This past week, I was in plenty-warm Sebring, Florida, for the third SRO World Challenge event of the season. The series was back at it in a quick turnaround following round two at Circuit of the Americas, and I was at Sebring working with Rafa Racing and RVA Graphics Motorsports. It was unseasonably hot for spring, with mid-90s temperatures and full sun each day. That certainly made the conditions challenging, not only for the drivers but also for the cars themselves.
Rafa Racing had a great start to the event, with Kenny Schmied grabbing his first pole of the season in qualifying for the GT4 America race. Both Kenny and his co-driver, Anthony Geraci, were really feeling prepared for the race ahead, and, of course, they were optimistic about starting up front.
As the green flag flew for race one, there was drama right away, with Anthony having to take evasive maneuvers to avoid spinning cars in front of him. Thankfully, he did it cleanly and was able to continue on with his stint before handing the car over to Kenny.
Kenny also had his fair share of adventure, getting spun by a car behind him and narrowly avoiding the inside wall. Luckily, he was able to continue and had a brilliant, persevering drive back up to 5th place.
In race two, things got off to a much cleaner start, and as the race unfolded, strategy would come into play. The team pitted at the right time before a full-course yellow, allowing Anthony to jump in the car and into a good position, battling for a podium finish. As the laps wound down, though, Anthony was setting up a beautiful pass to take third when he had to go off track to avoid a spinning car. That lost valuable positions, resulting in P5.
Talk about a close call!
Despite losing their podium streak this season, Rafa Racing still came away with a pair of 5th-place finishes, and the team is solidly in the championship hunt.
Meanwhile, on the RVA Graphics Motorsports side, Farran Davis had some late-race action, too. Farran had a phenomenal race for a top-15 finish while challenging for the Hard Charger award. On the last lap, he came within a half-second of clipping the next spot to get that honor. It was truly a valiant effort and very exciting to see his progression in the car and series this season.
While the results at Sebring weren’t as high as we’d hoped, everyone is hungry to push forward. However, we’ll have to wait two long months since the series will be taking a break until Virginia International Raceway in mid-July.