Ryan Yardley has continued his run of form as of late to take the overall win in GT World Challenge America at the Circuit of the Americas, driving the #31 Wright Motorsports Porsche with co-driver Dave Musica Jr.
Musica Jr started the race for the team after qualifying in tenth position. Musica Jr was able to work his way up to fifth in class by the time of the first pitstop, where the first full course yellow came out after fifteen minutes of racing.
Musica Jr was able to hold position on the restart to stay fifth in class and eighth overall, eventually cycling through to the lead of the race by the end of the first half hour. Musica Jr extended his stint out to over an hour, where he handed over the car to Yardley with the class lead, and second overall.
From here, Yardley was able to comfortably hold onto the Pro-Am lead, sitting twelve seconds behind the overall lead, but ahead of the next Pro-Am car by seven seconds. At the halfway mark, Yardley sat seventeen seconds behind the Pro leaders but importantly the lead Pro-Am driver on track.
The Pro car which Yardley had been trailing recieved a ten second post-race penalty for contact with a slower car, meaning Yardley just had to stay within range of the Mercedes to claim a potential overall victory.
With just over an hour of racing remaining, Yardley came back into the lane but remained in the car. He managed to hold the lead in Pro-Am once all drivers had been through the lane, and also cycled to the overall lead when the Pro car ahead pitted, whilst running on a different strategy. The Pro car was eventually able to close the gap back up, and got back past the Kiwi with twenty minutes remaining.
Importantly, in the final part of the race, Yardley was still comfortably ahead in the Pro-Am field, holding an eight-second lead over the car behind.
With a post-race penalty looming over the heads of the pro Mercedes, they were unable to extend their lead over Yardley to ten seconds at the chequered flag, promoting Yardley and Musica Jr to the overall win as well as the Pro-Am win. Teammates Thomas Merrill and Therese Lahlouh finished in second place in Pro-Am, meaning it was a double podium for the Wright Motorsports team.
Talking to the media after the race, Yardley expressed surprise at his overall win.
“I knew we had the class win, but had no idea about the overall win, so that’s pretty awesome. Massive credit to Dave for the first stint and to the team at Wright Motorsports for the awesome strategy. They made my life easy at the end.”
GT World Challenge America will now head to Sebring International Raceway, with racing commencing on the 9th May (NZST).
Header Image: GT World Challenge America
