Regulator Racing’s Philip Ellis took the lead away from DXDT Racing’s Alec Udell with 12 minutes to go Sunday (July 21). From there, he pulled away from the pack to win Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS Race No. 2 at VIRginia International Raceway with teammate Jeff Burton.
“This is perfect. It is the opportunity that we’ve all been waiting for with our reverse strategy,” Ellis told SRO America’s Amanda Busick after the race. “Definitely a fun race. Jeff [Burton] did a great job overall. We’ve struggled at times, but it all came together today.”
The margin of victory was 1.290 seconds over Udell and Tommy Milner. Rennsport One’s Trent Hindman and Spencer Pumpelly were third in their Porsche, then Racers Edge Motorsports’ Luca Mars and Zach Veach. Wright Motorsports’ Adam Adelson and Elliott Skeer were fifth.
Milner started from the pole in his Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R. Once the green flag fell, he pulled away from the field, little by little. Meanwhile, Skeer was in a battle for second with Bryan Sellers in the second DXDT Racing Corvette. GMG Racing’s Tom Sargent eventually joined the battle.
Just before the mid-race pit stops, Chouest-Povoledo Racing’s Aaron Povoledo stopped on-track with a mechanical issue to bring out the safety car. That allowed the entire field to make their mandatory pit stops under yellow.
During those stops, Wright Motorsports had a good stop and managed to jump over the DXDT Racing No. 63 and give Adelson the overall lead. Once the green came back out, Udell stalked Adelson for the lead.
Udell was able to get a good run exiting the Hog Pen and swept around Adelson to take the lead with 21 minutes to go. A couple of laps later, Ellis took second away and ran down the Corvette for the overall lead.
The battle for the overall lead was pretty fierce, but Ellis was able to get the job done. For Udell, he was still in the class lead even after losing the overall lead.
Udell’s competition proceeded to crater in the closing laps. Adelson spun out with eight minutes to go in turn 1 after contact from ST Racing’s Bill Auberlen. Auberlen was given a drive-through penalty for the contact.
That contact gave Udell an easy run to the Pro class weekend sweep in second overall with Milner. The margin of victory was 5.696 seconds over Pumpelly and Hindman. Mars and Veach were third, then Adelson and Skeer.
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