
New Orleans, LA- The 2.75-mile 16-turns plays host to the SRO Motorsport America for the second year in a row. The drivers adding their own unique sound to the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, already filled with artists performing at Jazz Fest. Not to be outdone the Fanatec GT World Challenge America series was named an event to be at by local ABC and FOX affiliate stations.
Rolling off the initial surprise success from Sonoma, the CBW Racing sponsored #28 RS1 Porsche 992 GT3 R duo of Eric Filgueiras and Stevan McAleer had their sights set on raising the bar even more. Manny Franco jumped to the top of the leaderboard early in the first qualifying session as he wrestled his #21 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 around the track, but Eric Filgueiras came storming through in the #28 RS1 Porsche GT3 R 992 to reclaim the top spot in the Pro class and overall.
This marked Filgueiras’ second pole position of the season, and the RS1 team would be accompanied by Conquest Racing with Ferrari starting alongside them in second position for Race One.

After a lengthy rain delay kept the action at bay, the sun finally broke through the clouds to shine down on NOLA Motorsports Park and shake up the Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS field for their first race of the weekend. The slippery track surface ramped up the level of unpredictability going into this race, as drivers were faced with the challenge of finding the perfect balance between risk and reward.
Despite the slick track conditions, drivers in the Pro class did not hesitate to get their elbows out and challenge for every opportunity. Eric Filgueiras had to fend off an early attack from Manny Franco on board the No. 21 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 as he tried to dive down the inside. The leader positioned his No. 28 RS1 Porsche 992 GT3 R to remain in the lead as he began to settle into a comfortable rhythm.
As soon as the pit window opened up, most of the field elected to come down pit lane to hand their mighty machines to their teammates. A full-course yellow followed suit and took a significant chunk out of RS1’s lead and bunched up the rest of the field with a little under forty minutes remaining.

Green flag racing resumed with 21 minutes remaining in the race. Mario Farnbacher had a great launch, overtaking Balzan before locking his sights on race leader McAleer ahead. However, the Acura skidded off the track a few corners later and became beached in the gravel, bringing out another full-course caution with 17 minutes left in the race.
As the race restarted with just under 13 minutes remaining, the No. 94 BimmerWorld BMW M4 GT3 of Bill Auberlen closed in and settled into second place, hunting down McAleer. Balzan remained right on their tails, not losing sight of second place. With just a few minutes left on the clock, Auberlen made a daring move on the inside of McAleer but ran too deep and compromised his exit, allowing Balzan to retake second place in the closing stages of the race.
It was a thrilling sprint to the finish as McAleer crossed the line to claim RS1’s second race win this season, with Balzan and Manny Franco bringing home second, followed by Auberlen and Chandler Hull in third place.
After a third place on Sunday the RS1 duo are now the current GTWCA Points leaders. The Fanatec GT World Challenge powered by AWS takes on Circuit Of The Americas next. The racing continues from Friday, May 19, through Sunday, May 21.
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