Unlike the other two contests, the Americas series hadn’t seen a repeat winner yet. In fact only championship leader Michael Kundakcioglu had finished on the podium more than once, and the third race of the season, at Spa Francorchamps, did nothing to change that.
Neither of this season’s race winners, Kundakcioglu and Cody Pryde, could qualify even inside the top five for the race, which was perhaps surprisingly taken by Philippe Simard in the BMW M6 and by a large, half-second margin from Killian Ryan-Meenan.
While Ryan-Meenan in the Aston Martin was able to keep in close contact at the front, Simard was never truly troubled throughout the 25-lap race, and would ultimately win by a comfortable nine-second margin.
Chris Severt, who’d started the race in third both on the grid and in the championship, managed to bring his Aston home on the podium after initially losing out to Jake Langevin, after passing the Bentley in the pits. Langevin would later crash at Raidillon while trying to fight back, but did finish fifth for his first points of the season, behind Josh Staffin.
The championship leaders were having a torrid race though. After qualifying 10th and 11th, Kundakcioglu and Pryde found themselves fighting for the same patches of track. Despite gaining some places, notably after a collision between Michael Fritz and William Hendrickson, only Kundakcioglu was able to finish in the points in a lowly eighth place. Pryde limped home 12th after a last-lap solo crash at Raidillon.
With two races of the season left, Kundakcioglu still leads on 47 points, only four ahead of Severt, with Simard four further back in third.