On a warm Saturday afternoon at Miller Motorsport park in Utah the Imsa GT3 series is ready for race #1.  Gerry Vento in the number 8 Patron entry opted to start from the rear of the field after complications during qualifying.  " We have nowhere to go but up the field.  I'm looking forward to the first corner." commented Vento on the false grid.

 As the field came down to take the green,  Vento made an aggressive move towards the inside.  Upon approaching turn 1, relying heavily on the brakes,  Vento found himself capitalizing on 3 positions.  This soon became the making of a fierce dog fight between the 2 Starbuck's entries of Parker and Ainsworth.

 As the pack of 5 cars continued to swap positions back and forth, Vento was always able to retake the spots  coming into turn 5 under heavy breaking.

As the race continued there was never a cloud free lap. No matter where you looked there were cars dropping wheels off all over the circuit. Turn 15 alone had no less than 9 cars spin. With conditions worsening, tires wearing heavily and immense pressure from behind Vento falls victim to the challenging conditions.  Spinning in turn 15 Vento quickly recovers and loses only 1 position in the field bringing the car home to a very respectable finish from last place on the grid.

 "Considering the warm conditions and our grid placement we did very well overtaking 6 positions. I just wish I could see turn 1 and 5 better from the pits, that's where Gerry likes to throw it in deep. Overall a successful first race. This also solidifies a stronger grid position for tomorrow."