RACE 2 | ST. PETERSBURG FLORIDA | GT AMERICA 2022

so [Music] welcome to st petersburg where round one yesterday was a rough and tumble affair through the city streets and saw jason dascalos and to kick off their respective championship bids today round two and 27 gt2 gt3 and gt4 cars and drivers have answered the bell for the second round of the gt america powered by aws championship hello greetings from st petersburg florida my name is ryan marine calvin fish joins me in the broadcast booth we'll be hearing from amanda busick down in the pit lane here shortly tell you what calvin it was a fun way to get the sro america season started yesterday here on this great street course multi-class racing big incident early but once we went green it was a fantastic battle across the two classes well a wild style one we didn't look forward to seeing but obviously with the street circuits and the start there with multi-class racing it can happen once it settled down we saw some superb performances that class win by dasilus under immense pressure from scott smithson that was a great battle which may resume here today and dasglose a little bit out of position uh the grid for today is set by fast laps yesterday he won the race but only fifth fastest time so he'll roll off row three on the grid today a number of drivers were bit by misfortune early yesterday and as a consequence they start towards the back remember in gt america the grid for race two is set by the fastest lap for race one so drivers like jeff burton for instance who's been fast all weekend but was taken out in that incident yesterday he's all the way at the back not just at the gt3 field but he will start at the very back in row 13. yeah and only a couple of rows ahead of him is his teammate jason howard so uh busy night for the zelus team they were here till 1am fixing damaged race cars from yesterday's race but they have the speed and uh they just need a little bit of help they need a good clean start good first lap then if there was a momentary uh caution to reset the feel a little bit compress the field let's not count them out for a podium run here today and a chance to chat with corey lewis who is a lamborghini-affiliated driver he'll be driving alongside jeff burton in gt world challenge america this year he said he left the track at nine o'clock and the two loose lamborghinis were in total disrepair came back this morning and they looked like brand new race cars he said it was amazing yeah they got to work early yesterday and just really analyze things they did have a spare chassis on the transport it didn't have to go to that so that was a fortune otherwise that would have been even late at night for the team and the crew but uh just a first-class job by ty isaac and the whole crew there getting things put back together and hopefully we'll see them have a good strong run here today let's talk gt4 it was a great fight to the finish marco radasick didn't have a great qualifying effort but he raced incredibly well got up to the lead and pulled away from there and then the fight for the podium was tremendous from that point it really was and um you know for trg they always do a great job here at st p it's one of their favorite events derek dubois hung on to that second position but he's under immense pressure from uretsky they're late in the going so marco even though he didn't qualify well after an incident in practice kind of a residual effect in qualifying yesterday morning but boy he had the pace uh got the lead scampered away basically and also laid down the fastest lap of the race who will start from pole here today speaking of gt4 these are the point standings leaving round one yesterday in this eight eight uh stop season basically for gt america powered by aws by virtue of that win marco radisick the early race leader what a welcome back to pro racing for him after a year away derek deboer nice clean start to that race held off mosey uretsky as you talked about rosh west put in a very good effort and then jason bell who had a great start or at least starting position had to avoid the carnage got shuffled back to 10th raced his way back up to fifth and verily very nearly got ross for fourth yeah he was right there knocking on the door of a podium sue for jason bell our reigning gta champion he comes back to his home track looking for better things here today but he's got pace i mean he really got in a first fight with paul spader on the restart took him a while to clear paul and then he chased down the leaders but ran out of time yesterday amanda is down among the 27 cars ready to go for race number two today amanda what are the late developing stories you have your eyes on well it is now countdown to race number two you can see the teams are starting to arrive we're going to see race cars behind us on this grid here shortly but when you think of the carnage you guys were talking about in turn one yesterday all the drivers are back to that anticipation of what's going to happen here in lap number one but the guys that are going to have the best position is going to be that front row and yes that is uh clean and clear for those who start this out but george kurtz really turned it on yesterday towards the end of the race he ended up setting the best lap on the lap 19 towards the end of the race and he knew that he wanted that crowd strike fastest lap so that he could make sure to have a clean and clear start to this race but you have murko schultes in that c7 corvette he was only bested by george quartz by less than two hundredths of a second but we all wait with baited breath of what's gonna happen in turn one and see if we can survive this in saint pete race number two turn one lap one was treacherous yesterday while amanda was talking we saw the highlights or low lights as it was for many in the field and tell you what that is not an uncommon sight across multiple platforms racing here this weekend we've seen turn one be a real problem area especially on the initial start with the rules here in sro once you see green you can start to pass even if you haven't got to the start finish line so that created a little bit of chaos there it was a very fast final lap to get towards that initial uh green flag there as you see the uh that's the zero weight of scott's missing they're struggling to get uh car turned there um so keg nasty from the pole he got jumped by brian putt suddenly brian had that track position he tried to flick around him and suddenly the whole field was uh breaking for term one and he just misjudged it a little bit with dire consequences as we saw there fortunately everyone able to walk away certainly disappointing and an expensive day for a number of teams but we get to bounce back here hopefully with round number two of the championship today we saw a moment ago the white audi of jason daskalos we talked about him briefly he won the race yesterday but he's got to start back in fifth he looked really good on the initial start and cal he sold us before the race getting a good start getting that clear air that was going to be the key for him to race one well not gonna be easy doing that from fifth here in race two yeah but with jason i think he's one of those guys who's had the confidence to really get up on the wheel early so you gotta temper that we saw what happened yesterday if you get too aggressive so i think he's gonna try and make some moves i think as the race settles in those mercedes are very very strong and the callaway corvette boy what a performance by merkel yesterday putting in that fast lap to put up his car on the front row as well so he's got a lot of work to do he may feel his best opportunity is in these opening corners opening labs to get that audi back to the front there from p5 on the grid how good does that callaway corvette look only finished seventh yesterday kind of caught us by surprise with how fast that ultimate lap was and he's an experienced driver has a bit more experience than many he's going up against including a class win at petit le mans about eight years ago of course in a much different car but nevertheless plenty of experience to draw upon and a great starting position too and you'd have to think about the big picture of that the car didn't even arrive in the us until last friday didn't clear customs until monday evening then they had to scramble to get it over here to st petersburg so for merkel was really almost like a big test session they're intending to run the full season so if we think about yesterday the progress he made in terms of those lap times during the race does he have more to show here today so if he can have a solid start and just get to grips with this track a little bit further maybe he could shock everyone here today amanda with more down in the pits as the grid begins to form up we have race cars behind us now and row number two is going to be those dxdt mercedes and cal i know we stopped by that shop yesterday after the race and it was all smiles though we don't have a master's class that is for points here this season in gt america powered by aws we still recognize the winner of the masters and that went to david askew i think he had