Andrew Morton started in pole position in GTS3, which put him in front of all but two cars in the entire GTS field, and they were faster GTS4 and 5 cars. His lap times were two seconds faster than Jason Alexandridis, who started in second in GTS3 and three seconds faster than Phillip Buffington in third.
That gap in speed gave Morton a considerable advantage come race time and a considerable gap just a few laps into the Championship race. Alexandridis was hoping a little strategy would pay off later in the race. He was the only GTS3 employing a 12:1 power-to-weight ratio, so he was running larger slicks and more weight. The plan was to run the slicks and hope they held up till the end for a late-race pass. Alexandridis couldn’t catch Morton and held on for second place.
“I jumped a bunch of GTS4 cars, but that really ended up working against me because when they started to come back through, because they’re faster in a straight line, every time I was in an apex, it was a cluster of GTS4 cars and me,” Alexandridis said. “So it took awhile for it to work out, and once it worked out, Andrew had made such a gap. I tried to hunker down and click off laps. When he got into lapped traffic, I was really hoping for some tough spots for him, but he seemed to dice it really well. I was trying to dice lapped traffic as well. I thought he did a great job in lapped traffic, so I was pretty happy with my race. Andrew had it, so good for him.”
NASA Rocky Mountain’s Mark Klenin came out from Colorado and took third, but a post race DQ, nullified the position and handed it Phillip Buffington. In the end it was Buffington in third, Alexandridis in second and Morton on top for the win and the Championship, his first.
“I really miss having a radio when I’m winning because I just don’t know how big the gap is,” Morton said afterward. “I saw a car coming up behind me, so I get on the gas again, I’m sliding it around, and it turns out it was a GTS4 car. Not knowing the gap on the number two car, you just don’t know how to pace yourself. I just need someone to say Andrew, go slower.”
