NASHVILLE – After a late-race error cost him the win in Saturday’s race, Bret Curtis captured a flag-to-flag overall GT America victory during the inaugural Music City Grand Prix on the streets of Nashville.
The Ferrari driver dominated both races in his series debut this season on the streets of Nashville, but only came away with one race win.Â
Rearden Racing’s Jeff Burton swept the SRO3 Masters class with another class win, while Chris Cagnazzi took the top spot in the competitive GT4 category.
At the start Curtis registered a good start and jumped out in front of the field. Just behind, the field fanned out four wide as drivers battled for positions into the first turn. Rearden Racing’s Burton bumped around with Jason Daskalos through the turn, sending points leader Charlie Luck and Saturday’s winner James Sofronas through the run-off. Luck and Sofronas both recovered successfully but lost multiple positions in the process.
A short time later, Elias Sabo lost control of his Audi and crashed into the wall at the bottom of the bridge near turn nine, bringing out the caution flag. Within that elapsed time, several drivers fought and improved their positions, most significantly George Kurtz who moved up five positions overall and slotted just outside the top three in his class.
When the green flag waved again, the fields recommenced battling with Daskalos accosting Curtis at the front of the GT America field and Thomas Surgent in a back-and-forth with Alex Welch for the chance to chase down and overtake GT4 leader Cagnazzi.
Luck and Sofronas continued their respective attempts to claw back to the front of the pack while Kyle Washington and Jason Harward battled it out for better class positioning. An overzealous Washington went wide into turn nine and allowed Sofronas to pass, removing the GMG Racing driver from his battle with Luck, who ended up right against Washington’s rear bumper.
Sofronas continued his climb to the front of the pack but was halted when another caution flag was called with for just less than 10 minutes left as Surgent made contact with the wall and ended up disabled in the middle of the course. With extensive wall damage, the race ended under caution.
Following Cagnazzi in GT4, Alex Welch made it two-for-two on the podium this weekend after capturing second place for the ROTR Audi R8 LMS GT4. Rotek Racing’s Ford Mustang GT4 of Robb Holland raced his way back to the podium with another third-place result.
With Burton sweeping the Masters category, he was followed closely by Wright Motorsport’s Luck in his Porsche 911 GT3 R. DXDT Racing’s David Askew brought his Mercedes-AMG GT3 home in third.