that first place pirelli hat on and it was just a big smile for him but scott smithson i want to go back to him you guys mentioned his impressive fight yesterday even jason dasglose minced him in his winner's interview but from your perspective someone making their debut here right on an intimidating street course what impressed you guys the most about scott's debut well i think just the poise amanda that he showed there i mean he didn't get impatient in terms of trying to go for the lead i think if he could time some of the runs in traffic he may have had a hot opportunity to win the race and get by jason but it's all about the big picture brian sellers after the race was uh you know congratulating him in terms of having that discipline that's what brian is looking for he's going to be his teammate for the season in gt world challenge america and the display that scott put on yesterday put a big smile on brian seller's face because he feels as a duo a combination they could be really strong in that championship and keep in mind scott this is his car right here he's only been racing for three years 2020 when he finished third in the tcr championship in sro was his first year of racing prior to that he got introduced by david askew actually to the sport by getting invited out to a track day and totally got bit by it there and it's been this rapid ascension since then yesterday was only his second gt3 race and his first street course race and he still came away on the podium just amazing and you could just sense that it didn't look ragged it didn't look too exciting it just looked very calm and poised like an experienced guy behind the wheel so a really great job as you said only a second gt3 racing ran the nda hour at the end of last year did a couple of test days in prep for that done a little bit of testing at sebring so he's going to be learning the curve is going to be massive for him he's just going to get stronger and stronger as this season progresses in this car big thumbs up a moment ago from the pole man george kurtz crowd strike racing but this time run by riley motorsports after being part of the dxdt team for the last few seasons and he gets the best view in the house leading this field to greene how anxious is he to put some frustration from this weekend behind him it's not been a clear run i think he needs a good solid run minimal fuss i mean i think if he can get the start and settle down he displayed yesterday he has the pace he's laid down the fastest lap of the race um but it's with the new organization will bill riley the riley motorsports team bill has so much experience with those amg mercedes so the setup will be right it's just really a case he's just fine-tuning and getting in a group with the team but it's early days i spoke to bill this morning they haven't done a ton of testing they've got good setups to work with george knows the car well he's got colin brown in the stands uh talking him through this as a mentor as a coach and a co-driver later this season so all of the key ingredients are there but it's race day i mean everything changes when that green flag flies as we saw yesterday two times a race winner in gt america powered by aws a year ago sweeping the weekend at sonoma marco radisson back in the championship for the first time since 2020 and he had a day to remember yesterday driving through that gt4 field and putting this srq motor sports group race car the bmw m4 gt4 in the winner's circle great job by the serbian driver now based here in florida in sarasota where the team is based and they've got big plans for the year got him kicked off the right way they did big support from touch point and he's opening up a new restaurant here in sarasota's uh flirt sushi so he's excited about this year it's great to be back racing he was here back in 2020 and obviously with the pandemic that occurred and the event was cancelled he's looking to bounce back uh doesn't have a lot of seat time over the last 12 months but he gets up on the wheel i mean he loves his racing he's as fit as a fiddle and uh he just gets in there and gets the job done so great performance yesterday kind of surprising not to see him fighting and getting into that podium running ultimately the win but just the pace that's what really surprised me yesterday impressive stuff indeed one more time back to the pits and amanda well brian we're catching up with president and ceo of sro america greg gill as he's going around and wishing all the drivers good luck here this morning but we're kicking off the gt america powered by aws season right here in saint pete what's it like seeing all these entries and being here it's fantastic we've been pleased you know we started the series two years ago the growth has been phenomenal but to get back to saint pete it's my 10-year anniversary of the series so this is like homecoming it is fantastic the weather the people and then this great classification of cars between the gt3 cars the gt4 even a gt2 it's awesome what a great weekend and we're excited for everybody thank you greg thank you there's a lot of momentum wind in the sails of the sro motorsports group here in america admittedly a few years back car counts weren't where anybody wanted but through the pandemic the growth continued and now in the first this is really the first season opener where it feels like something akin to normal what we what we experienced prior to 2020 and the grid looks great all the rumors about what we can expect when the rest of the championships get started in sonoma are very encouraging as well and makes it easy for greg gill to smile and i think greg's spot on in terms of coming back to some pete it feels right i've been coming here since 1985 raced here a couple of times in the late 80s it's a wonderful venue has been embraced by the state embraced by the county here and great support i mean i was into the track early this morning big coach loads as fans were rolling up and you know pouring into the entrances here at the racetrack because it's a spectacular weekend the setting is perfect the weather is absolutely amazing close to 80 degrees here today and just the perfect setting for the opening rounds of the championship tell you what i've been doing some pit reporting for some other series this weekend and walking through the pit lane it's crowded it feels different unlike anything that we've experienced the last couple of years and even for saint pete i've been coming here for about 10 years now as well and there is a different buzz this year there's an energy it's great and uh look at these cars i mean what a field we have 26 cars we'll see the green nazi from yesterday he's going to take a breather today a lot of damage to that race car he'd hurt his back a little bit so he's going to settle down and get ready for sonoma so shame that we're not going to see yesterday's paul sitting car back out there today but 26 cars spread across the three classes plus the one invitational car with the porsche cayman there with rob holland they put on a show and it's going to be a good ride good day let's talk about this race track here in st pete racing has been going on in st petersburg or the surrounding area since the 80s like you talked about calvin but this particular configuration of the circuit 14 turns five to the left nine to the right 1.8 miles in length and it's proven to be not just a fan favorite but a driver favorite too lots of interesting passing opportunities some more flowing sections as well in parts than you see in a typical street course yeah that that's the cool part about it is that it's really got some really high speed turns which are very challenging then you've got the typical street core stuff concrete walls uh changes of surface getting too close and clipping a barrier and maybe not having a big incident there but is there any suspension damage in the subsequent corners so it keeps you on your toes and let's not forget there's a lot of rookies in this field here a competing in the first pro races competing on their first street circuit so hats off to everyone we had the big incident yesterday at the start ryan but other than that through the practice sessions through the remainder of the race everyone did a really solid job taking care of one another that's been a big topic of conversation throughout the paddock the gt3 field by and large has flashed through now we're taking a look at some of the gt4 machinery with some gt3s intermixed in there as we talked about earlier the field set by the fastest lap of the race from yesterday and a number of gt3 contenders basically didn't have a lap to fall back on as we look at the starting grid front row the pole man george kurtz will have the german driver making his series debut murko schultes in the callaway corvette next to him david askew and scott smithson dxdt racing teammates in row two yesterday's winner jason dascalo starts fifth with rookie justin weatherill ferrari challenge veteran alongside ziad gondor another driver with ferrari challenge experience and yesterday's gt4 winner marco radisic cj moses in the lone gt2 machine starts night moisey yaretzky a podium man yesterday in gt4 is 