Washington Takes Controlling Saturday Win at COTA

Photo: Brian Cleary/SRO

Kyle Washington claimed a controlling victory in the opening GT America powered by AWS race of the weekend at Circuit of The Americas.

The GMG Racing driver, who started on pole, took his No. 32 Porsche 911 GT3 R to a 3.545-second win over the No. 29 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 Evo of Justin Rothberg in Saturday’s 40-minute contest.

It marked Washington’s second victory of the season and saw him close the gap to SRO3 class points leader Rothberg, who swept the weekend last time out at Long Beach.

Runner-up finisher Rothberg carved his way through the field, having taken second place from Memo Gidley’s No. 56 SKI Autosports Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II on Lap 6.

He also inherited a position after an early race penalty for a competitor.

Elias Sabo, who took the green flag in second alongside Washington, dropped down the running order after being assessed a drive-through penalty for a start procedure infraction. Sabo ended up finishing seventh.

2023 series champion Gidley, in his series return, completed the podium in third, ahead of Ross Chouest and Marc Muzzo for Chouest Povoledo Racing and R. Ferri Motorsport, respectively.

It came despite an intense challenge from Chouest on Gidley for the final podium position in the closing laps.

Anthony McIntosh made a last-lap move on Max Hewitt for the win in the GT4 class in his No. 69 JTR Motorsports Engineering Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2.

McIntosh claimed the hard-fought race by a mere 0.135 seconds at the line over the Van der Steur Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4 EVO.

The No. 188 Fast Track Racing BMW M4 GT4 EVO of Denny Stripling completed the class podium in third.

Race 2 gets underway Sunday at 10:05 a.m. CST with live coverage on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel and on Twitch.

RESULTS: Race 1