GT Rivals News
Round 7 Recap
Wittmer Wins, and Tami Takes Top 5 at Bathurst in GT Rivals Round 7.
A huge congratulations to Karl Wittmer for an impressive drive up the mountain in his victory at Bathurst in Round 7 of the GT Rivals Series this week. It was a huge win going into the season finale at Kyalami for Wittmer who will be strong in the last race of the year to crown our Champion.
JT Tami at Bathurst in GT Rivals
Also making his way into a guaranteed spot in the finale at Kyalami was Champion Motorsports Driver JT Tami with an impressive 5th place finish. Tami has been a mainstay at CMS as well as the series and we are very proud for him to be one of our drivers representing in the season-ending race.
Sunday
Assetto Corsa Historics League
Details Here!
Monday
Assetto Corsa Competizione
Details Here!
Tuesday
MNRL Automobilista
Details Here!
Wednesday
CMS iRacing Series
Details Here!
Thursday
CMS NARS Indy 100
Details Here!
Saturday
CMS VWSC Series
Details Here!
Matt Geddes Does it Again, Celebrates Championship with a Win
Race Report by David Anderson
May 24, 2020 – One race left after finding out he clinched the Sunday Night Assetto Corsa Championship a week prior. No problem for Matt Geddes as he would cement his Championship season with dominance, by taking yet another win in the season finale this Sunday night at Calabogie, one of the most challenging courses to date that the series would see. Behind him again with another phenomenal drive was Aaron Roberts on the Podium. Justin Poteet would also take his second podium in a row to round out 3rd. This series as incredible with high attendance in every event and a great sign of things to come in our Sunday Night Assetto Corsa Series. Stay tuned for some special event announcements and a new season coming after the traditional summer break.
TCR/MX-5 Club Series at VIR-North
Race Report by Tim Collier
May 20, 2020 – For this week’s TCR/MX-5 Club Series race, the haulers took a drive through the hills of Virginia to the famed VIR circuit where the drivers would negotiate the tight and twisty North Circuit layout. Weather conditions were ideal, and the lap times confirmed this would be a race where the least mistakes make the difference.
The qualifying session showed no surprise in the MX-5 class, where Kurt Polter put his Mazda on the pole once again, this time by a gap of half a second over Bryan Ortiz. The Audis however had quite the battle and in the end it was Kris Hudson winning the pole position by a mere 0.179 seconds over JT Tami.
With the grid of 6 Audis and 8 Mazdas taking the green flag, the battle throughout the first turn saw Hudson overshoot, and Tami takes the lead. As the field came out of the North circuit chute, Tami increased his lead to 4 seconds by the end of the first lap over new driver Mick Blue. Behind them several cars were off the track or turned around, spreading the field a bit. Being an endurance event, pit stops were needed for fuel and after the pit stop cycles Tami was in the lead over Brian Szabelski in second by 10 seconds, with Hudson who had worked his way back through the field into third place. On the final lap, Tami would take the win, his first of the season by 9 seconds. Hudson would get by Szabelski on the final lap to finish in second and third respectively.
In the MX-5 class, Polter started up front and held the lead early, but had Ortiz keeping him honest for most of the race staying withing a few seconds waiting to pounce on any opportunity. Through the pit stops Polter would lead with Ortiz in second, and Dan Rivito in third who was mixing it up often with Kenny Rodriguez. Upfront Polter would keep the fenders clean and take yet another win this season, his fourth in eight races. Ortiz would finish in second and Rivito in third completing the podium.
After 8 races, with two drops applied, the MX-5 Class Driver’s Championship has Kurt Polter with a commanding lead over Samuel Scott by 13 points. In third place, Drew Lidkea has a six-point lead over Kenny Rodriguez in fourth, and in fifth only one point behind fourth, Tim Collier and Peter Hebron are deadlocked.
After tonight’s win, JT Tami vaults into the top spot in the TCR Class Driver’s Championship, with Brian Szabelski only one point behind in second, and Miguel Antonio Alcrudo in third another five points back. Not far behind in fourth is Liam Park, with David Slee in fifth only nine points back.
The next event is scheduled for June 3, 2020 at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park! There are still two races ahead for this series, and lots of points to be won or lost!
Matt Geddes Clinches Championship in Spring Assetto Corsa Series
Race Report by David Anderson
May 17, 2020 – Congratulations to Matt Geddes for clinching the 2020 Spring Assetto Corsa Championship, with one race remaining, as he drove to another dominant performance, this week at Kyalami. Matt has been a front runner in every one of our five races to date, including multiple wins and podiums in every event. Aaron Roberts and Michael Kolar were on the podium with Matt at Kyalami. Next week the series will visit Calabogie for our season finale in what has been one of the most fun and most well attended Assetto Corsa series to date. The fields have been strong with 20+ each event and the racing in the Ford Escort vs Alfa Romeo GT AM car has been spectacular. Congrats Matt for the Championship!
GTE/GT4 Cup Series at Road Atlanta
Race Report by Tim Collier
As the GTE/GT4 Cup season crests the halfway point, this week’s race took to the hills of Road Atlanta for the second endurance length event of the season. With the sun setting and the longer race length, nothing was for certain until the checkered flag fell.
