GTWCA: Koch/De Phillippi win Race 2 as Ellis, Burton win Pro Am

The weekend ended on a high note as the 19 GT World Challenge powered by AWS teams took to the hills of Sonoma Raceway one last time. There was action across the board, as the outcome of the race was only decided in the last couple of laps, keeping everyone on the edge of their seats.

Kenton Koch made a very late move for the overall lead, giving Random Vandals Racing owner Paul Sparta his first GT3 win. In the Pro-Am class, Regulator Racing was back on their trusted alternative strategy, having Jeff Burton start Race 2, and Philip Ellis finish it. This approach proved to be successful in the past, as was the case again as the Mercedes-AMG GT3 crossed the line first in class.

Pro class

The Pro class entries were scattered throughout the overall field as Race 2 got underway, but it was Connor De Phillippi who was running first in class with the No. 99 Random Vandals Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO. He had a buffer of a few Pro-Am competitors separating him from RS1’s Jan Heylen and JMF Motorsports’ Mik Grenier in their respective No. 18 Porsche 992 GT3 R and No. 34 Mercedes-AMG GT3, who were battling for second in class.

However, the fight for positions came to a head in pit lane as the competitors came in to complete their stops and driver changes. A slow handover for Random Vandals Racing saw Kenton Koch drop a position in class behind Alex Sedgwick, who was at the helm of the RS1 Porsche for the second half of the race.

A full course caution emerged with just under thirty minutes left due to a stricken Ferrari in the tire barrier at Turn 11, and Koch was now right on the rear bumper of the RS1 Porsche, but Sedgwick managed the restart with grace, pulling a slight gap as he led the field up through the first corners.

The fight wasn’t over though, and as the laps continued to elapse, Koch kept finding more and more pace. He was temporarily distracted from the battle for first and had to go on the defense as Michai Stephens started to close in on board the Mercedes, applying pressure from third.

With less than two minutes to go, Koch had gone back on the attack and found the right time to strike, diving down the inside to complete a daring overtake to shift into the overall lead of the race. Just one lap later, he went on to claim the first-ever GT3 win for the team.

“ It was kind of tricky there in the final corner with some of the water drying up, and I think he (Sedgwick) got just a little wide off the corner,” explained Koch. “I had just a mega run, and we were stronger on straightaways. He was stronger than in the corners, and the one time he made a mistake in a corner, I was finally able to capitalize on our strength. I knew I was strong up the hill in corner 1, so I just stuffed my nose in there. He gave me the space, and I gave him the space on the inside. We touched a little bit, but it was good. I actually really enjoyed racing with Alex. Hopefully there’s more of this to come!”

“It’s been a monumental weekend for the entire team,” said De Phillippi. “There’s been a lot of hoops to jump through. We’ve all learned a lot this weekend, so to start the year off already at the peak is great, now we’re going to have to keep climbing.”

Pro-Am class

Colin Braun started from the overall pole position with his No. 04 CrowdStrike by Riley Mercedes-AMG GT3 and quickly established a healthy gap over the rest of the field, although Aaron Telitz tried to keep close in the No. 88 Archangel Motorsports McLaren 720S GT3 EVO.

The two frontrunners cruised ahead for the majority of the first half, but lapped traffic made things tricky as they navigated through the other cars, with Telitz being held up briefly.

Jeff Burton held strong in the No. 91 Regulator Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 as the team once again opted for the alternative strategy. With 50 minutes remaining, he was the first of the pack who came down pit lane, handing his machine over to Philip Ellis, who then set his sights on moving to the front.

Approximately 10 minutes later, it was Braun’s turn to pass over the No. 04 car to George Kurtz, who retained P1 overall as he took his place behind the wheel. Meanwhile, a close turnaround in pit lane saw the No. 29 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Justin Rothberg get the jump on Archangel Motorsports’ Todd Coleman, moving up into second ahead of the McLaren.

The full course caution brought the whole field back together, much to the delight of Ellis, who began to pick his way through the pack as soon as the green flag waved again with twenty minutes left on the clock. It didn’t take long before he was challenging for the lead, and eventually went on to complete the pass on Kurtz for first position in Pro-Am. He soared ahead to the checkered flag, with Kurtz retaining second place. It was a drag race to the line for the final podium position, but Rothberg fended off the mounting attack to claim P3.

“It was very difficult on the track for some reason today,” related Ellis. “I guess it was the rain that washed away some of the racing grip from yesterday, so there were a lot of unexpected factors. Today I had the cold tires, so I had a bit of a warming up phase in the initial first laps. We hit the traffic just right as well, then obviously the caution helped out a lot.”

Burton, who celebrated his third career win, said: “This guy (Ellis), he’s amazing! It’s been a lot of fun. It’s amazing what he does, but it’s everybody putting it all together and it was really exceptional today. It was really enjoyable for me today to do that.”

The GT World Challenge America powered by AWS field will return for the third and fourth rounds of the season at Circuit of The Americas from April 25-27.