19 drivers took to the grid for Saturday’s GT Challenge race on the South track, serving as our penultimate round for this year’s GT Challenge championship. Kavin Laughridge would start from pole with fellow GT1 driver, Dan Gove just under 1.5 seconds behind starting next to him. GT2 polesitter, Britt Casey Sr. would start from third with one of our GTU drivers, Geoff Isringhausen starting alongside in fourth. GT3 polesitter, Valdas Guarylius would start fifth, three places up on GT4 polesitter, Sean Venckevicius in eighth, who in turn started six positions ahead of GT5 polesitter, Pete Dale, who would start from 14th out of our 19 starters.
Our 18 lap race started with our 19 drivers racing only inches from each other, so much so that our second GT3 driver, Michael Benet jumped from ninth to sixth after the first lap. Something not so great that happened by the end of the first lap, was fourth place starter Geoff Isringhausen pulling in after one lap, ending his race, giving GTU victory to Leo Wiznitzer. While GT1 drivers Laughridge, and Gove pulled away from the rest of the field, there were battles in the middle and back of the pack from GT2, and GT4 drivers. GT2 might have had Britt Casey Sr. put a decent gap ahead of his fellow GT2 drivers, which partly was caused by the battling Mike Brinati and Charles Margosian had both getting around GT4 drivers, who got ahead at the race start, and from battling each other, with Margosian getting ahead, but not pulling away from Brinati. A similar story happened in GT4, with Sean Venckevicius keeping a comfortable gap between himself and the battle for second in GT4 between Scott Benning Sr. and Jim Hamman, keen to put his chase race practice from the day before to good use.
Once the race was finished, Kevin Laughridge lapped 2⁄3 ‘s of our GT Challenge field on his way to overall and GT1 victory, with second place overall and in GT1, Dan Gove behind him with Tony-Diar Bakerli rounding out GT1’s podium. GT2’s drivers rounded out the top five, as Britt Casey Sr. won GT2 ahead of Charles Margosian, who held off Mike Brinati who rounded out the overall top five, and GT2’s podium. Valdas Guarylius finished in sixth overall, last of our lead lap finishers, but better yet was our GT3 winner, finishing ahead of his GT3 competitor Michael Benet, who finished 11th overall. GT4’s top four finishers rounded out the top 10, with Sean Venckevicus finishing as our first car a lap down in seventh, and first place in GT4, over 10 seconds ahead of the battle for eighth overall, and GT4 second place, Jim Hamman, who held off Scott Benning Sr. who finished ninth, ahead of Kirk Cordill, who finished fourth in GT4 and rounded out the overall top 10 finishers. In GT5, Josh Dale finished 13th overall last car one lap down, more importantly though, Dale was our sole GT5 to get lapped once, giving him a comfortable first GT5 win, ahead of Andrew Talandzevivius and Brian Helmintoler, who rounded out GT5’s podium respectively.