The qualifying session was inadvertently limited to one flying lap, but it didn’t keep Kurt Polter from claiming the GT4 class pole once again this season, with a margin of 1.2 seconds back to Jason Lundy. In the GTE class, Humberto Roca took the front starting spot by half a second over Miguel Antonio Alcrudo, which would set up some crazy laps early in the race.
At the start Roca would lead the first 6 laps before encountering troubles, along with Alcrudo and Angel Ledesma and Miguel Alcrudo who also had issues early, and Rafael Sosa would take over the lead on Lap 7. Behind him, Kris Hudson would charge from the back of the GTE class field into second, catching up to Sosa and providing a close fight for the lead to the end of the race. After seventy-five minutes and 57 laps, Sosa would prevail over Hudson by a mere 0.35 seconds, taking his first win of the season! Finishing 9 seconds back, Lowesky D’Oleo had a steady pace to hold the podium spot till the end and add to his Driver’s championship title shot.
The GT4 class saw a tight battle in the first four spots with everyone doing their best to keep up with Polter, but by Lap 6 his lead would stretch out to nearly 10 seconds over Lundy who was under constant attack by Liam Park and Brett Stephens. The battle for second was eventually won by Lundy who managed to pull away from the cars behind him, and both Park and Stephens would have terrible luck leaving Tim Collier to take the third spot and his first podium finish of the season.
So after 5 races, the GT4 class Driver’s Championship has Kurt Polter firmly in the lead with 4 wins out of 5 races, JT Tami and Jason Lundy are tied for second place with Justin Hess only 2 points behind in fourth, and Kenny Rodriguez in fifth.
The battle in the GTE Class lead is very close with Humberto Roca in the lead, Drew Lidkea in second only 4 points back, and Dion Smith in third not far behind Lidkea. Peter Hebron holds fourth place with Matthew Overton only two points behind in fifth.
This series will head to the streets of Detroit next for the Belle Isle Circuit. This event is scheduled for May 27th and will be one to watch!
Whited Wins in Assetto Corsa Historics Visit to Algarve
Race Report by David Anderson
Round 4
May 10, 2020 – The Champion Motorsports Sunday Night Assetto Corsa Historics League continued rolling with a very special and fun event on Mothers Day evening this week. A strong field showed up to tackle the very technical and challenging Algarve Circuit. The weapons would again be either the Alfa Romeo GT AM car or the Ford Escort. We saw a few drivers, including a few of the front runners, use their one-time car switch allowance to move from the Ford to the Alfa for this race. With a great strategy and blazing pace, Jason Whited would take his first win in the series. Congrats Jason! He was followed by mainstays on the podium Matt Geddes and Michael Kolar.
Next week things head to South Africa as we will visit Kyalami in this very popular series!
GTE/GT4 Cup Series at Brands Hatch
Race Report by Tim Collier
May 6, 2020 – On a beautiful Fall afternoon in England, the Champion Motorsports MX-5 Club Series met to take on the full circuit for the seventh race of the season. If there’s one thing about this series that proves to be true, even 30 minutes is more than enough time for plenty of racing action.
In the qualifying session, the TCR class would see Kris Hudson grab the pole by almost half a second with a lap time of 1:34.096, edging out JT Tami who would start alongside on the front row. In the MX-5 class, Samuel Scott would take the top spot from Kurt Polter with a time of 1:41.955, a half-second over Polter to lead the MX-5 field at the start.
The race start was smooth, with plenty of racing throughout the field, but upfront Hudson would lead the first two laps until Lap 3 when Tami would take the lead for two cycles. Then, after starting in fifth, Miguel Antonio Alcrudo would move up to grab the front spot on Lap 5, with Tami and Hudson right behind him. For the entire race, Hudson and Alcrudo would battle nose to tail, and on the final lap Alcrudo would hold off Hudson for the win by a margin of 0.28 seconds! JT Tami only a few seconds behind would grab the third spot and valuable points in the driver’s championship.
The start in the MX-5’s also went smoothly, and upfront Scott would hold the lead for the first three laps of the race with Polter not far behind him, along with Jason Lundy who had a great start to move into position in the draft. On Lap 4, Polter would take the lead and had a rear-view mirror full of Scott for most of the race. A small slip by Lundy would allow Tim Collier to move into third, far out of contention from the leaders. In the end, Polter would pull away for his third win of the season, Scott finishes in second place and Collier grabs his first podium of the season with a third-place run.
After 7 races, with one race result dropped, the Driver’s Championships are close with battles for the top 3 spots still up in the air. In the MX-5 class, Kurt Polter sits atop the standings, Samuel Scott in second place only 10 points back, then a tight battle for third place with Drew Lidkea, Tim Collier, Peter Hebron, Kenny Rodriguez and David Anderson all within 15 points!
In the TCR class, Brian Szabelski holds the first place spot despite a rough race, with Miguel Antonio Alcrudo in second only 3 points behind, JT Tami in third another 4 points back. Liam Park is in fourth place three points behind Tami, and David Slee rounds out the top five.
The next race for this series will be the second endurance length event of the season at Virginia International Raceway North Circuit on May 20th. This 45-minute race could make or break the season for some of our drivers, and a pit stop will be required so this should be a very interesting race indeed!
