Ellis, Burton Take Come-from-Behind Win in Race 2 at COTA

Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO

Philip Ellis and Jeff Burton claimed a come-from-behind overall victory in the second GT World Challenge America powered by AWS race of the weekend at Circuit of The Americas.

Ellis took his No. 91 Regulator Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo to a 1.948-second win over the Pro class-winning No. 34 JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG of Michai Stephens.

It came after the Regulator team appeared to have miscalculated Ellis’ maximum drive time by one lap, which would have resulted in a costly penalty, although it was resolved later in the running.

Ellis got around Stephens for the overall lead in the final 15 minutes of the 90-minute contest and then cruised to the outright win.

The Pro-Am race was turned upside down when the No. 50 Chouest Povoledo Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Aaron Povoledo stopped on track with a left-front mechanical issue, resulting in the race’s only full course caution.

It came amid the middle of the pit stop sequence, which Ellis capitalized on, despite having had to drive through the pit lane to deduct his drive time due to the earlier error by the team.

The No. 29 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Robby Foley had been leading overall at the time of the yellow, but had a slow pit stop due to an air gun issue while under the yellow.

Alex Sedgwick and Jan Heylen finished third overall and second in Pro in their No. 18 RS1 Porsche 911 GT3 R, which also capitalized on the yellow.

CRP Racing’s Mercedes-AMG, which stopped on track with a fuel pump issue in the early stages with Isaac Sherman, ended up second in Pro-Am with Jason Daskalos holding off Race 1 class winner Blake McDonald, who completed the class podium in third in his No. 11 DXDT Racing Corvette.

The No. 32 GMG Racing Porsche of Kyle Washington finished fourth in class after a starring drive by Tom Sargent prior to the race-defining yellow, while Foley’s co-driver Justin Rothberg rebounded to finish fifth in class.

Pro class championship leaders Random Vandals Racing has a race to forget, with Connor De Phillippi colliding with teammate Varun Choksey early on while attempting to move up after starting from the rear of the field due to a technical violation in qualifying.

De Phillippi, who won on Saturday with Kenton Koch, was handed a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility, although the car spent time behind the wall undergoing suspension repairs.

The No. 51 Random Vandals BMW finished third in class and 15th overall, behind Koch, who ended up retiring from the race after making it past the points-paying 50 percent mark of the race.

It joined the Chouest Povoledo Corvette was the race’s only retirements, although the No. 8 Flying Lizard Motorsports BMW did not start Sunday’s race due to a business commitment for Elias Sabo.

Am class honors in the race went to the No. 6 Dollahite Racing Ford Mustang GT3 of Scott Dollahite and and Anthony Lazzaro, who gave the car its first class win in SRO global competition.

It came despite two drive-through penalties for the car, for a start procedure violation followed by speeding in the pit lane.

RESULTS: Race 2