Rain hampers efforts at end of day 1 of GTWC America and GT America at CoTA
Sunday, May 02, 2021
As the GT4 America Series were blessed with full dry conditions at CoTA yesterday, the GT World Challenge America and GT America Series races each had to deal with another dumping of rain over the Texan track yesterday for theirs..
The Ian Lacey Racing Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3 of Frank Gannett and Drew Staveley were up next for their first 90-minute race of the weekend. Despite the continued support of AMR factory technicians, the body language of Staveley painted the scene of continued frustration as the Bronze/Silver line up aboard the #12 car continued to look for improvements in pace in what was still only their third GT3 race with the AMR.
Starting on a dry circuit, the first signs of the impending storms arrived just before the half hour mark and by the time the #12 car pitted, the choice of wets all round was simple.
As the track got wetter, the lap times got slower and despite a position gain for Staveley the conditions would eventually negate any further improvement as the race was eventually red flagged with ten minutes remaining.
With a delay for the weather system to pass, the new for 2021 GT America raced the opening day with their first race of the weekend but with a depleted AMR representation as obviously the #00 RS1 car of Matt Dalton was missing.
That left just Jason Bell aboard his white #2 GMG Racing AMR and Gray Newell in his #25 Heart of Racing AMR.
Starting this new race series for Bronze rated drivers in GT2, GT3 and GT4 cars, this forty-minute race started with heavy rain but managed to finish under clearing skies. Still relatively new to GT4 racing and certainly new to GT4 racing on a wet track, Newell did what he needed to do to keep his car on track and circulate at a reasonable pace.
Like the first round of the Series at Sonoma, Bell again looked racy in his car as he continued to hound the then second placed Mercedes AMG GT4 for much of the race. Looking good for the final step of the podium, a late issue for the race leading McLaren 570s allowed both cars to move up with Bell claiming P2 for his efforts and his second trophy of the season so far. Newell went onto finish P7 for his best finish so far this year.
Photo credits – GT America / Teams
