Wright Motorsports’ Elliott Skeer ran down and took the overall lead away from DXDT Racing’s Jeff Burton with 30 minutes to go Saturday (April 6). From there, Skeer was able to hold on to win the season-opening Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS race of 2024 at Sonoma Raceway.
“[Wright Motorsports] gave us an unbelievable car,” Skeer told SRO America’s Amanda Busick after the race. “Adam [Adelson] did everything he could in his stint to hold off Luca Mars, which was awesome. Made my job as easy as it could be.”
The margin of victory was 14.393 seconds over CrowdStrike Racing by Riley’s Colin Braun and George Kurtz. ST Racing’s Bill Auberlen and Varun Choksey were third in their BMW, then teammates Samantha Tan and Neil Verhagen. Turner Motorsport’s Robby Foley and Justin Rothberg were fifth.
In the Pro class, Adelson and Skeer won by 43.078 seconds over Auberlen and Choksey. Mars and Zach Veach were third.
Rule changes for 2024 allow teams to freely pick which of their drivers would be designated as Driver No. 1 and who is Driver No. 2. As a result, the Pro-Am class was a mix of Pro and amateur starting drivers instead of just amateur drivers at the start.
DXDT Racing’s Philip Ellis started from the overall pole in his Mercedes-AMG GT3 and led early. However, the safety car came out at the end of the first lap. Flying Lizard Motorsports’ Elias Sabo ran off-course on the inside of turn 6 and got stuck on the hillside, requiring a retrieval. He would continue, but lost a lap in the process.
For Ellis, the goal was clear. Run away from the rest of the pack and open up as big of a lead as possible. 17 minutes into the race, he’d opened up a seven-second lead.
Effectively, Ellis had a second on everyone and nearly two seconds a lap on everyone in the Pro-Am class. The new pavement at Sonoma Raceway eliminated the heavy tire wear that has marked previous races on the 2.505-mile road course. As a result, Ellis continued to post fast lap times well into the run. His best lap was the 25th lap of the race, more than 40 minutes in.
Unlike last year, there isn’t necessarily a pit window in Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS. However, there is a 40-minute minimum drive-time for each driver and a 50-minute maximum.
Ellis chose to stay out as long as possible to give Burton the maximum possible advantage. At the time the stops began, Ellis had a 36-second lead.
Once Burton…
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