Race 2 in the Fanatec GT World Challenge America championship was an absolute scorcher, with high track temperatures paling in comparison to the fiery battles between Pro and Pro-Am class competitors throughout the field. Crowds at Circuit of The Americas were treated to a thrilling 90-minute event to close out the race weekend action in Austin, Texas.
DXDT Racing completed a highly impressive Pro class debut weekend as Tommy Milner and Alec Udell secured both the Race 1 and Race 2 overall wins. In Pro-Am, it was ST Racing’s Samantha Tan and Neil Verhagen who clinched double victories of their own in a perfectly executed team effort.
Pro class
Elliott Skeer was running first in class and fourth overall in the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 992 GT3 R, and immediately found himself in an intense battle with Trent Hindman in the No. 85 RS1 Porsche 992 GT3 R Pro-Am entry, which separated Skeer from Tommy Milner in the No. 63 DXDT Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, who was the next-closest class competitor.
DXDT Racing were the first of the two Pro team front-runners to complete their driver change, with Alec Udell taking over from Milner. As Skeer pitted a lap later to hand over his Porsche to Adam Adelson for the second half of the race, the battle for the class lead tightened up even more.
With 30 minutes remaining, Udell closed the gap to Adelson, searching for any opportunity to sweep by. His charge was hampered slightly by out-of-class traffic, but he was able to complete the crucial overtake just five minutes later.
Once he was clear of his Pro class competitor, Udell made swift work to get past Samantha Tan for the overall lead of the race in the closing portion of the race. He put the pedal to the metal and went two-for-two as he secured DXDT Racing’s second consecutive victory, wrapping up a picture perfect weekend in the team’s Pro class debut.
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Wright Motorsports claimed second place, further extending their championship points lead. Varun Choksey and Bill Auberlen completed the Pro class podium with the No. 28 ST Racing BMW M4 GT3.
When talking about their success this weekend, Udell noted that “it’s a testament to the platform and to all the engineers that have put a lot of hard work into getting this car where it’s at. From the team side and the joint venture between Corvette, Pratt Miller and DXDT Racing, it’s been very awesome for me to be able to jump in as well and a seamless part of the program. It’s great for the customer racing teams that are looking at the Corvette as an option. It’s a proven platform, and to be a part of that proven process is really cool. It’s been more than I could’ve ever asked and I’m looking forward to seeing where we can go from here.”
Milner echoed his teammate’s sentiment, adding that “the team has done a great job so far with this platform, and we’re here to help put the final touches on it. We’ll see how we’re able to stack up in the championship, but for Alec and I, it’s all about helping this team continue to grow and learn more about these cars, and hopefully with that we can get some more race wins.”
Pro-Am class
Neil Verhagen started Race 2 from the overall pole in the No. 38 ST Racing BMW M4 GT3 following his stellar performance in qualifying, with Robby Foley in hot pursuit just behind in the No. 29 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3. The field kept it clean heading into the first corner, and by the end of the opening lap Foley found an opportunity to move himself up into first overall, with Colin Braun in the No. 04 Crowdstrike by Riley Mercedes-AMG GT3 now closing in on the back of Verhagen.
As Justin Rothberg took over from Foley during the driver changes, with Samantha Tan doing the same with teammate Verhagen, the battle for the win became closer than ever, with the two BMW machines returning to the track separated by less than a half a second.
With just over 30 minutes remaining, the door opened for Tan to pull off a move in the Carousel to promote herself up to first overall. She was eventually passed by Pro class driver Alec Udell, but maintained the Pro-Am lead as she built up a significant gap over Rothberg as he became involved in an increasingly heated battle with George Kurtz in the No. 04 Mercedes as both competitors drove aggressively and used every inch of the track.
Samantha Tan crossed the finish line to complete the weekend sweep for ST Racing, while Rothberg and Kurtz dueled all the way to the very end, finishing second and third respectively.
Philip Ellis set the CrowdStrike Fastest Lap of the race in the No. 91 Regulator Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 with a blisteringly quick time of 2m04.814s, which he clocked in on the 30th lap of the race. He was the only driver to set a 2m04s lap time throughout the entirety of the race.
“There was a lot of motivation today,” said Tan. “I was digging deep, I know I have the skills and I’m out there to show it.”
Tan, who was racing with her Chinese name on the car for API Heritage Month, added that “it was an absolute honor to be able to have my Chinese name on the car this weekend.”
Verhagen had high praise for his teammate, explaining that “I made a mistake on lap one and was pretty disappointed in myself. As the stint went on, I was able to edge my way back in the fight, but it was hard to pass. Samantha was able to use the benefit of the new tire in the stint to reclaim the lead. Well done to her, she did an amazing job and it was great to see that she was able to make up for my mistake.”
The Fanatec GT World Challenge America Powered by AWS field will return for Rounds 7 and 8 at VIRginia International Raceway from July 19-21.