Weekend done the Wright way: For second consecutive day, Skeer and Adelson dominate to sweep Fanatec GT Challenge America races at Sonoma
By Kyle Foster, photo courtesy of Eric Thompson (Shamboozled.com)
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Sonoma-It appears track position is of the most importance these days. It’s been deciding a lot of races.
During Sunday’s Fanatec GT World Challenge second race of the season, it was how the race was decided as the Wright Motorsports team ended the weekend with another victory at Sonoma Raceway.
The team of Elliott Skeer and Adam Adelson led wire to wire on the way to winning by a whopping 13-second margin of victory.
One of the main factors that led to this was the fact that they started from the pole after winning on Saturday.
“GT3 cars at Sonoma track position is everything,” Skeer explained of the pole’s importance. “So, you know, 90% of the work is really done in qualifying around here. So yeah, amazing qualifying. The team gave me the car I needed and ultimately then I just managed, what I can do (is) try to get a good start and give him the car in a good spot.”
This meant they were able to be in command of the race and dictate when other teams had to do a halfway-driver swap in this 90-minute race. In the first half of the race, Skeer was able to get this key margin.
“The tracks obviously night and day to previous years with a repave,” Skeer added. “And it held up surprisingly well today. But with the speed makes it harder to pass. So definitely get the lead at the start settling and just give him a clean car was the name of the game today.”
When Addelson took over his goal was just to keep the lead and extend it if at all possible, which he did.
“The same way I made Elliott’s life easy yesterday, he made my life easy today,” Adelson pointed out of the good work done by his teammate. “I had (a) clear track ahead of me. Clear track behind me for the most part, with the exception of Philip Ellis. And, you know, I just put my head down and turn the best, most continuous system fastest laps I could.”
With the win, they once again gained 25 points to have the points lead at the end of the first weekend.
“Traditionally, Sonoma is a track that Porsches are good at,” Adelson explained of winning the first two races. “So whenever we have a situation like that, it’s always important to capitalize. Because we know that the characteristics of the other cars at other tracks, they might be able to get us there. So when we know we’re strong, we have to capitalize.”
Finishing second in the race was the Crowdstrike by Riley Racing team who also won the Pro-Am class for the second consecutive day. They were able to do so after getting a pit stop penalty which cost them five seconds and brought the rest of the Pro-Am class back to them.
This came when George Kurtz got in the car and he was able to fend off the rest of the field that was coming for him.
“I just really wanted to focus and click off the laps,” Kurtz said of overcoming the penalty. “I had a little bit left in the tank and gave it everything I had with quality laps down to the end and we built a gap. But I knew I had to win by more than five seconds and the guys gave us a great car and it was really good at the end.”
The Fanatec GT World Challenge America will be back in action in Sebring May 3-5.
Wagner and Workman lead Copeland Motorsports to top 2 sweeps in consecutive days in GR CUP
For the second day in a row, the Toyota GR Cup had the same two drivers pacing the field and bringing it home in the top 2 positions.
Getting the win was Gresham Wagner. The one thing that was different about the win was he didn’t dominate from start to finish as he had on Saturday. That being said, sweeping the first two races is something that gets the season rolling in a good way.
“I mean, it’s it’s pretty much as good as you can do you know with a year under your belt coming into the first round of the next year,” Wagner said of his weekend sweep. “ You got to use that experience while you can over guys like Westin (Workman) who are just gonna get quicker and quicker as the year goes on. So happy to get this done.”
In this 45-minute race, Wagner was able to get around his teammate Westin Workman with about a minute and a half left at the bus stop in turn 7. From there, he hit his marks and rolled to the second victory as the white flag came out two laps later.
“I hoped he slipped up a little bit,” Wagner explained of the winning move. “ It’s so hard to get around anyone to this track after driving well, so it really takes a little bit of a slip-up or mistake to open the door and then you have to take that opportunity when it presents itself.”
Wagner also had the fastest lap of each race during the weekend as well.
Workman was second for the second day in a row to begin the season. He was the pole sitter for the race and led up until the end.
“I feel really good about it,” Workman said of his consecutive runner-up finishes to begin the season. “I’m very confident in the team, Gresham Wagner, he was P1, my teammate. I don’t think I would have been P2 if he wasn’t on the team. We were learning from each other.”
He said he overslid the corner in turn 3 and Wagner got a run in turn 4 before making the pass in 7.
“I mean the one mistake I made was the reason I lost the race,” Workman explained. “It was just super unfortunate that I slid come down to turn three and then he got to run going out into turn four so just outsmarted me took advantage of my mistake and overall won the race.”
Other notables in the race were Jade Avedisian who finished 24th after an incident in her second-ever pavement race. Mia Lovell swept the weekend as the highest-finishing female as well.
The Toyota GR Cup will be back in action in Sebring May 3-5.
