DXDT Racing made their eighth consecutive trip to victory lane in the Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS championship at Barber Motorsports Park, and Alec Udell and Tommy Milner have in turn drastically reduced the points gap to the leaders heading into the final round of the season. In Pro-Am, Jeff Burton and Phillip Ellis’ strategy played out perfectly to take the victory.
Pro
Kenton Koch got his elbows out early, making progress on the opening lap of the race in the No. 99 Random Vandals Racing BMW M4 GT3 to move up into first in class and third overall as he maneuvered past some Pro-Am competitors.
A little further down the road, Elliott Skeer was pushing hard to keep his No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 992 GT3 R within range of Milner in the No. 63 DXDT Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.
As the halfway mark approached and drivers made their way down pit lane to swap with their teammates, a slower pit stop for Random Vandals Racing and Conor Daly brought DXDT Racing’s Udell that much closer to the frontrunner. Wright Motorsports opted to extend Skeer’s stint a little longer before handing over the machine to Adam Adelson, and he remained close to the top two as he returned to the track.
They had to contend with some out-of-class traffic with just over 30m to go, but the obstacles aided Daly in putting some space between himself and Udell. However, a full course caution emerged a few laps later, bringing them right back together again. Daly and Udell handled the restart masterfully, and Bill Auberlen put himself in prime position on board the No. 28 ST Racing BMW M4 GT3 to sneak past Adelson and move up into third place.
Just as everything looked as though it was said and done, in the final laps Daly had to make a trip down pit lane for a splash of fuel, promoting Udell into the overall lead as the Random Vandals Racing machine dropped to the back of the field. Meanwhile, Luca Mars made a daring overtake in his No. 93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3 EVO22 on Adelson, snatching away the final podium position with just a couple of laps to go.
When Udell took the checkered flag, the gap between DXDT Racing and current Pro class championship leaders Wright Motorsports was reduced to a mere seven points, making it a winner-takes-all situation for the Indianapolis 8 Hour.
When discussing the unconventional win, Udell went on to say that, “The Random Vandals Racing car was just super fast. Conor and Kenton have been quick all weekend and really showed their pace in the race today. We were just trying to hitch a line to them and stay close for as long as we could. It’s a bummer for them, but we’ll pick up the pieces and take the win. You just have to take what comes to you and we maximized today. We got very lucky that the No. 99 had an issue, which you never like to see as from a racing perspective, but we’ve been on that side of the game before, all of us have. It comes and it goes.”
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“It was very hard today, for sure,” echoed Milner. “We got lucky at the start. I got hit twice on the left-rear and thought something was broken or wrong, but I think the track was just super-dirty. We were lucky to get away with that one. As we expected, we weren’t the fastest car. Alec did a great job and we had a great pit stop. This DXDT team just excels in every area. I’m really proud to be part of this race team and to drive this Corvette Z06 GT3.R. Everyone keeps asking about the championship and I didn’t want to talk about it for a long time. But after today for us, things are falling into our hands. Now it’s a discussion, and I’m happy to go to Indy with a good chance to win it.”
Touching on the upcoming Indy 8 Hour and their chances of winning, Milner added that, “The driver lineup won’t be a problem. The car won’t be a problem. The team won’t be a problem. It’ll be about our pace once we get there and how we compare to everyone else. I’m excited to get there now, to go racing for eight hours there and go for a championship.”
Pro-Am
Robby Foley had a clean getaway as he led the field into turn 1 after starting from the overall pole position in his No. 29 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3. Neil Verhagen was trying to hunt him down in the No. 38 ST Racing BMW M4 GT3, but Foley continued to clock in fastest laps, building a gap to the fellow BMW factory driver behind.
As Justin Rothberg jumped in to replace Foley behind the wheel, Verhagen continued to clock in a couple more rapid laps before exchanging with teammate Samantha Tan. She initially returned to the track just ahead of Rothberg, but he used his tire advantage to take the position back a few corners later. The two championship contenders continued to run nose to tail lap after lap, and as Rothberg began to struggle for grip, Tan sought an opportunity to capitalize on the situation.
Elias Sabo went spinning off-track in the No. 8 Flying Lizard Motorsports BMW M4 GT3 with just under 30m to go. This brought out a brief full course caution and packed the field tightly together as they prepared for a sprint to the finish.
This played perfectly into the hands of Ellis in the No. 91 Regulator Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3, who got to work very quickly, passing both Tan and Rothberg to propel himself into the class lead with less than 20m on the clock, and speeding ahead all the way to the finish line.
When reflecting on his performance throughout the weekend, Burton commented that, “Today and this whole weekend was probably my best driving. There’s some things that you’ve just got to learn, and I haven’t done this for a long time. It’s taken a long time for me to kind of figure it out, because driving is not as easy as people think, but today was really good.”
“I mean, it could have dropped a little bit earlier,” Ellis said about the yellow flags that ultimately favored their strategy. “It would have been a bit more relaxed, but it was good that it happened. I already passed a couple of front cars at that point, and the restart made things a little bit easier for me. I think everybody struggled for grip after the restart as we had quite a lot of dirt on the tires, so everybody was just sliding around and trying to figure out how much grip we had in the next few laps. I think that just helped me since I have a bit more experience than the other guys I’m racing.”
The Fanatec GT World Challenge America Powered by AWS field will return for the season finale event – the coveted Indy 8 Hour – at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, October 3-6.