TKO Motorsports’ Memo Gidley led flag-to-flag Saturday (April 29) to win the first GT America powered by AWS race at NOLA Motorsports Park. It is his third GT America win of the year.
“It’s a surprise [for us],” Gidley told SRO America’s Amanda Busick after the race. “We worked really hard on the TKO Motorsports [No.] 101 Mercedes. We did a couple of days [of] testing here, and I never really felt that we were quite right. It wasn’t until qualifying that I felt that we had nailed it.”
Gidley’s margin of victory was 13.339 seconds over CRP Racing’s Jason Daskalos. Wright Motorsports’ Adam Adelson was third, followed by Crowdstrike Racing with Riley Motorsports’ George Kurtz. Todd Treffert was fifth.
Gidley won the pole Saturday morning for the race and got a good jump on Adelson to open a gap. Daskalos was able to get the jump on Adelson and took second-place away in turn 3 on the first lap.
Gidley and Daskalos eventually pulled away from the pack in an attempt to settle things among themselves. However, Daskalos’ tires began to wear out and he could no long hang with Gidley. As a result, Gidley ran off and hid.
Daskalos fell back to Adelson and RealTime Racing’s Anthony Bartone. Kurtz didn’t have the best of races, but was able to run the group down as well to make for a four-car battle.
The four-car scrum for second got physical in the closing laps. Kurtz was able to pass both Adelson and Bartone to take third with two laps to go in turn 1.
Later that lap, Bartone wanted his spot back. He had a run and got to the inside of both drivers. While the pass on Adelson was clean, not so much on Kurtz.
Contact was made between the two drivers. Kurtz did a half-spin, but resumed. Bartone came out of the mess in fourth as Adelson was able to get his spot back.
Bartone actually finished the race fourth on the road, but was assessed a drive-through penalty for causing the wreck. As the penalty was assessed after the race ended, it reverted to a 44-second time penalty, equal to a drive-through penalty. The penalty dropped him from fourth to seventh.
In GT4, Flying Lizard Motorsports’ Elias Sabo won the pole in his Aston Martin Vantage GT4, but he didn’t have an easy go of it. Defending GT4 champion Ross Chouest immediately put the pressure on Sabo for the lead. Sabo’s teammate Jason Bell was close behind, as was Archangel…
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