Team Panoz Racing’s 2nd in Pirelli World Challenge GT4/GTS Championship Rd 15 – Austin
James scores the Panoz Avezzano GT’s eighth podium out of the past nine PWC GT4/GTS races, extending Team Panoz Racing’s consecutive podium streak to seven, and counting.
Team Panoz Racing’s Ian James drove the No. 50 Panoz Avezzano GT to second-place in today’s PWC GT4/GTS Championship Round No. 15 race. The result is James’ seventh-consecutive PWC GT4/GTS podium, a streak that began with the June 24-25 double wins at Road America.
Today’s result also is the team’s eighth podium out of the past nine races. The team’s race-weekend winning streak began with a second-place finish in the PWC GT4/GTS Round No. 7 at Lime Rock Park. Since then James and the Panoz Avezzano GT have finished among the top three in seven out of the past seven races, scoring two victories at Road America and one each at Mid-Ohio and Utah.
James started P1 in today’s race as a result of his 2:17.532 time in this morning’s qualifying session on the 3.427-mile, 20-turn Circuit of the Americas (COTA) road course. On the first lap and soon after the rolling start, Dakota Dickerson in the No. 25 ANSA Motorsports KTM Xbow GT4 got around James for the lead. James defended P2 until Scott Dollahite in the No. 46 SDR Motorsports Lotus Evora made a move near the end of lap 10 and taking over P2.
Not deterred, on lap 13 James regained P2 with a pass on Dickerson. James expertly defended P2 to the final lap, but was then challenged when Parker Chase in the No. 19 Performance Motorsports Group Ginetta G55 briefly took over P2 in the final turns. But in the last turn James regained P2 by staying on the inside when Chase went wide, securing another P2 podium for Team Panoz Racing and extending the streak.
James’ quickest lap time today was 2:20.977, placing him P8 for tomorrow’s Round 16 race scheduled for 10 am (11 am EST).
Team Panoz Racing’s success streak has tightened the standings in both the PWC Sprint GTS Drivers Championship and the Manufacturers Championship. Coming into the Pirelli World Challenge Grand Prix of Texas weekend James was in second place in the Drivers Championship with 227 points, 70 points behind leader Lawson Aschenbach and 19 points ahead of Martin Barkey. Panoz also was second in the PWC Sprint GTS Manufacturers Championship with 80 points, 20 points shy of leader Chevrolet.
The Avezzano GT race car is based on the new Panoz Avezzano sports car, the latest street-legal Panoz creation featuring a new fastback configuration, a new-generation aluminum chassis, and an all-new high-performance V8 and manual gearbox. Visit www.panoz.com for more information.