10th jason bell hometown guy from tampa bay he starts 11th overall ray newell great qualifying effort based on fast lap yesterday will start second todd coleman and rosh west making up the seventh row of the grig chris gumprecht and derek devore who was on the podium yesterday but has some work to do today all the way back at 16th overall paul sparta sean weyland as we get a bit further back in the field custodio toledo who made his pro racing debut yesterday as did nick shanny they will share row 10. jason harwood one of the gt3 cars fired back in traffic starts 21st rick euler a debutant starting alongside rob holland in an invitational porsche that is one of the new specification cabins that's not fully homologated just yet starting 23rd brian putt 24th and jeff burton shotgun on the field but keep an eye on that zelus motorsports lamborghini he has been fast just not very fortunate so far this weekend you know he made that big move down the inside not responsible for the incident that was happening amongst the gt4 cars but they obviously got into the back of him with massive damage to that lamborghini huracan so i'm sure he's a little bit nervous about how to approach this start from further back in the field than it even was yesterday this is the five six seven eight nine complex a bunch of primarily 90 degree turns going around pioneer park the salvador dali museum in the background there also nearby ao lang stadium which is home now to the usf usl minor league soccer tampa bay rowdies and formally hosted spring training for the likes of the yankees cardinals mets and orioles just part of the scenery now this is the run down towards the marina area where all the yachts are parked this is the part of the course that gives the moniker the monaco of the us to this race venue yeah it's really high speed down there through bay shore drive that little kink there doesn't have a number on that term but it's certainly a very demanding even the high downforce nature of these gt3 machines so other than that sector you talked about between four and nine is pretty much medium and high speed the rest of the way around this racetrack now the final run here through a high speed kink turns 11 and 12 into 13 and 14. we saw the lights off on the safety car mike stillwagen will pilot that ferrari down to the big lane and turned the field over to the control of george kurtz that's the crowd strike liberated mercedes to the left of the screen merco schultes in the callaway corvette starting on the outside and the green flag flies on race two of the championship great getaway for george kurtz and here comes smithson and askew looking to pounce on schultes contact further back dascalo's spinning around they can make that shoulder spinning around off the nose of dascalos but we continue on looks like everybody else able to get through turn one yeah i think gandalf got down to the inside of dascalos and the uh result was that merkel got turned around there tough break for the outside pull sitter here's the gt4 field derek deboer he's got jason bell right there in the mix and one of the dxdt mercedes got shuffled back to find a bit of contact there between those two cars yeah smithson they're not having a great start from the second row of the grid so he's now got to be very patient and thread his way through this gt4 traffic and if we saw a spot for him to to learn a little bit from yesterday he was managing the traffic that's where he lost out to jason dasco that's the experience you can drive a race car fast but having that race knowledge how to time a pass there we see a wither all there he also had a poor star that looks like running amidst the gt4 cars here we go is burton making some big moves able to clear brain part of racing aston martin gt4 right behind jason harward also making his way forward those are the two zebras teammates they had to start towards the back he's going to be is everything cleared down into one here come the leaders [Music] so ask you trying to fend off gondor that is the fight for second year as one lap is in the books on the streets of st petersburg george kurtz able to get away i believe yeah i think turds is down the road by about three seconds so uh this is a battle for second right now we saw ziad very much in the moment down in term one it's great to have it back in the series right a partial schedule for this cr3 racing team one year ago and indeed this is george kurtz making good his escape there you can see the difference gondor taking a peek to the inside don't usually see many overtakes through here but he had a had an idea the problem is if you try and give it to the man on the inside you're suddenly out in the gray area and sometimes you just can't make the corner so david had to be very aggressive there and turn in a little bit earlier and take that track position away picture perfect start for these two we're a little bit further back gondor in particular he started back in seventh so up four spots on that first lap great job weaving through the chaos in the early going very much a funneling effect down in term once i'm sure the stewards are looking at that incident the cfc ad was indeed a contributing factor to the spin for merkel shelters but up front in the crowd strike entry is george kurtz streaking away here as the battle continues between david skew and ziad gamdor for second big talking point all weekend is that part of the track there we'll get to that in a moment first a replay of the start your thoughts well look at dascalo's in the middle of the pack then look to the inside that white lamborghini huracan down to the inside he gets a bit of a nudge baby from cj moses but may have forced him into that little uh opening in the traffic so difficult when the abs kicks in ryan we talk about the painted stripes down there in the turmoil breaking area if you suddenly activate that abs it's taking breaking away there's nothing you could do about it that may have been a contributing factor there look at all the chaos in the background of that shot the different classes all mixed together some cars trying to determine whether or not there was any damage taken and meanwhile all by his lonesome out in front this is exactly how george kurtz wanted this race to begin well his last lap was a second and a half quicker than the chasing pack behind him so right now he's just breaking away up to nearly five seconds now is the gap to second place runner david askew looking for his third win in gt america competition dropping back that's justin weatherill he's ahead of derek devore who has now jumped to the lead in gt4 so this is the second straight day that despite a less than ideal starting position derek using the experience he has he's raced here he was able to get through the chaos and get a great position well we've had a little bit of chaos down in term one two uh starts in a row as we now see the 69 car that's corman there [Music] down in uh that's what it looked like to me big runoff area there backed up with tire bundles and it's a good thing too as we saw when sro was here a few years ago bentley had breaking issues in that spot it was a scary moment for alvaro parents howard there taking care of business getting around our gt4 leader divorce so trying to do one better than yesterday but he's got the local man on his tail right now jason bell defending gt america gt4 champion at a much better start to this race than he did yesterday although there is some damage to the left front of that car definitely missing some of the dive planes and some loose body work you can see it there the right hand side is he's coming at us but uh left hand as far as the driver is concerned gunpricked up to third there in that blue mercedes amg machine yuretsky off the podium yesterday now sits in the fourth position granule a nice start in the top five sparta and then radic who was the winner in gt4 yesterday back in the seventh position in class 15th overall just like yesterday not a great start for the gt4 pole sitter just there's kagnazi today marco radisson got some work to do it's a tough spot to find yourself in because there's no class split and some of the top gt4 drivers might be a bit more willing to be aggressive at the start than some of the inexperienced gt3 drivers they're lining up right behind and it causes uh some issues especially into turn one here it's missing really up on the wheel now running p4 just laid down the fastest lap of the race about a second and a half quicker than the leaders he is flying around the streets of saint pete right now crowd strike fastest lap of the race thus far to scott smithson in that dxdt racing mercedes just his third gt3 start ever only second street core start the first one of course was yesterday and he said quite frankly this track is intimidating he told amanda that yesterday he told me that too this morning he wouldn't know it with the way he drives now well he's got the pace and he's got the time on the clock to get back to the front here it's all going to be about how he deals with this traffic in terms of making the passes because he has monster speed right now but just as we saw yesterday timing those passes