Guy Cosmo will kick off his 2022 SRO campaign this weekend as he joins Chris Cagnazzi in a Mercedes-AMG fielded by Steve Cameron. The program is slated to compete in selected SRO GT4 America SprintX Series races, beginning with this weekend’s season-opener at Sonoma Raceway.
Cosmo and Cagnazzi will pilot the No. 39 Mercedes-AMG GT4 in a pair of one-hour races on the 2.52-mile circuit in the heart of California wine country. They will compete in the Pro-Am category, which has a pit window for the driver change between 25 and 35 minutes.
“Chris and I raced together in his Mercedes GT4 last season and we have joined Steve Cameron Racing for this year,” Cosmo said, “I’ve known Steve for a long time – back from when he was running the Lynx Racing Toyota Atlantic program and then we first worked together when he led the Finlay Motorsports Daytona Prototype team. He’s one of the best in the business.”
It will be a home race for Stephen Cameron Racing, which is based at Sonoma Raceway as the team looks to launch a big start to the 2022 season, having claimed the 2019 GT4 SprintX championship.
“We expect the competition to be very strong,” Cosmo said. “Last year, we had between 30-40 cars at each event, and it’s been extremely competitive.”
Cosmo is taking an assertive approach to the season opener.
“Our goal for the weekend is to get on the podium, if not win,” said the New York native who now resides in Jupiter, Florida. “It’s a very competitive field, though. This is the first SprintX race of the season, so we don’t really know what kind of tricks everyone has up their sleeves yet.”
While the pair originally planned to contest the full seven-race championship, they will miss at least two races due to family and business commitments.
“We’re going to be together for the entire year,” said Cosmo, who is beginning his 20th season of major sports car competition. “We just might wind up missing two or three races, but some of the conflicts are still to be determined.”
Cagnazzi also races the same car in the GT America series, capturing the pole before being eliminated by an incident during the opening weekend at St. Petersburg. He will return to that series for the Nashville round, which is GT America only.
Last year, Cagnazzi won one race with six podiums and two fastest race laps in GT America powered by AWS. He also ran 10 races with Cosmo in GT4 America SprintX. Cagnazzi ran six seasons in Ferrari Challenge, debuting in 2014. He achieved 25 podium finishes and four fastest laps, taking third in Coppa Shell in 2016. He finished second in the 2019 Blancpain GT World Challenge America in a Ferrari 488 GT3 for One11 Competition, winning a pole and scoring five podiums in six races.
The weekend opens with a pair of practice sessions on Friday, at 12:10 and 5:10 p.m. (all times PT). Qualifying begins on Saturday at 10:50 a.m., with 15-minute sessions for both drivers. Race 1 will be Saturday at 4:55 p.m., with Race 2 on Sunday at 11:25 a.m.
Source. Sunday Group
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