By Johan Laubscher
The Pirelli World Challenge weekend at Mid Ohio concluded with a terrific second race today. GMG Racing lead driver, James Sofronas, completed a spirited drive onto the podium.
James Sofronas achieved third position in the first race yesterday, but he finished behind his main championship rival Johnny O'Connell. The six Audi cars lined up for the start of race two: four GMG Racing Audi R8 LMS cars, one JCR Motorsports R8 GRAND-AM and one Itook’s Motorsport TT RS.
From the start Sofronas in the #14 GMG Audi R8 LMS rocketed up to up second, but shortly thereafter he was passed by Pobst in the Volvo. Sofronas then began a race-long battle to maintain third position, and most importantly, trying to stay ahead of Johnny O'Connell. Duncan Ende in the #24 GMG Audi was also battling in the leading group. O'Connell eventually retired from the event and James was able to maintain his third place, to achieve his second podium finish of the weekend, collecting valuable points in his bid for the driver’s title. In the end Duncan Ende finished sixth, Alex Welch (#08 GMG) in seventh, Courtney (#99 JCR Audi) in eighth and Ziegler (#95 GMG Audi) in tenth. All five Audi GT cars finished within the top ten. The second race was again won by Alex Figge, completing a Volvo one-two ahead of his teammate Randy Pobst.
Don Istook finished twentieth in the GTS class, driving his Istook's Motorsports Audi TT RS race car.
The Pirelli World Challenge will resume at Sonoma for the next round of the series on the weekend of 23-25 August.
Photo credit: Pirelli World Challenge