is going to be the key here to try and chase down george kurtz he just ran a 114 flat george kurtz ran a 115-1 so that's an advantage of over a second burlap on the race leader jeff burton just reset the fastest lap of the race running back in fifth so a great recovery from him remember he was started at the very end of the field tail in charlie and he's worked his way through the gt4 field and now runs fifth but 17 seconds behind the leader yeah 17 seconds behind the leader 10 seconds behind smithson right now so he's got a lot of work to do but he's got clear racetrack right now here's jeff burton this car not total rebuild but they had a lot of work to do on that chassis last night yeah it was uh a big one and he actually had a couple of hits yesterday had the spin and qualifying nosed into the barrier just a little bit before where we're looking at this shot here it wasn't massive damage but it was definitely a setback certainly impacted his starting position and then that played into where he was when the incident broke out well it looked like a harmless spin lost him his fast lap but what that did was mire him in the middle of that gt4 pack from the start and then we saw the consequences of it yesterday so right now clear track ahead gonna get his head down he's a really aggressive driver has huge passion for racing love the way he goes about his uh craft beer working with corey lewis this year who will be his co-driver in gt world challenge america the 90-minute two-driver format that will debut for this season at sonoma in uh about a month or so and i think that's going to really help him i mean he's had good help from vesper kazurov in the past and the reardon racing team but sometimes a new voice in the air can be helpful if corey brings a wealth of experience so much seat time with that lamborghini hurricane that'll be great for jeff burton here's a nice little battle inside the top five in gt4 uretsky has it in that bright yellow toyota gr supra gt4 machine and the aston martin man gives chase well we'll watch this battle unfold but while we do so unfortunately we're speaking to jason daskalos a bit earlier than we would like yesterday's winner he's out of his car in with amanda yeah turn one had another victim here in saint pete and jason from your perspective of where you were at the track what happened in turn one well i mean we all got into the braking zone and people from behind think they can come in on the inside and when you get on that paint you just can't stop so i was making my turn into turn one and the lamborghini decided to dive bomb us all and hit me and then i got hit into the corvette so it's just a shame because we had a great car and we were going to try to you know move to the front like yesterday so it's a shame for the team and but next one right well i heard you did guys you guys did have a nice prime rib dinner at the airbnb last night what will you take from the weekend well i mean we learned a lot about this audi r8 and you know getting a win you know obviously today isn't great but we'll take the win and move on to the next round during the interview we saw brian putt stranded on course he had damage yesterday in turn one that's the b sport racing driver also saw another replay of the restart calvin what did you pick up well i think there was definitely a little nudge on see ed gando from behind from cj moses they all kind of buried into that break zone there so i don't think it's really ziad's fault just a consequence and it was my thought as well when we saw it for the first time this is the man out in front george kurtz crowd strike racing riley motorsports had a decent run yesterday good enough to get on pole but we dropped back here to the fight for the final podium spot in gt3 the gt4 field already mixed up in it gondor for the moment able to hang on to that position but scott smithson is on the attack he is he has caught him and uh it's all about how quickly can he dispense with him otherwise he's going to run out of time even with his 29 minutes there kurtz is doing a really solid job up front runs super consistent lap times in the 114 115 range it's marco schultz down to the callaway corvette he's day two done early with 10 minutes off the clock 40 minutes comes very quickly on the streets of saint pete we're already one quarter of the way plus through this race this is a big moment here though for smithson we saw him learning dealing with the traffic trying to make the overtake yesterday now trying to put those lessons to use to get him back up on the podium yeah and i'm sure they talked about that last night and uh the other thing is i don't believe he's going for a full championship run here in gta so uh obviously you can take a few more risks here and trying to get that position seeing a change for the lead there in gt4 meanwhile this i believe is david askew who's gone around in the car that had been running second overall yeah he's gonna lose that track position so he's lost that second position gandol should be up to second now smithson now in a podium run and now the question is where is jeff burton but yes to give jason bell full credit the hometown guy who has put a lot of pressure on himself to get a good result this week and now leads in gt4 does look like jeff burton was able to make that pass as was justin weatherill as was jason harward so that was a costly spin i don't want to say miss q because we didn't see what happened but david askew plummeted from second all the way down to seventh well sometimes when you get down those escape routes all those little uh areas that you can get the car turned around it's not easy and then the traffic is coming through you have to be patient you can't jump out in case you stall the car in front of the traffic so big big moment in this race but david askew [Music] you'll be disappointed that's for sure but the team car running now up in third ben smithson who is half a second behind gondor and then here's the leader george kurtz now talked about it some yesterday many of these drivers don't have a ton of experience in multi-class racing but george does he's been doing some of the longer distance imsa races in a class where you're both being passed and doing some passing does that help him here even in a gt car i think absolutely just seat time and running in multi-class racing at all levels whether you have the slower car or the faster car george coming off a pilgrim bone at the rolex 24 just last month here in florida so good start to his year they won at sebring the 12 hour which they'll return to uh next month as well so he's learning his craft and he's got great tutelage with colin brown as his team on a regular basis [Music] jason bell out in front in gt4 here at the moment with derek devore giving chase got an update from amanda in the pits that marco schultz his issue is a slipping clutch so it does not look like he will be returning he damaged it just trying to get the car turned around there with hot tires sometimes you can really do that when you got bumped there and turn one had to get the car turned sometimes you can damage the drivetrain this is other than the damage to the car exactly what jason bell had in mind for this weekend he's got about a hundred guests here as he looked to uh to entertain here on home soil hoping to put in a good performance he was so frustrated yesterday and his driver coach and co-driver in pirelli gt4 america andrew davis told me just kind of had to talk him down a little bit look you got through the issues yesterday a lot of people weren't so lucky you've got a weapon you know you can go fight with today yeah i think that's all part of the learning process you've got to learn how to go quick you got learned to do it consistently without mistakes but then there's racecraft and he had a poor start got bottled up behind another competitor was frustrated was telling the team on the radio i'm being blocked i'm being blocked and andrew told me this morning probably told you the same thing when i looked at it wasn't really being blocked it's just hard to pass here on the streets of st petersburg he just had to settle him down get the pass done and then he took off with his lap times looking at the bright yellow toyota supra of boise uretsky who scored podium on his debut in gt america powered by aws just one day ago great newell in the background giving chase gray's not one who's done much on street courses in the past in fact his racing resume basically goes back to last year right that's about it but he's been a quick study and the way he finished last year was incredibly encouraging yeah really would have given him a lot of confidence they haven't done a ton of testing in the offseason between james who's the team manager there the harder racing team and one here in gt4 competition back in 2019 so what a great sounding board he is for gray newell in terms of a coach and mentor to him but he said he comes to saint pete didn't have a great nashville and had a big crash there on the streets of nashville so a little bit intimidating coming here this weekend but he's approached it nicely thoroughly just gradually picking up the pace and unlike