CSRO's 2022 August CGT3/4 Round #1 Recap...

On the 7th of August, the CSRO held its inaugural Caribbean GT3/ GT4 round opener at the infamous Daytona International Speedway. The event would be the first for the CSRO in that it would be the first time they would have both classifications run simultaneously in the event. Needless to say, the event was a huge hit which saw it garner two hundred plus views in less than 12 hours of it being live streamed on their YouTube channel (linked here). Small figures for some, but for the region and SIM-Racing only now taking off, it speaks margins.

In qualifying, GT3 saw a familiar face at the top of the charts. Guyanese John Greene in the Bentley Continental GT3 was on top with a blistering 1:45.940, but following close behind by some .063 of a second was Jamaican Nathan Bryan in another Bentley clenching 1:46.003. The third position was not far off as Guyanese Oswyne Wilson in his Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo mustered up a 1:46.020 to sit some .017 of a second behind Nathan. In fourth Jamaican Kurt Moss in another Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo managed a 1:46.056 to sit some .036 behind Oswyne Wilson. Rounding up the top five was Trinidadian Dominic Charles who surprisingly only managed 1:46.210 in his Audi R8 LMS Evo to sit some .154 behind Kurt Moss.

In the GT4 Classification, we saw a latecomer to the championship, Trinidadian Declan Daniel in his Porsche 918 Cayman GT4 Clubsport posted a 1:54.380 to claim pole position. Declan was placed in GT4 as he missed out on the Qualifiers to determine which classification he would belong to for future races. Guyanese Raul Partab would come in the second position with a 1:55.443 in his Alpine A110 GT4 to sit some 1.063 seconds behind Declan Daniel proving that Declan was indeed out of Class. In the third position was Jamaican Sebastian Palmer in his Audi R8 LMS GT4 car with a 1:56.191, some .748 trailing behind Raul. In the Fourth position was Jamaican Rojaun Reid who managed a 1:56.330 in his Alpine A110 GT4 that placed him some .139 of a second behind his countryman Sebastian Palmer. And to round up the top five for GT4 was Jamaican Joshua Brady with a 1:58.270 that would set him some 1.940 seconds behind his countryman Rojaun Reid.

See the full list of qualifying for both classes below:

Qualifying Results for Round #1 of the CGT3/4 Championship

The race would prove to be a very eventful one which started staggered to separate GT3 from GT4 but nearly immediately after the rolling started shifted into full race mode we saw a full course yellow to bring it under the control of the Race Director, Stefan Gajie, once again. During the start, Jamaican's Kurt Moss and Michen Wallace along with Trinidadian Dominic Charles were three wide approaching turn one when Kurt moved from the high side of the banking to the inside line which pushed Dominic Charles off his line and, well, in his words, "...into the shadow realm.". Gt4 did not get the green as the course went full yellow and restarted the rolling start, this time in a single file.

In the second rolling start it would still prove to be tricky getting all cars through turns but this time they survived up to turn three where there was an incident involving Kurt Moss again, Christian Rajnauth, Michen Wallace and Tavar Clarke. In the GT4 Sebastian Palmer would jump into the first position after their start and he would hold on to that until Raul Partab would miss his braking point into turn ten which would push Sebastian off the racing line and into the tyre barrier. Raul would try to wait on Sebastian but Sebastian would spin again coming out of turn 11 as his tyres might have overheated.

The Bentley's proved superior at Daytona, utilising the power under their hoods on the very long bankings but only John Greene was able to utilise the power as he was offered a whole shot opportunity and never looked back. He lead the race from start to finish.

For more on the Full Race Results in both classifications and our Extended Video Highlights, see below:

Race Results for Round #1 of the CGT3/4 Championship

Extended Race Highlights for Round #1 of the CGT3/4 Championship

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