Washington Wins Rain-Soaked, Incident-Filled Race 2

Photo: Brian Cleary/SRO

Kyle Washington was declared the winner in Sunday’s rain-soaked and incident-filled second GT America powered by AWS race of the weekend at Sonoma Raceway that ended early due to barrier repairs from an accident.

The GMG Racing driver survived the treacherous conditions that saw numerous spins and accidents over the 40-minute scheduled race, which largely ran behind the safety car.

Washington, who started second on the grid, took his No. 32 Porsche 911 GT3 R into the lead on the first green flag lap when pole-sitter George Kurtz spun his No. 04 CrowdStrike by Riley Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo in Turn 8.

It was followed by spins by Elias Sabo and Ross Chouest at the start/finish line that resulted in the first yellow due to Chouest’s stalled No. 50 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.

Kurtz also crashed for a second time, ending his race early.

A restart at the halfway mark quickly turned to another yellow when the No. 7 ACI Motorsports Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport of Curt Swearingin got into the No. 188 Fast Track Racing BMW M4 GT4 of Denny Stripling, sending both cars into the barriers.

The race did not return to green flag running, with the checkered flag coming out six minutes early amid increasingly challenging track conditions as well as needed barrier repairs.

It marked Washington’s first career GT America victory.

The No. 29 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Justin Rothberg finished second, ahead of Mirco Schultis, who scored his second podium finish of the weekend in his Callaway C7 GT3-R.

Max Hewitt took top class honors in GT4 in his No. 39 Van der Steur Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4 Evo, ahead of class pole-sitter Anthony McIntosh.

Both drivers were mixing it up within the SRO3 class cars in the limited time of green flag running.

Eight of the 13 starters were classified at the finish.

RESUTS: Race 2