many of these competitors for whom this is their first race of the season gray actually raced in the 24 hours of dubai in a gt4 aston going back a little over a month or so and finished runner-up in class he told me i feel like i've been racing and driving so much over the off-season that there wasn't any rust to knock off here this weekend right now that's good i mean seat time is key right so particularly at this stage of their learning uh career so um but here we see george kurtz kind of really i'm gonna be patient here trying to cut his way through traffic i'm sure the team has given him the gap back to gandalf right now but he's got a 10 second lead he's got plenty to work with here so don't take any risk and is on the gt4 runners talking about uretsky and newell fourth and fifth and putting a lap on the slower cars in the gt4 class at the moment karate signal is starting to inch his way into contention he's up to sixth and slowly but surely it looks like he's making ground on uretsky that's the car we're looking at here radissic running sixth yesterday's winner in gt4 he's on the charge once again and he said even in the race yesterday the car wasn't perfect they worked on a little bit more last night he's hoping for a faster race car today but i don't think he's ever feel that he's gonna have to come so deep in the field starting from the pole but he's kept the car clean he's on the charge right now a ton of time left on the clock we're not even halfway right now and certainly things are compressing at the front of the gt3 field as well as smithson is right on the tail of gander now should note that the car that they were putting a lap down a few moments ago was the sister card to this one rick euler making his pro racing debut this weekend and by all accounts having a ball but yeah great point and i'm also seeing jeff burton listed in the pits it had a really good run going but he's perhaps dropping down drive-through penalty is what we're seeing from race cars sunday yellow turn 10 apparently so uh that's really gonna stop at his chances having a solid run here today what a frustrating weekend for jeff you saw it on the screen a moment ago as well david askew has recovered to pass jason harward on that last lap so that's sixth and seventh in gt4 or gt3 rather but the focus right now is here on this fight for second zion gondor and scott smithson gondor in the white lamborghini trapped behind gt4 traffic spits it in the multi-colored dxdt racing mercedes who runs third all of this about nine seconds behind the race leader george kurtz lucia just has a ton more racing experience than smithson who's given chase right now he's been six years in ferrari challenge done a lot of rally racing so i'm going to try and use that and leverage that experience right now that keeps missing at bay evidently earned a nickname seahawk when he was engaged in that rally but very quick behind the wheel of the gt3 cars we've seen over the last few years and ferrari challenge has been a nice stepping stone for several drivers in this field both in gt3 and gt4 well they have a lot of horsepower don't have the downforce of these gt3 cars so uh these gt3 cars should be a little bit easier to drive smithson now should get a big run here he should by the way there might be a bigger story on the harward situation because he's dropped all the way down to 19th overall so we'll have to keep an eye out on that as we look at radisson continuing to close in on grey newell and just in front of this is that fight for second overall with gondor and smithson will be getting the information you're about halfway through this race keep doing what you're doing i mean ideally in a race situation you'd love a caution but the trouble is that he's up so much of the clock here in these sprint races you just got to get your head down and try and make it happen with lap time here we go back to the fight for second gondor has been able to hang on to it smithson not going anywhere coming through this difficult part of the track because of the painted lines from the airfield what do you feel inside the race car calvin as you're coming through crossing those different surfaces well the key is just to roll off the breakdown you've got abs that will kick in if you get one wheel start to log a little bit and that takes away the overall braking effect i was watching in practice the other day a lot of drivers really just over committing to that corner always scrambling through there i think the keys to release that brake pressure early roll speed through there because otherwise i'll just play havoc with the abs system this is justin weatherill we're looking at here that gray-colored ferrari from triarcy competition he'll be driving with his driver coach ryan dial in fanatic gt world challenge america powered by aws this year coming off two successful seasons in ferrari challenge including a championship in copenham back in 2020 third in his class last year the troffeo pirelli ham2 class with a couple of wins and now making this jump with an operation that has a lot of experience racing ferraris just not at the gt3 level no and it's a unique story that you know justin was so successful in business he kind of sold his business and decided listen i'm gonna go after my passion that is driving a ferrari he bought a ferrari road car from triatsi and now he's racing for the team here in their home state so pretty cool he's got great mentorship there with uh ryan dial as his coach and driver partner this year mark shulman is a great engineer they got their part of the engineering group as well so he's got a lot of great key elements in place he's looking for success this year in his debut pro season right now he's about six seconds behind these two who continue to scrap and claw for second and third that's the fight we're watching gondor in the lamborghini smithson in the mercedes look how close to the wall they get but that's where the speed is found right it is you just got to really try and maximize the radius through any corner but you know you've got to get brave on these street circus and you can't afford a little slip sometimes the very edge of the road there's a little crowning effect with streets and that takes the grip away so you have to be careful and then crowning is there to help rain water wash away and help you in your road car that's not what you want in your race car that's typically where all the marbles and the dust kind of congregates there on the outside of the corners because the wall just keeps it there nowhere for the dust and debris to go let's see out there he's really just trying to get super defensive now kind of moving his car at the middle of the road he's taking a very shallow approach into some of these corners missing down to the inside will he push it here traffic up ahead he's got to be careful ziad over commits this is his breaking point a little bit smithson to the inside he takes the position yes he does book it scott smithson to p2 and that time used traffic to his advantage those are the lessons from yesterday enacted today yeah ziad actually missed his breaking point a little bit i think he may have been distracted by that gt4 car let's take another look at it from a different angle there and there you see smithson on the best part of the racetrack where the rubber where the grip is and easily out accelerates the lamborghini off the corner great job by the relatively inexperienced scott smithson who has quickly gotten up to speed and you have to believe that this car could be one to watch not just all season in gt america but advantech gt world challenge america the 90 minute two driver format he's got a pretty good co-driver to turn that thing over to yeah it's gonna be exciting to see him and sellers work together but up front right now is uh george kurtz he's got about a 15 second lead with 17 minutes on the board this is going to be the key right now to analyze george's lap times versus smithson does smithson have enough time to catch him mercedes versus mercedes but two different teams running those programs perhaps different philosophies for getting the speed so we'll keep an eye on that george kurtz heavy on the light flashing button to make sure the gt4 traffic knows he is coming because i think george probably is aware at this stage it's a different driver running p2 that battle has broken off and now smithson with clear sailing to try and chase him down and i think with george when he gets confidence he can really perform i think sometimes he gets out of his groove a little bit but when he's on it boy can he be successful in 2017 he won what was the gts championship then essentially gt4 cars in the m division had nine wins aboard a mclaren that he absolutely loved just was really his sweet spot and i think he's now getting that same feel with this amg mercedes as well we wondered if something was wrong with jason harward and it appears to be the case remember this is a car that had to be heavily repaired after a crash yesterday and jason appears stopped on track that is an area of the track though where they will pull cars to in order to keep the race green so hopefully that's the