CrowdStrike Racing by Riley’s George Kurtz showed the way for all 40 minutes Sunday morning (May 5) to earn his second GT America powered by AWS win of the weekend. It is Kurtz’s 15th career GT America victory.
“[SKI Autosports’ Johnny O’Connell] didn’t make it easy. He really came on at the end,” Kurtz told SRO America’s Amanda Busick after the race. “I thought I had a pretty nice gap, but all of a sudden, he was there. I used just about every bit of tire [that I had left] and I was glad the checkered flag came out.
Kurtz’s margin of victory was 1.738 seconds over O’Connell. Turner Motorsport’s Justin Rothberg was a career-best third, then CRP Racing’s Jason Daskalos and GMG Racing’s Kyle Washington.
By virtue of setting the fastest lap in Race No. 1 Saturday, Kurtz started from the overall pole in his Mercedes. Daskalos started second and was right on Kurtz early on.
As the race went, Kurtz slowly opened up the gap. Meanwhile, Daskalos fell down into the clutches of O’Connell. The two drivers battled hard for several laps before O’Connell was able to get past in turn 10 with less than eight minutes to go.
At that point, Kurtz had a lead of nearly five seconds. Over the final few laps of the race, O’Connell ran a number of the quickest laps of the race to reel in Kurtz. However, he simply ran out of time
In GT4, Rotek Racing’s Isaac Sherman started on pole in his Porsche. Once again, Sherman had to deal with ACI Motorsports’ Curt Swearingin early on. It did not take long for the two drivers to pull away from the rest of the class.
For the first half of the race, Swearingin was able to stay right on Sherman’s tail. However, in the final laps, Sherman was able to pull away to make it six wins in a row to start the season.
Sherman’s margin of victory was 5.419 seconds over Swearingin. The Heart of Racing’s Gray Newell was third in his Aston Martin, while Carrus Callus Raceteam’s Nick Shanny was fourth after late contact with Flying Lizard Motorsports’ Todd Parriott broke a suspension part on Parriott’s Aston Martin.
Alan Grossberg was the only driver in the GT2 class. He ran into mechanical issues in the closing laps and finished three laps down in 14th overall.
GT America teams will return to action at Circuit of the Americas in a couple of weeks for their seventh and eighth races of the season. Race No. 1 from COTA will be May 18 at 4:35 p.m. ET and will be…
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