Robert Todd (BRracing) Wins Season-Opening
Pirelli GT3 Cup Trophy USA
at Circuit of the Americas
Kevin Woods scores Silver Class (Cayman GT4)(BRracing) Victory
Austin, Texas (12 March 2016) – The 2016 Pirelli GT3 Cup Trophy USA launched its 2016 season with a 45-minute thriller that came down to the final laps at the famous Formula-1 grade Circuit of the Americas on Saturday. The race featured three classes (Platinum, Diamond, Silver) of competition as series organizers Competent Motorsport opened the 10th Anniversary season for the all-Porsche championship. BR Racing’s Robb Todd emerged from a race-long battle with teammate Jesse Menczer (BRracing) to score the first Diamond Class and overall victory of the year, and the team (BRracing Motorsports) scoring an awesome 1st & 2nd place finish together, with pole-sitter Allessandro Chiocchetti coming home in third after a race that ran under green flag conditions from start to finish. The 29 car combined-class field got through the trademark elevated Turn 1 nearly unscathed, as a pair of cars were forced off track in the concertina effect at the start. The race continued unabated, with the Diamond class leaders setting the pace. Robb Todd took the lead early on, with teammate Menczer moving to the point on Lap 4 and enjoying a strong run at the front. But managing his time, tires and traffic, Robb Todd was able to return to the lead on Lap 16 and hold the advantage all the way to the checkered flag for a season opening victory.
“Conservation and tires were the key to this race,” said Robb Todd. “During the middle of the race it definitely became a four way battle. I hung back in fourth and just saved tires. The two cars that were in between Jesse (Menczer, teammate and race leader) and I, ended up making mistakes. I just held behind Jesse and pushed him a little bit to see that he used his car and tires and then when the time came I saw the opportunity to take over the lead and I took it.”
The season-opening Circuit of the Americas race marked the debut of the Silver class, which featured 14 of the highly sought after Porsche Cayman GT4 ClubSport machines. After coping well with relentless pressure for the lead, Kevin Woods delivered an inch-perfect performance in his BR Racing No. 94 Santa Cruz-liveried machine to mark his name as the first ever winner in the new Silver / Cayman GT4 class.
“I got a really good start and I got through traffic really well,” said Woods of his flag-to-flag victory. “I thought ‘I’ll look back and he’d (second place car of Keith Jensen) be way back there,’ but he was right behind me! And then we caught traffic again and he lost a lot of time. I had a nice gap and I think that kind of messed with my head a little bit. I was driving a little bit below of where I should have been driving. When he started closing up, I overdrove a little bit, and then once he closed up really close, I just hit my marks and we just kind of followed each other for the rest of the race. I don’t know what happened there toward the end but he fell back a little bit and I just cruised to the finish.”
That’s a good of a start to a racing season as a team could ever hope for. Team mates worked together to take a 1-2 finish at the front, and Kevin taking a P1 in the Cayman GT4 class, also setting the fastest lap of the race.
AMAZING results. Looking forward to more fun times ahead.
BRracing Motorsports – playing to WIN
Leave A Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.