case hopefully jason is all right didn't see any damage on that side of the car but hard to say for sure dismiss it across the strike to see if that gap is coming down any [Music] yeah a little bit he's a little bit quicker but he's got a lot of work to do yeah less than just less than 15 seconds it's a substantial amount it's gonna need to be about a second on that if you look at the clock 15 minutes left these laps are just to shade over a minute you know 114 115 there's the pace of that new porsche cayman running in the invitational class here this weekend as monster top speed is basically not homologated yet for gt4 competition we hope to see that happen before the opening round of sprint x at sonoma in april but rob holland didn't have a great start yes they got involved in that little incident down in term one had some radiator damage but just really using this as a test session this weekend i'm worried that harward hit the wall and turned 14. that was the source of his problems this fight for second might not be over cj moses the lone gt2 car in the field has held up scott smithson somewhat euler as well in the srq bmw it's a gt4 class car and that brings weatherill into the picture as well he's this ferrari coming through right here he still needs to clear moses but he can see his quarry just ahead [Music] he's up on the wheel doing a really nice job i'm sure his confidence is building here now he's not going up against that g to all of that kind to the insider ziad may have gone around so i saw a white card on the inside coming off and turned 14 there eagle eyes calvin fisher exactly right sia gondor spinning out of turn 14 gets it re-fired it will rejoin but that will be costly it's a bit of a respite then for smithson this is where is the gt4 car hard to know what to do you know you're not going to be faster in the long run but you don't want to give up the speed waiting for the gt3 car to accelerate you made the right choice there that that gap on the outside was uh diminishing pretty rapidly so now the fight for second is between smithson and weatherall who might be the guy to watch he has the crowdstrike fastest lap of the race now at a 113.6 that is at least four tenths of a second better than anybody else has done so far yeah and that's quicker than we saw here yesterday uh 13-9 was the fast lap yesterday at set paul today for george kurtz so fastest man on the weekend not only the race you can tell by the way that he has that fastest lap by looking at the left-hand side of the screen you see weatherill's name third on that pylon with the number illuminated in purple that's how you can tell that makes that distinction at any point in the race 13 minutes to go still a big lead for george kurtz in gt3 and overall gt4 it's jason bell leading by a healthy margin over derrick deboer chris gumprecht runs third so the most compelling battle might be this one scott smith's and justin weatherill both making their series debuts here this weekend massive lead now nearly 22nd that george kurtz has on the field even though he doesn't have the fastest lap today just set his personal best at 114 zero about three to four tenths slower than whether all but monster lady just needs to sit there remember he swept the opening rounds of this championship last year at sonoma and then had a lot of struggles the rest of the way he was so impressive in doing that one he led flag to flag the other he got a penalty for a start infringement and had to go to the very back i don't think there were any yellows he just raced his way through the field to win overall that was massively impressive from george to open the season and indeed the history of gt america those were the first races in series history one year ago we go back to gt4 and jason bell in spite of that little damage looks pretty cosmetic to the uh drivers side of that race car split has definitely been torn up there so it will really be losing a lot of the front down force on the car certainly in the braking uh department as well be affected sometimes you know if the car was a little bit loose it's taking away the not pointing the pinning of the nose as much it can help you out actually what an engineer wants to hear you fine-tune everything to the nearest millimeter and suddenly there's big chunks of car missing and the wheels are pointing in the wrong direction driver will go faster sometimes condor has recovered still runs in the fourth spot david askew is about a straightaway behind it would appear this is rash west cool story this team ross had a great run to fourth yesterday he's seven at the moment aston martin vantage amr gt4 as you can see and it's a new name for the team it was three rpovalado racing last year this year under the schwest povolato racing aaron kovalev his co-driver the driver coach will be racing with him in pirelli gt for america running right behind him is paul sparta for random vandals racing but schwest that team now being run out of the shop in indianapolis and longtime mechanic doug livingston working on that car from his shop i think uh awesome together like 10 years i think just a massive relationship so the chemistry is obviously great another graduated ferrari challenge west from new orleans in louisiana and i believe i have this right he still i think holds the louisiana high school basketball state record for most career points sport i don't know it was supposed to assist in a high school basketball career a really good basketball player played as a walk-on at i thought i had this written down and apparently i don't so this is off the cuff gives you some idea of the athlete he was though in his youth and still today for that matter great job as his poor spot a given chase there another solid run after a good run here yesterday paul sparrow first pro year and racing was last year learned a lot had a lot of success and his third into the sprint x championship in the am division with seven podiums had a win at sebring with al carter for better things this year it's a team that's been busy as well this is by no means the first race of the year for them they were down in daytona they've been doing some aer and some other club level endurance racing events as recently as last weekend actually they're in road atlanta just last weekend a couple of five-hour events there as we watched george curtis see that hood kind of fluttering at speed there as the air kind of just gets under that leading edge george is very much in a groove he needed a day like today just nice solid clean start no pressure from behind just hit his marks but it takes a lot of concentration on these street circuits not to make that fatal error look at the traffic keep in mind these are city streets these drivers are racing on the speed limit here is what 25 30 miles per hour on a normal day what are we expecting from a gt4 car under race conditions oh they're probably about 130 135 down this back stretch here the key with the gt4 cars is their cornering ability just to have a nice amount of downforce but not so sensitive that you can't follow the cars closely one behind the other and take away the arrow so great racing class just behind gotta look at the premier racing car uh changing position we'll get to that story if we can in a moment but a change here derek de moore just dropped from second down to third in gt4 chris gumprecht in this mercedes from rimtech looking very strong great run and this is how we got it done down at the turn one derek just over commits there it looks like just getting in super deep washes out wide he's in the gray compress just as we saw earlier in the race with smith and massive grip there on the inside of that corner just takes the position away so now for deborah he's got to try and hang on with that podium run he's got yoretsky that he saw yesterday almost a cut and pace of paste of that bright yellow super in his mirrors again yes this is the old yogi berra quote right deja vu all over again it's happening here on the streets of saint petersburg under 10 minutes to go and doretsky seeking yet another podium to get his season started the driver from yekaterinburg in russia the supra has been super successful since it debuted a couple of years ago on north american soil they've now sold in excess of 20 of these cars in the us great support big transporter here in the paddock giving the customers the support they need on a race weekend steve hallam is leading the charge x mclaren formula one engineer really top-notch people accelerating performances the team saw them doing some tc stuff in the past this super has proven to be really a popular platform since its debut which really wasn't all that long ago i saw derek devore there trying to go back on the attack they're trying to wrestle that second position away from gunprecht [Music] at the times and smithson has really rebounded he just put in his best lap of the weekend a one eight and that was oh he's got breaked in trouble the boar's trying to take advantage chris just got in super deep there down into the brake zone for turn ten stalled the car not literally but gone through the corner didn't carry the speed there and derrick was about to pounce