The grid rolled off with Westin Workman and Ethan Goulart on the front row after Workman earned his third Continental Tire Pole Award of the season. As the field took the green flag, chaos struck immediately at the start as Max Stallone suffered damage that forced him to retire early, while both Lucas Weisenberg and Massimo Sunseri were handed drive-through penalties.
Workman launched cleanly and worked his way ahead of Goulart just before a full-course yellow deployed the safety car less than two minutes into the race for debris. Racing resumed with 39 minutes remaining, and Workman wasted no time reestablishing control.
Just behind the leaders, the battle for the top five heated up as Will Robusto, Parker DeLong, Spike Kohlbecker, and Max Schweid ran side-by-side. Contact in the fight opened the door for Kohlbecker to slip into fifth while DeLong shuffled back to seventh.
As Workman built a commanding lead, stretching the gap to more than four seconds with 25 minutes to go, the race for second intensified as Jeremy Fletcher closed onto the rear bumper of Goulart with 22 minutes left. Meanwhile, Jenson Sofronas steadily worked his way through the field, climbing five positions by the closing minutes as he battled Jaxon Bell for eighth.
With just over 12 minutes remaining, Fletcher made his move, overtaking Goulart as the No. 72 went wide, giving Fletcher clean air to break away in second. Workman’s lead swelled to 5.5 seconds before lapped traffic briefly closed the gap to just under four seconds. As the checkered flag waved, Workman dominated the day, leading flag-to-flag for his fourth GR Cup victory of the season.
Podium
Workman collected his fourth win of the season and 21st career GR Cup podium, moving to within one of Gresham Wagner’s all-time record. Jeremy Fletcher finished second, securing his first career GR Cup podium and delivering Copeland Motorsports its series-leading 50th podium. Goulart rounded out the podium in third, his fourth top three finish of the season.
Race Awards
Workman not only claimed the victory but also set the fastest lap of the race on Lap 8 with a 1:37.428. Jenson Sofronas earned his first career Hard Charger Award after climbing from 14th on the grid to finish ninth. The Endava Highest Finishing Female honor went to Isabella Robusto in 12th, while Rutledge Wood celebrated his first WWEX Group Highest Finishing Legend award.
What’s Next
The action at Barber Motorsports Park wraps up Sunday, September 7, with Race 2 qualifying at 8:10 a.m. CT, followed by the weekend finale at 10:05 a.m. CT.
Sunday’s race will be streamed live on GRCup.com and the GT World YouTube channel.
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