Gidley Overcomes Penalty To Win Sebring Race 1

Photo: Brian Cleary/SRO

Memo Gidley delivered SKI Autosports its first win of the GT America powered by AWS season at Sebring International Raceway, surviving a post-race time penalty and overcoming pressure from Justin Rothberg behind.

Rothberg led an eight-car field to the green flag in his Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO, from Gidley after Blake McDonald withdrew from the race, despite setting the fastest lap in this morning’s qualifying.

Gidley wasted no time moving his way into the SRO3 class and overall lead, passing Rothberg into the opening sequence of corners on Lap 1. His lead came under fire, though, when a five-second post-race time penalty was issued for violating pre-race procedures.

The SKI Autosports driver opened up a gap in response in his Audi, with Gidley and Rothberg trading fastest sector times in a multi-lap battle on the timing screens.

In the closing stages, Gidley secured his position at the head of the field with a five-plus second gap, and Rotherberg dropping back into the clutches of Kyle Washington behind.

At the checkered flag, Gidley solidified the win with just 0.364 seconds to spare once his penalty time was applied. The Turner BMW was classified second, with Washington’s GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R filling out the overall podium.

Mirco Schultis led a tight battle for third with Washington and Ross Chouest running nose-to-tail before the German suddenly lost pace, losing two positions and dropping to the rear of the class.

Schultis would finish the race fourth on the road in his Mishumotors Callaway Corvette C7 GT3-R after a late spin for Chouest, who crossed the finish line in fifth.

In GT4, Michael Fitzpatrick overtook the class pole-sitting Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2 of Anthony McIntosh on the opening lap, but then fell under pressure from the JTR Motorsports Engineering driver, who retook the lead after the first ten minutes.

The series debutant hung onto he back of McIntosh, taking the checkered flag just over two seconds off the class lead in second.

The No. 20 FAST MD Racing with Remstar Audi R8 LMS GT4 was set to finish third amongst the GT4 cars in their invitational entry, but Farhan Siddiqi pulled the car into pit lane in the final laps.

Race 2 of the GT America weekend is set for Sunday at 9:05 a.m. with live coverage available on SRO’s GT World YouTube and Twitch channels.

RESULTS: Race 1