Rothberg Claims Sixth Win of Season on Sunday at Barber

Photo: Brian Cleary/SRO

Justin Rothberg inched closer to clinching the GT America powered by AWS championship with his sixth victory of the season in Sunday’s round at Barber Motorsports Park.

The Turner Motorsport driver led the 40-minute race from flag-to-flag, taking his No. 29 BMW M4 GT3 EVO to a 9.182-second win over the No. 56 SKI Autosports Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Memo Gidley.

Early race trouble for title rival Kyle Washington, who was forced to the pit lane to clear grass from the radiator of his No. 32 GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R, initially dropped him back to seventh.

Washington, however, ended up finishing fifth after the No. 004 HP-TECH Motorsport Ferrari 296 GT3 of Tony Davis got into Ross Chouest’s No. 50 Chouest Povoledo Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R while battling for third on Lap 5.

While Davis was served a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility, followed up by a stop-and-go penalty for a pit speed violation, both cars sustained damage.

Chouest, meanwhile, retired from the race after a fire developed from the rear of his Corvette’s splitter, which was damaged from contact.

The early race incident promoted the No. 19 RS1 Porsche of Joel Cortes to a career-best third place finish, ahead of Farhan Siddiqi, who suffered an early race spin to come home fourth in the No. 20 FASTMD Racing by Remstar Audi.

Davis returned to action to finish sixth.

The No. 2 Racers Edge Motorsports Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Jason Bell did not take the start due to an unknown issue.

RESULTS: Race 2

Source: Sports Car 365