GT Sports Club Series Debut Complete at Winter Invitational at The Thermal Club

GT Sports Club Series Debut Complete at Winter Invitational at The Thermal Club

Thermal, Calif. - The inaugural Winter Invitational at The Thermal Club, featuring the introduction of the GT Sports Club class of competition, came to an exciting conclusion this weekend as competitors charged through the sixth and final round of the series.

In the GT3 class, it was young upstart Steven Aghakhani, driving the #24 US RaceTronics / O'Gara Motosports Mercedes-AMG GT3, that captured the checkered flag and completed a brilliant run through the course of the Winter series, finishing with a handful of podium finishes that also included two wins.

Coming in second place is Bret Curtis, driving the #65 Squadra Corse Ferrari 488 GT3. His weekend podium run netted him twin second-place finishes.

In third place was Daskalos Motorsports' Jason Daskalos. In the #7 Audi R8 LMS, Daskalos also opened his Winter Invitational presence with a pair of podium finishes.

In GT2 class, Dmitri Novikov walked away with the best-in-class award in the #64 Rearden Racing Audi R8 LMS GT2. TruSpeed Autosports' Hutton McKenna (#18) and GMG Racing's Mike LaFever piloted their respective Porsche 911 GT2 RS Clubsport machines to second and third place finishes for the round.

The Cup class belonged to the Slavik family, all racing for TruSpeed Autosport. Father Jim Slavik landed in second place in the #58 Porsche 991.2 GT3 Cup and was bookended by one son, Brennan, in the #81 Porsche 997.2 GT3 Cup car at the third place side of the podium and another son, Evan in the #17 Porsche 997.1 GT3 Cup on the first place side.

In post-race ceremonies, competitor Kevin Westcott was also awarded a single-event regular season entry fee waiver.

GT World Challenge America presented by AWS kicks off in Austin, Texas, at Circuit of the Americas on March 6-8, 2020.