Monday April 18, 2022 by Eliane Gilain
It was during this Easter weekend, under the California sun, that the series of the SRO organization began their 2022 season, at Sonoma Raceway, at Sears Point. The four series belonging to the entity owned by Stéphane Ratel, i.e. GT World Challenge America, GT4 America, GT America and TC America, were all on track for the occasion, which represents several hundred drivers, for two races each. .
GT4 America was the series that attracted the most cars with 42 entries. For Éric Filgueiras and Stevan McAleer (RS1 team), it was a first on the winding Californian circuit, yet they won both races at the wheel of their Porsche Cayman 718 GT4. This success follows that of the same team and the same pilots at the Daytona race, at the start of the season of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge series.
The overall Top 3 remained the same in both events, with Torontonian Gavin Sanders and his teammate Michai Stephens on the 2nd step of the podium (photo above). At the controls of the Conquest Racing / JWF Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT4 for a very first career event, Sanders, who has played in Canada in the Nissan Cup for the past few seasons, impressed, taking pole position before leading the first race, which unfortunately was often interrupted. by neutralizations and even a red flag. In the second, he managed to recover the places lost by his team-mate to finish second, followed by the duo Bryan Put and Kenton Koch in the BSport Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4. It should be noted during the 2nd event that the Ontarian Aaron Povoledo and his teammate Ross Chouest (Chouest Povoledo Racing) arrived in 4th position, also on Aston Martin. Check out the results for Race 1 here, and Race 2 here.
Torontonian Kyle Marcelli was unable to participate in the event as his teammate Chris Gumprecht (Fast Track Racing) suffered an accident during qualifying which severely damaged the team’s Mercedes-AMG GT4.
In GT World Challenge America, the series reserved for GT3s, the K-PAX Racing team dominated its opponents like last year with its Lamborghini Huracan GT3s. Jordan Pepper and Andrea Caldarelli grabbed both wins after leading from the green flag to the checkered flag both times. In 2nd position in both events, the Winward Racing Mercedes driven by Russell Ward and Philip Ellis edged out Stevan Aghakhani and Loris Spinelli (Mercedes AMG GT3 / US Racetronics) in the first race. During the second, the Canadian of Russian origin Misha Goikhberg, accompanied by the official Lamborghini driver Giacomo Altoé allowed K-PAX Racing to hoist their second crew on the podium.
Highlight of the weekend in this series, Spinelli and Caldarelli fought well during the first half of race 2. However, the US Racetronics Mercedes had mechanical problems afterwards.
The Canadian team ST Racing, made up of Montrealer Nick Wittmer and Torontonian Samantha Tan, was in action for the first time in this championship, with the new BMW M4 GT3 (photo below). The duo finished 10th overall, but 5th place Pro/Am in the first event, then 8th overall and 4th place Pro/Am in Sunday’s race. Samantha Tan had a great 2nd race, making a 4-place comeback on her stint after Nick Wittmer was forced to start from last place after being sent into a spin on the first lap. Check out the results of the first GT World Challenge race here, and the results of the second here.
Also note that in GT America, Jason Daskalos (Daskalos Motorsports) won the first race with his Audi R8 LMS GT3. Find the full results here. He was followed by Crowdstrike Racing’s George Kurtz in a Mercedes-AMG GT3 and Jason Harward (Zelus Motorsports) in a Lamborghini Huracan GT3. The latter won the second round, followed by Daskalos and Jeff Burton, in a Lamborghini Huracan GT3 from Zelus Motorsports. Click here for Race 2 results.
Finally, it was Jacob Rudd (Fast Track Racing) who dominated in TC America, winning both races. Stephen Cugliari (Accelerating Performance) took the second step of the first podium, followed by Lucas Catania (Rigid Speed). The second race instead saw Catania in 2nd position and Cugliari in 3rd. It was also a dominance of the BMW M2 CS which completed the Top 7 in the TCX class. Click here for Race 1 results here, and here for Race 2 results.
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