ELKHART LAKE, Wis. – The Acura NSX Silver division team of Trent Hindman and Shelby Blackstock scored their second-straight overall GT World Challenge America powered by AWS victory Saturday afternoon at Road America.

The Mercedes-AMG Silver division team of Russell Ward and Indy Dontje finished second overall and second in class, while the Porsche 911 team of Max Root and Fred Poordad continued to add to their impressive stats by finishing third overall and first in the Am division.

The Squadra Corse Ferrari 488 team of Rodrigo Baptista and Martin Fuentes finished fourth overall and first in Pro/Am to take the division championship lead.

With the sun shining, weather conditions were ideal for the 90-minute contest at the 4.048-mile, 14-turn circuit. From the pole, Dontje brought the field to the green flag and launched into the lead.

Drama ensued behind him as a pair of DXDT Racing Mercedes-AMG machines touched near the end of the front straight. The Pro/Am championship leading No. 04 machine driven by George Kurtz spun and ended up in the gravel outside of turn one, while the No. 63 machine piloted by David Askew continued on.

Two turns later Blackstock seized an opportunity to pass for the lead, executing a move to the front over Dontje through turn three. Fuentes slotted into third while Poordad moved into fourth.

With Kurtz’s Mercedes beached, race officials issued a full-course yellow. While crews worked to pull Kurtz’s machine out of the runoff, Askew would come into the pit and his team checked on the condition of the No. 63 Mercedes. Both drivers eventually continued in the race.

On the lap three restart, Blackstock launched successfully to lead the field ahead of Dontje, Fuentes and Poordad. From there the leaders held their positions until the pit window opened at the 45-minute mark of the contest. Fuentes and Poordad were the first drivers in to change over to Baptista and Root.

The Wright Motorsports team executed an efficient pit stop and the No. 20 machine re-entered the race ahead of the No. 1 machine. Blackstock then entered to changeover to Hindman, while Dontje stayed out before eventually coming in just before the 10-minute window closed.

With the pit window closed and the recycling of the charts complete, Hindman continued to lead the race overall up front by 15 seconds over Ward, who was now in the No. 33 machine. Root remained in third, Baptista fourth and first in Pro/Am, while Ryan Dalziel, now in the No. 63 machine sat fifth overall and second in Pro/Am. Colin Braun, now in the No. 04 machine, was sixth overall and third in class.

On lap 25, Baptista brought the No. 1 machine down pit road to serve a drive through penalty for a pitlane infringement during the changeover from Fuentes. Baptista held held a healthy gap on Dalziel in fourth, so it did not affect his track position.

At the checkered, Hindman crossed the line more than 40 seconds ahead of Ward. Ward finished .638 seconds ahead of Root. With their third-place class finish, Pro/Am championship contenders Kurtz and Braun now provisionally sit behind Baptista and Fuentes in the standings heading into Sunday’s contest.

“It’s always really important in any race to get to the front and really take command of the race and then you can gauge your pace from there instead of playing follow the leader,” said Blackstock.

“Shelby had one heck of a start and a really good move around Dontje in turn three,” said Hindman. “It was all about execution today.”

In other action, Ryan Gates triumphed in the GT Sports Club America race that was held concurrently with the GT World Challenge America event Saturday afternoon.