Team Panoz Racing Kicks things off in Winning Fashion in St. Petersburg

Team Panoz Racing Kicks things off in Winning Fashion in St. Petersburg

Team Panoz Racing kicked off the 2019 Pirelli GT4 America Sprint season in winning fashion following Race 1 in St. Petersburg. A last lap maneuver landed Ian James the overall victory in PRO and a thrilling race-long battle brought Preston Calvert to a third-place podium in AM.

From the drop of the green flag, both Panoz Avezzano GT4s were right in the thick of things as James made his way around Robinson for third and Calvert came out of a battle with Brynjolfsson in second.

Drama struck with twenty minutes to go after the AM class leader was turned into the tire barriers. As the safety car was deployed, this advanced Calvert to the AM class lead as James ran second in PRO.

Right at the restart, the PRO-class leader misjudged his braking into the first corner, allowing James to advance to second, just before an incident with another competitor put the race under red flag conditions.
When the clock restarted, there were under ten-minutes remaining and the field was bunched together, promising an exciting finish.

Exciting it was as Calvert quickly found himself in a thrilling battle for the class lead between Gaples and Brynjolfsson. The three diced it out until the checkered flag flew and Calvert crossed the line in the third place podium slot.

As soon as the green flag flew, James was quick to put pressure on Pumpelly for the lead. The Englishman filled the rear-view mirrors of the Cayman until the final lap, when a deciding move into the inside of Turn 1 allowed him to bring home the victory for Team Panoz Racing.

The Pirelli GT4 America field will retake the track for Race 2 tomorrow at 11:25 a.m. ET.

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Driver Quotes:

Ian James | Driver, No. 50 Panoz Racing Panoz Avezzano GT4 – “What an amazing way to start this tribute season to Don Panoz. We fought hard all race. Luckily the Mustang had a problem going deep into Turn One and the Porsche slowed down at the end, so we were right there to capitalize. Preston was running at the lead of the class right until the final restart so we’re hoping for a win from him as well tomorrow. A win and a third place. Wow, we’re just super happy.”

Preston Calvert | Driver, No. 51 Panoz Racing Panoz Avezzano GT4 – “It was a very fun race. It was amazing to me that I ended up P1 for a while and led the other AM cars until the second restart. Unfortunately, the tires were a little bit cold and it was hard to keep two people behind me in the restart. I’m really proud of Ian and the awesome job he did to bring home the win. Let’s see if we can do the same tomorrow.”

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Panoz LLC
Panoz designs and manufactures exclusive, American-made luxury sports cars. It is the first U.S. auto manufacturer to use super formed aluminum panels for its bodies and created America’s first Aluminum Intensive Vehicle (AIV), the Panoz AIV Roadster. The Panoz headquarters also features the Panoz Museum showcasing Panoz sports car and racing history and accomplishments such as the 1997 Panoz Esperante GTR-1 Le Mans Homologation Special, the 1998 GTR-1 Q9 Hybrid Le Mans prototype – the first modern hybrid race car, and the 2000 Panoz LMP1 Roadster S that won the 1000km of Nürburgring. Please visit Panoz.com and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and YouTube.

Honoring Those Who Serve
Team Panoz Racing in a partnership with Hometown Heroes Racing proudly displays the badges of the U.S. Fire, Police and EMS services on the Nos. 50 and 51 Avezzano GT race cars to honor those who dedicate their lives to serve our nation and protect, defend and save the lives of complete strangers every day. Michael E. Murphy, RN, EMT-P, founded Hometown Heroes Racing in 2014 with the sole focus of building honor and camaraderie amongst first responders and the military.