on him but he's got to be careful here he doesn't obama at the door for uretsky and he does boys he needed no second invitation diving to the inside but now has to go defensive because derek anxious to get that position back this is great news for gunpricks but here we go third and fourth up for grabs in gt4 what a move from devorah around the outside can you get it slowed down just keeps it off the wall they just really threw in their total commitment from derrick for i love it fast life tv will love that moment but nonetheless couldn't quite grab the position back now gray newell now attacking plus the overall leader coming through this is not what george kurtz wants to see here's newell up the inside of devore they make contact at the apex both able to continue on can you clear him no right in front of the leader and the radiator punctured on derrick deboer's car that's a lot of liquid on the racetrack right in front of the leader and davor hard into defense that's a shame that's going to bring out full course yellow and not a lot of time left on the board so anxious moment there for our overlord leader and gt3 leader george kurtz there just sat back patiently and waited for it to develop i hope the rest of the front runners saw that picture as well they can tell their drivers be aware there will be a lot of liquid on the racetrack there's a lot of water pouring out of that porsche there'll be a skating rink over in that sector of the racetrack for sure now it shows green flag george kurtz out in front under five minutes to go what has been a largely clean race what did you make of there we see the double yellows at the starter stand here's the replay what do you think cal well i think at a certain point you need to give up that you're kind of in no man's land that land there down to the inside for gray he didn't go right to the curb but just didn't not enough room for both cars to co-exist there and then you could see with the punches radiator front tires uh underneath the water there as he's turning through the corner and derek just punches the wall that's tough to see derek has had a few big impacts over the last couple of seasons going back to last year in nashville another huge one at watkins glen this one not quite to that level that's the old car they got a brand new car on its way from germany to start their sprint next championship season he and jason alexandris will be uh co-driving with the trg entry but coming off that nice podium run here yesterday for derek deboer sad to see that car in the fence hard really that all started for him a few laps before when he got caught in the wars and lost a spot he tried to go around the outside at 13-14 that let youretsky come through and all of that just put him on the back foot yeah he made that monster move down in turn one got wide and that suddenly allowed granule to have the run he tried to get defensive there hang on to it through that little tight sector but as i say it's so tight through there you've got to kind of give it up at some point i think derrick was just a little bit too aggressive there let's look at the running order as it stands three and a half minutes to go i think they might be hard pressed to restart this one so the podiums as they run george kurtz scott smithson justin wetherill great job for him to perhaps score his first career podium in only his second race and dropping down to gt4 what a celebration it would be tonight in tampa if this were to hold and jason bell i was going home maybe i'll hang around if he holds on for that win chris gumprecht really impressive we saw him make the move on deboer but he didn't see much of his race before then great job keeping the nose clean and showing some good pace yeah that's going to give him a lot of confidence for the rest of the season great to get that solid result in i think we're going to finish here behind the safety car unfortunately so he should hold on to that podium run yuretsky two really solid runs here fourth yesterday should be a podium today so nice debut for him with that toyota supra making the move from mazda mx5 cup this would be a career best finish in this championship at least for gunprick he had a third last year in watkins glenn the second race there he ran a partial schedule starting in road america and this this is probably the man you want to be friends with here tonight he's got a bunch of friends here in town this is where he's from he knows the place to go out and have the party and almost better it comes on day two of the weekend because you don't have a race tomorrow to worry about celebrate a little bit harder on day two that is for sure the good times roll and how about george kurtz not a great day yesterday had some just niggling issues throughout the weekend but put it on pole and then comprehensive facebook might have been yesterday if we reflect back to even qualifying they had a transponder issue and they were parked late and qualified didn't allow them to really lay down more than one hot lap spoke to bill riley this morning said i'm not sure we could have had paul we could have started further up front but nice rebound faster slap yesterday gets the pull today got the start chaos behind him once again and just uh stroked it really saw the graphic a moment ago justin weather or crowdstrike fastest lap of the race what a quick study he's proven to be curious to see what he and ryan deal who he's been working with in a coaching role in ferrari challenge now they get to drive together for the first time it could be a really potent pairing yeah some exciting combinations to look forward to when we get to sonoma next month so um curious to see how these ams can fare and which is going to be even more heat in the battle with the gt will challenge america championship well it's been a good way to wet the appetite that's for sure and sets the table nicely for the rest of the season and we see the white and yellow flags displayed simultaneously so barring something catastrophic and unforeseen on this final lap behind the safety car we know our podiums now let's give a call too to the porsche of the new porsche rob holland winds up in eighth overall the best of the call it pseudo gt4 cars because again that porsche has not been fully homologated that's why it's running as an invitational car got taken out on lap one yesterday this is a new new car for the team they ran the mustang last year and had some success third in the championship but rob did a great job to get up to eighth overall today and was not headed by any of the gt4 cars as we would have expected that that car showed great pace all weekend yeah looking at his fast lap 118 one compared to uh bell's foul slap at 119.6 for example so about a second and a half quicker than gt4 he's pretty much unrestricted they really haven't emulligated or done any uh balance of performance to that car right now but it's a solid piece it's already had success on north american soil so expect that car to be a factor in all of our gt4 championships this year and that homologation process will be done by the time we get to sonoma so for the teams that intend to campaign that is the new cayman you're looking at right there rotec racing rob holland driving uh for those teams that plan to campaign the new porsche machinery that was a little close um the points battle begins in earnest at sonoma and we touched on this yesterday but it was added to the regulations in response to this that teams were allowed to drop two races effectively one thing i'm not clear on is whether that means you can pick and choose races across multiple weekends or you have to pick a specific weekend that you can drop those results for as far as points are concerned but that way the cars that were running as invitational class cars this weekend are not disadvantaged here we go not the way we hoped it would end but it was a deserving victory no doubt about it george kurtz his third win in gt america powered by aws competition and his first in the riley motorsports stable here in sro america he wins overall and in the gt3 class gt4 to the hometown guy graduated from the university of south florida in tampa grew up in tampa lives in this area as well how about it congratulations jason bell a long-awaited a win here on home soil yeah nice job jason as we said he'll uh celebrate tonight but looking forward to another really solid season andrew davis doing the coaching and co-driving in spring x competition great things ahead for that pair of drivers looking forward to hearing from our winners with amanda when they make their way around sonoma a much different challenge than here in saint pete you've got the rolling hills natural terrain road course but one that presents almost as many challenges if not more than what you see here on the street course especially given that surface yeah it takes big commitment low grip lots of elevation change it should be a monster weekend of racing there with all the classes that we have in our championship season uh starting there so looking forward to it's always a brilliant place to go but totally different venue natural road course we replace the white walls with green grass