff Burton and Philip Ellis as the winner, with the Sunday having dry weather, sunny day and mad dash to the line that was won by the No. 34 JMF Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo of Michai Stephens and Mikael Grenier.
 
Road America is fast, and at the same time pretty unforgiving as two major crashes happened before the first race, with the No. 29 Turner BMW and the No. 24 Heart of Racing Aston Martin had to go through signigicant repairs to appear in the grid.
 
The first race saw the No. 91 Regulator Mercedes warming up the tires in front of everyone, so that Philip Ellis could build up some temperature due to the damp and cold asphalt, with the track still presenting some wet spots outside the ideal line at the fastest corners, so prudence was a must.
 
What was helping Ellis’ cause was that the whole Pro Cup field was behind him and the No. 34 JMF Mercedes was tangled in a class lead battle with the No. 99 Random Vandals BMW, while the No. 51 Random Vandals BMW was defending the podium in class from the No. 18 RS1 Porsche.
 
With a little less than 80 minutes to go, the No. 6 Dollahite Ford was slammed into the wall at The Kind, and with Todd Coleman trying to evade the crashed Mustang, the No. 88 Archangel McLaren crashed too, causing a lenghty full course yellow, with nearly 20 minutes going for track clearance. With the race restarted, Kenton Koch and Varun Choksey went for team play into Michai Stephens, with both Random Vandals BMWs taking the top two Pro Cup spots.
 
At fifty minutes to go, the Safety Car was called again but for a different reason, weather. With lightning appearing near the circuit, the safety protocol was called and the race was red flagged, and with the thunderstorm staying in the region, basically the time was consumed under red flag, with the No. 91 Regulator Mercedes winning the race after 15 laps, while the No. 99 Random Vandals BMW got the Pro Cup just behind it and the No. 163 AF Corse Ferrari was the only survivor of the Am Cup.
 
GTWC America - Road America Race 1 results
 

The weather on Sunday was showing a slightly different scenario, with the rain long gone, although the temperatures remained low. With a totally different front row presented, the No. 11 DXDT Corvette led the way while the No. 34 JMF Mercedes conceded ground and settled for the Pro Cup lead and the overall second.
 
The race was developing nicely for both the No. 11 and the No. 34, as they were protected from the nearest class contenders, but after the pit stops, the No. 34 got the overall lead while the No. 11 was sandwiched between Pro Cup cars, though Blake McDonald was still in a favorable position as the No. 29 Turner BMW was only in sixth overall with around 10 seconds back.
 
Within the final 30 minutes, the No. 11 lost ground to the whole Pro Cup field, going down to fifth overall, and to make matters worse, the No. 29 was six seconds behind McDonald, but as the tires were consumed more and more, the Justin Rothberg lost contact and the gap went back to almost 10 seconds again.
 
The stopped No. 27 CRP Mercedes stopped on track, called the Safety Car and left only one lap of green flag, where the opposition took turns trying to pass the No. 34 JMF Mercedes, but no one found a gap into Michai Stephens’s defence as he confirmed the overall and Pro Cup wins.
 
GTWC America - Road America Race 2 results
 
Blake McDonald had the whole Pro-Am Cup putting a target on his back, but the No. 11 DXDT Corvette held a sturdy defense to get the class win, and left the competition so open that the No. 91 Regulator Mercedes jumped to third in class and seventh overall. With the No. 6 Dollahite Ford retired, the No. 163 AF Corse Ferrari was again the only Am Cup car crossing the line.
 
Racing will be resumed only in September, with the final double header of the season set for the 6th and the 7th at the Barber Motorsports Park.
 
PHOTOS: SRO/Fabian Lagunas