Ferrari captures podium in SRO GT America opener

Ferrari opened the SRO GT America Powered by AWS with an impressive podium finish after posting the fastest lap of the race on the streets of St. Petersburg.

Triarsi Competizione made its first appearance in GT America, with Justin Wetherill taking third in the Saturday race after placing sixth on Friday in the No. 37 Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020.

Wetherill, a veteran of Ferrari Challenge competition and 2020 Coppa Shell AM North America champion, made its professional racing debut in the weekend. He ran the best lap of the weekend in the series, with his time of 1:13.642-seconds earning him the fastest lap on Saturday.

With the Saturday grid set by fastest lap in the Friday event, Wetherill started sixth but fell to ninth in a scrambled first turn after the green flag. He needed three laps to take sixth, and captured fifth three laps later. 

With his eyes on the podium, he set his initial fast lap of 1:13.667-seconds to move into fourth with 22 minutes remaining. He then set up to erase a four-second deficit to move into third with 14:30 left in the race. Wetherill then reset fastest lap in his bid for second, and was only 2.1-seconds back when an accident with five-minutes remaining caused the race to end under caution.

Wetherill started fifth in Friday’s opening 40-minute race, and held that position through the early stages of the race. He was shuffled back to seventh on a restart with 22 minutes remaining. Wetherill moved up to sixth on a pass seven laps later, but was 11 seconds behind fifth place. He made a late-race charge, closing that deficit to three seconds at the checkered flag.

Wetherill is now set to tackle SRO’s GT World Challenge America Powered by AWS. He will co-drive with veteran Ryan Dalziel in the Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 when the season opens April 16-17 at Sonoma Raceway.