so should be fun george kurtz your winner scott smithson two impressive drives to get his season started he comes up as the runner-up justin weather will round out the gt3 podium seagut gondor david askew jeff burton make up positions four five and sixth and cj moses in the lone gt2 entry rob holland in that invitational porsche cayman raced his way up to eighth jason bell the winner in gt4 with chris gumprick and moisie yaretzky rounding out the podium marco radisson the winner yesterday he finishes fourth in race two of the weekend today gray newell rosh west and paul sparta round out the rest of the top 15 overall the second page those a bit less fortunate adam adelson really just lucky to be here today a big hit yesterday that car was damaged big effort to get them on the grid he comes from 16th overall sean whalen mcshanny custodio toledo and rick euler the latter three making their first pro racing starts this weekend they have some experience now to draw from moving forward derek deboer unfortunately involved in that incident late credited with 21st harwood putt and others down towards the end that were somewhat less fortunate here today but no misfortune for this man who led from green flag to checkered flag with the yellow throne in the mix as well george kurtz for the third time a winner in gt america powered by aws yeah superb run just as we thought well maybe someone can go catch him he just stretched the lead even for even further no mistakes managed the traffic perfectly big day for george and he had a bit of a setback last year i think it's worth noting and missed some races dealing with some various things as well as business commitments but he looks loaded for bear this year he does had that a big hit at road america broke his uh forearm i believe it was so uh came back at the end of the year got back behind the wheel and uh he's ready to go to go again had a busy start to the year running the 24 hours of daytona in an lmp3 car we'll be doing more of those throughout the season but this is the main program and he's in victory lane in race number two and gets to chat with amanda well george you picked up the crowd strike fastest lap yesterday get the pole position that is where you would stay for the whole race the guys were just saying that you look loaded and ready to go this season why are you the car to it's beat good question um i think we put the effort in we've got a new team we're really excited about uh done a lot of uh racing already this year and dubai and other places in daytona so um we're excited to come back with a strong car and a great team we know it's a mix class racing here in st pete you were right behind that gt4 battle with derek deboer and gray newell what was your vantage point of it i saw it all and i it didn't look like it was going to end well so i backed off a little bit and uh you know and when they hit i saw a fuel come out and i was just worried about you know spinning off the racetrack so we were fortunate that there was no incident there at the end given that it was such a strong performance and um you know just so excited for the team george kurtz in his third gt america win congratulations that was interesting to get his perspective he had the best view of that incident not the view he wanted though no you could tell it was going to get rough there and there's nowhere to go you just kind of ricochet off these concrete walls here he was lucky to escape that moment but also good forethought right to see what was setting up and maybe the driver who hadn't been at this as long as george has wouldn't have recognized the danger well he put the work into he had such a monster lead that takes the pressure off you got someone right on your tail if you haven't put in that strong performance to begin with suddenly it changes the whole perspective but nice solid run for him and as we've talked about jason bell winning on home soil can't wait for this interview amanda actually we'll skip that one for the moment and we'll check in with cj moses who was the gt2 winner oh well you can see that the celebration has started for jason bell that's why we're cj moses first and cj you are the lone g22 car on the field but it wasn't without problems that you guys headed into the weekend how proud of you of your team to bounce back couldn't be more proud we started off the uh the week with the steering wheel went bad and on these cars that controls half the car so we when i up shift it downshifted and did the opposite on the other so we we went through a lot had a steering wheel flown all the way from texas overnight to us got it on the car so i started off behind the uh behind the eight ball a bit there but uh made it up and uh really proud with what the team provided cars was excellent gmg did a great job and i'm just looking forward to the next race because uh we got a lot more enter a lot more in the driver nice work thank you really cool car great to see the gt2 car on the grid i hope we see more as the season goes along it's a neat platform just waiting for it to catch on they're spectacular machines monster horsepower and they're designed to not have a ton of downforce so it's a real handful around these streets uh here at st petersburg i think we'll embrace that car even more when we get to some uh tracks which have a bit more open space to work with this would be a tough place to run a car in that configuration so let's check back in with amanda down in the pit lane and he has already confirmed that tampa is going to be on fire tonight but after a fifth place finish yesterday you bounce back here today get the win here on holm soy you just said that it was difficult driving this car is this one of your proudest wins so far i say yes um especially the starts are just crazy i thought for sure i was going to get through and then someone tapped me from behind and then just kind of like uh what happened yesterday it kind of got shoved forward somehow luckily i was able to continue got through it and the car was tough to drive and then i just had to change the way i drove so yeah i want to thank meat market and paddock juan garages and my team gmg andrew davis my wife danielle for everybody for support i think i got 110 people here right now so that was difficult but it's worth it i love it congratulations thank you just like your twitter account he gained some followers overnight he had 100 yesterday how about that good for jason congratulations and again a driver that really came on strong last year to to win that championship looked like he was out of the mix and then went on a tear here is the way this race played out some highlights this was the initial start and it got interesting early down to the inside there you see the white lamborghini huracan as he gets a little tap from cj obviously the callaway goes for a spin dasglas car is damaged unfortunately our winner from yesterday disappointing into the day for him there is moses making it through after some of that contact early george kurtz built that lead in the early stages never really had to look back did he no he didn't but there were some great battles throughout the field here's some gt4 moves i think there's corman there taking to the escape route that's the problem once you get in the gray there don't have the grip to work with rob holland and the beautiful new porsche cayman working his way from the back to the front did a nice job in the invitational cat class justin weatherill with the fastest lap of the race carving his way through after getting shuffled back in that early focus here we see some moves multi-class racing trying to work together this is the boar being passed there by a couple of the gt3 cars and this is a big moment in this race big battle there for fourth position at the time you can see the damage to the front end of divorce car he's got water from the radiators no turning ability crunches the wall and we end up under a full course yellow and all right through the windshield of the overall leader george kurtz but he survived flashes the light swings back and forth and lets everyone know that yes indeed he is number one here today on the streets of saint petersburg great way to start the season calvin sonoma up next can't wait it'll be fun can't wait to get to california so that is up next on the schedule thanks for joining us here on the streets of saint petersburg full slate of sro america competition when we head to your head your way next and again in sonoma in just about a month's time so long from saint pete [Music] you

Channel: GTWorld

Views: 71,753

Keywords: BlancpainGT, Blancpain, GT, GT3, Endurance, Sprint, Series, Cup, Motorsports, watch, FIA, driver, sportscar, racecar, car, events, Spa, 24h, team, europe, pro-am, pro, racetrack, GT racing, RACE 2, ST PETE'S, GT AMERICA 2022, Streets of St. Petersburg, AWS championship, GT World Race 2, GT World St Pete's, Grand Prix, Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, GT sprint series, GT World Florida, St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg GT, GT world live, Live racing

Id: QeJvDZLWwoI

Length: 71min 30sec (4290 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 26 2022