Lukas Santos and Phillip Forrester in the #5 Mercedes AMG GT3 of Screeching Moose Motorsports earned their first victory of the season in Saturday’s The Roar Before The 24, earning Pole Position in the process for the season opening 24 Hours of Daytona next Saturday.
Leading eleven laps in the race, the Canadian team out of Maple Ridge, British Columbia edged out Firestorm Motorsport’s No. 29 Mercedes with John Jones and Sean Hatfield by nearly twelve seconds, to go to the winner’s circle.
The No. 93 Digital Chicane Ferrari 296 GT3 with Ryan Koprowski and Chris Scarr finished third, completing the first GT AM podium in VSCA history, as the all-new class made its debut in the VSCA SportsCar Championship.
Will Robertson, who moved from Fischer Motorsport to Mayer Simspeed Performance over the winter, along with Tamer Elbaga brought home their No. 33 Mercedes AMG GT3 in fourth place, 26 seconds behind.
Theo Taylor and Paul Romaninsky led one lap and took P5 in their No. 16 Dangler Performance Mercedes.
Digital Chicane’s second entry, the No. 80 Ferrari with Matthew Oravecz and Quinn Mitchell led six laps but received a 30-second post-race penalty to finish P6.
One of the new teams on the grid, the No. 016 Ferrari of Vulture Motorsports with Shreyas Venkataraju and Jeremy Littleton finished seventh and led ten laps, making for a successful series debut.
Fusion Simsport, another team making its series debut in the race, finished P8 with drivers Mark Stevenson and Robert DeLoach.
Series veterans David Sluiter and Carl Felver in the No. 94 Mercedes took ninth place, while Real Pixel Motorsport’s Wolfgang Wildenauer and Ronald Gross experienced a tough outing in the event, finishing tenth and four laps down.
The official results of the race set the starting grid for the 24 Hours of Daytona that will kick off the 2024 VSCA SportsCar Championship season come Saturday.
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