Uretsky pick of the GT4 crop in GT Americas visit to VIR

Sunday, June 19, 2022

The GT America Series ran its third round of the season at the Virginia International Raceway this weekend with another grid of twenty-six cars spread across the GT3 and GT4 class for its Bronze rated drivers.

Featuring this time just six Aston Martin Racing powered runners, VIR would turn out to be a successful proving ground for the latest AMR convertee, Moisey Uretsky and his distinctly yellow Accelerating Performance AMR Vantage GT4.

There was also one absentee from the proceedings with Bryan Putt electing this time not to run within the series after a couple of disastrous races last time out at both Nola and St Petersburg.

That still left Ross Chouest with his #50 Chouest Povoledo Racing AMR, Elias Sabo #8 Flying Lizard, Gray Newell #25 Heart of Racing and reigning GT America GT4 Champion Jason Bell in his #2 GMG Racing AMR joining the fray for what would always be entertaining racing. Sean Whalen would also compete but would suffer from electrical gremlins that would blight his running.

Taking his first, class pole position for Race 1, Uretsky was three positions faster that his more established AMR peers as Chouest, Bell and Sabo could do no better but a restart following the recovery of a stranded car left the #55 car slow of out of one corner that allowed the #120 Porsche to take the class lead at the halfway stage.

Following that, it was pretty much plain sailing for the remaining AMR runners (as Whalen had already had to pit again with issues) that made for both Uretsky and Bell stepping up onto the podium with their P2 and P3 finishes respectively. Sabo, Newell and Chouest would complete an AMR domineering performance as they finished line astern from P5 down.

For Sunday’s second race, Uretsky would make it a 1-2 in terms of class pole positions, again beating the AMR ‘establishment’ as this time Bell was the next best AMR runner in third bit with Sabo, Newell and Chouest this time further back in the order.

In a similar trait to race 1, the #120 again snatched the lead from Uretsky at a similar position on track to Saturday but this time, the #55 car was having none of it and soon returned the favour to secure the class lead again.

Large gaps between clusters of cars had now established themselves and it looked like the race was in for a predictable conclusion – had it not been for a late FCY that is for a stranded GT3 car that would lead to a final two lap dash to the flag. That would give us a dramatic conclusion to the GT America weekend.

A first corner lunge was the first offering from the #120 Porsche but that was easily countered by the undercut on the way out and then again, another attempt into Oak Tree corner however, the #120 finally overcooked things going into the final half of the final lap when it left the track and contacted the barrier – spinning off into retirement and giving Uretsky his first race win of the season.

For Bell though, an almost certain P2 in class finish was thwarted at the death as the Ford Mustang pipped him for position by just six one hundreds of a second. Still another podium for the defending champion, matched with another P4-5-6 for drivers Newell, Chouest and Sabo respectively.