Saturday’s Round 4 of the SportsCar Championship had a lot of twists in store, including several collisions and incidents involving several high-profile contenders.
There was one familiar outcome however: Gowin Racing returned to victory lane, to earn their third win of the season.
After finishing seventh at Sebring one month ago, Saturday’s victory was a welcome bounce back performance for the Wilmington, North Carolina team.
Leading a total of 15 laps, it wasn’t an overwhelmingly dominant run by the #18 Dallara team and drivers Josh Gowin and Jack Hedgcoxe. In the fact, the team also had to survive two collisions with the #4 Fischer Motorsport and #19 Trading Paints Racing GTP class cars. But in the end, the #18 Gowin Racing Dallara was where it mattered - in front of everybody else, taking the checkered flag.
“Bouncing back from our issues at Sebring to winning our third race this season gives us a lot of confidence for the rest of the season that we can be competitive with the rest of the field.”, said Hedgcoxe in victory lane.
“We had some issues hashing out the driver stints, so we did not start where we wanted. But we knew it would be a race of attrition and survival. We got lucky with the incident with the #4, which was a huge break for us. After that, we decided to undercut our competition on strategy. But I’ve got to say, we felt like we had better pace overall throughout and knew if we could be clean through traffic we would have a great shot for the win.”
Gowin Racing’s closest competition this season - the #46 Rising Panda Racing Dallara of Ryan Ware and Remy Loesch led a race-high 71 laps, but lost the lead on lap 98, when Loesch came down pit road for the team’s final pit stop of the race under green.
In the end the Austrian team took the checkered flag 12 seconds behind the winners and had to settle for second place, coming up just short of repeating their Sebring win from last month.
Making headwaves in their return to the VSCA SportsCar Championship, the #11 Vision 1 Motorsports car with Damien Behnke and Jeremy Carter celebrated a third place finish and podium in the race in the California desert.
The team led 12 laps but had to pit just six laps before the finish, for a splash of fuel. In the end the Sheboygan, Wisconsin team finished the race with a 25 second deficit to the winners.
Earning their second straight top-five result, GSE Racing eSports and Thomas Beuchel and Luca Harmening keep on making strides in their second season in the VSCA SportsCar Championship.
After starting from fifth place on the grid, the #86 GSE Racing eSports Dallara took the lead on lap 73, when the #46 car of Ryan Ware came down pit road for their pit stop.
When just a lap later, Beuchel followed suite and pitted and the team completed its driver change, team-mate Luca Harmening came out one second ahead of the #46 car that was now piloted by Remy Loesch.
The #86 GSE Racing eSports team went on to lead the next 19 laps, before pitting again on lap 92 and surrendering the top spot.
Texas Speed Sim Racing, who have joined the VSCA SportsCar Championship only in February of this year, took P5 with their #30 Dallara and drivers Tyler Thomas and Gavin Doumit.
Christian Sherrard and Garret Spents piloted the #321 Dallara of Tri-State Racing to a sixth place finish, but took the checkers three laps down from the LMP2 winners, in a race that was marred by attrition and seemingly countless wrecks and collisions.
Things started to go awry for the Montclair, New Jersey team on lap 69 when Sherrard made contact with two GT cars in turn three, leading to a drive-through penalty.
Just after the two-hour mark in the race, Sherrard avoided disaster in a multi-car collision in the corkscrew involving the #33 Mayer Simspeed Performance Mercedes and #80 Digital Chicane Ferrari.
VRG Sport and the #66 Dallara of Andy Banfield and Jeff Yeager took P7 and earned the fourth-most points in the race, by getting the most clean racing bonus points. It was the fifth straight top ten result for the team that is competing in its third VSCA season.
SCOWRS Esses Racing entered the fourth race of the season with high hopes to finally right the ship following a disappointing P11 finish at Sebring.
It wasn’t meant to be as on lap two, the curtain fell on any type of hopes for the team out of Atlanta, Georgia to earn a decent result, thanks to a series of collisions up ahead in the corkscrew.
Unable to react in time, Granger plowed head on into the spun #91 Vice Motorsport LMP2 car of Orlando Campos, leading to severe damage on both race cars and lengthy repairs that ultimately cost the team five laps.
The #621 FRS SimSports Dallara of Kristof Bakos and Ieuan Stichbury had big scare on lap three, narrowly missing disaster when the corkscrew produced another victim as Michael Adamczyk in the #14 Fischer Motorsport Dallara lost control on the exit of the famous corner.
The two cars met again on lap 34, this time with no happy end. Michael Adamczyk, not seeing the end of the pacing line over the crest of the front stretch hill, was unable to slow down in time while taking a full-course yellow wave-by, consequently plowing hard into the #621 car of Bakos, completely destroying both prototypes.
The #14 Fischer Motorsport car ended up eleventh, eleven laps down after the incident and Adamczyk was penalized with two driver penalty points by Race Control.
The #123 Tri-State Racing Dallara rounded out the top-ten finishers, ten laps down as a result of yet another crash on lap 46, in an incident-filled event.
Gowin Racing continue stellar season, points lead firm in hand
For Gowin Racing, the 2024 season has gone nearly perfect so far. By taking their third win of the season at Laguna Seca, the #18 Dallara now holds a 48-point lead, up by one point over Sebring winners #46 Rising Panda Racing.
VRG Sport and the #66 Dallara follow in third place, 174 points back and despite still looking for their first win in their third VSCA season, have been putting forth a masterclass in consistency.
So where does Gowin Racing see this season headed currently? Continuing his winner’s interview, Jack Hedgcoxe said:
“We feel like it will be a close title race for sure and we need to make sure we maximize every points opportunity, with good positions and clean driving. We can’t afford to have bad results with a field as close as this. We are aiming for podium finishes and wins when we have the pace but consistency is key.”
Gowin Racing atop Sprint Cup standings in LMP2
Similar to the main series championship standings, Gowin Racing also leads the way in the Sprint Cup standings - the in-series championship for the races at Long Beach, Laguna Seca, COTA, Road America and VIR.
Trailing by 125 points, the #46 Rising Panda Racing team moves into second place, followed by the #048 SCOWRS Esses Racing machine.
Series premiere at COTA up next
The VSCA SportsCar Championship is preparing itself for a premiere as it makes its first visit to Texas on May 11th for Round 5 at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin. GreenFlag TV will broadcast the race again in full length, from start to finish as teams and drivers hope for a better race than at Laguna Seca.