Wright Motorsports Wins Chaotic Race 1 in Watkins Glen
The Pro-Am class #45 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3-R of Charlie Luck and Jan Heylen won an eventful, turbulent first race of GT World Challenge America at Watkins Glen International, by less than two tenths of a second from the #04 CrowdStrike with Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 of George Kurtz and Colin Braun.
After an 11 race undefeated streak across GT World Challenge and the Intercontinental GT Challenge, K-PAX Racing’s undefeated streak comes to an end. The #1 K-PAX Lamborghini Huracan GT3 (Michele Beretta/Andrea Caldarelli) looked poised to win from pole position, but while Beretta was battling the #96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 of Michael Dinan on a restart, Beretta pushed himself and Dinan wide – leading to a 60 second penalty stop for the car that hadn’t lost a race in 2022 to this point.
The door was open for the #33 Winward Racing AMG GT3 (Russell Ward/Philip Ellis) to take the lead and the win, but trouble securing the left front wheel brought the #6 US Racetronics AMG GT3 (Steven Aghakhani/Loris Spinelli) to the top spot.
Spinelli and Ellis traded fastest laps for their closing stints and it looked as if their battle would decide the overall win. But with less than 15 minutes remaining, the left-front tyre on the Winward Mercedes burst, and victory for Spinelli seemed assured.
That was, until just nine minutes later and with four laps left, when Spinelli also suffered a puncture on the left front.
Suddenly, a battle between Heylen and Braun for the Pro-Am class win became the overall victory battle, and despite the best efforts of Braun to overhaul the reigning Pro-Am champion – it wasn’t enough, as Heylen and his father-in-law Luck held on to the victory by just 0.179 seconds.
The #96 Turner Motorsport BMW of Dinan and Robby Foley finished third overall and took the Pro Cup victory, while the #43 RealTime Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 (Erin Vogel/Michael Cooper) charged from 17th and last on the grid to fourth overall.
The #6 US Racetronics AMG GT3 and #33 Winward AMG GT3 finished eighth and ninth overall, second and third in the Pro class.
Results to follow
Feature image © Brian Cleary / SRO Motorsports Group America
The post Wright Motorsports Wins Chaotic Race 1 in Watkins Glen first appeared on dailysportscar.com.