Crowdstrike Racing’s George Kurtz led flag-to-flag Saturday (June 18) to win GT America Powered by AWS Race No. 1 at VIRginia International Raceway. It is his second GT America victory of the year.
“With [VIR] and the Mercedes, we’ve had prior success here,” Kurtz said after the race to SRO America’s Amanda Busick. “[The car] just felt really good. The Riley-Crowdstrike guys gave me a great car and I just love this track.”
Kurtz started from the pole, but in an unusual circumstance, was all alone on the front row. Zelus Motorsport’s Jason Harward was supposed to start second, but he was forced to start in the pits due to an illegal tire change. As a result, Kurtz had a stress-free start in his Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo. Jeff Burton was able to move up to second in his Lamborghini.
Kurtz pulled out a small lead until the race’s sole safety car period due to Matt Ibrahim spinning his Ginetta G56 GT4 in turn 1, then stalling. He was unable to get the car going, so the yellow was required to get him off of the racing surface..
Once the green came back out, Kurtz was able to once again pull out a lead on Burton. Meanwhile, Harward was the man on the move. After starting in the pits, he was 25th overall on the first lap. He had to slowly make his way through the various GT4 cars to have any real chance of a decent finish. He was able to do this early on, then got the full course caution.
The caution allowed Harward to close up to the back of the GT3 cars. When the race restarted, Harward was able to continue his forward progress, getting past Mirco Schultis and Justin Wetherill with ease. He eventually got up to fourth before sliding off-course at the Oak Tree Turn while trying to run down the Ferrari 458 GT3 driven by Andy Pilgrim. Harward was able to keep his Lamborghini out of the tires, but lost significant distance.
Luckily, Harward’s pace was such that he was able to run Pilgrim back down and pass the Ferrari with two minutes to go in GT4 traffic to take third. Meanwhile, Kurtz was able to easily claim the win.
Kurtz’s margin of victory was 9.74 seconds over Burton. Harward ended up third, followed by Pilgrim in the debut for SKI Autosports. If you’re wondering, according to the broadcast, SKI apparently stands for “Spending the Kids’ Inheritance.” Points leader Jason Daskalos was fifth.
In GT4, Moisey Uretsky won the class pole in his Aston Martin Vantage GT4 and drove very well early…
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