Team Panoz Racing’s Ian James drove the No. 50 Panoz Avezzano GTS to a second-place finish in Friday’s PWC GTS/GT4 Round 7 race at the Grand Prix of Lime Rock Park held on the historic seven-turn, 1.5-mile circuit. This year marks the track’s 60th anniversary.
With rain coming and going all day, the rain finally held off long enough to provide a dry track for Friday’s PWC GTS/GT4 qualifying session. Turning quicker laps as the session progressed, James ultimately laid down time of 56.495, placing him P2 for the Round 7 race.
The rain returned by the start of the race, forcing a yellow for the first two laps. The green flag dropped on lap three and James quickly moved to P1, which he held for the first third of the race until the No. 3 Flying Lizard Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport MR driven by Rodrigo Baptista got around him. For the remainder of the race James laid down progressively quicker laps, then made a run on Baptista on the final lap to give the Lime Rock Park fans and exciting finish. James’ best lap time of 58.873 on lap 35 places him P4 for Saturday’s Round 8 race.
Today’s podium is a testament to the team’s tremendous work to make the No. 50 Avezzano GTS very competitive in the short amount of time since Team Panoz Racing’s January 2017 announcement that it would compete in the 2017 PWC GTS/GT4 Championship. The great start to the Grand Prix of Lime Rock Park weekend motivates the team to continue the momentum into tomorrow’s Round 8 race, scheduled to go green at 2:50 pm.
