Birthday Boy Guy Smith Wins Race One from Utah

The championship pictures in GT and GTS were completely turned on their heads at Miller Motorsports Park right when the lights went off at the beginning of the race. Guy Smith and second in the GT championship Mike Skeen started on the front row but Skeen stalled on the start and his race was ruined before he had even travelled a foot with an axle problem. In GTS, pole-sitter and championship leader Marks Wilkins stalled and was hit by his Kia teammate Nic Jönsson.

Skeen was able to complete five laps but did not complete the required 70% to be eligible to score points. Wilkins did not complete any laps and also will get no points from race one.

Guy Smith started on pole position on his 40th birthday but fell like a rock on the start while Robert Thorne jumped to the lead ahead of Ryan Dalziel and GT championship leader Johnny O'Connell went from eighth to third.

In GTS, Jack Baldwin assumed the lead from a stalled Wilkins, ahead of Nick Esayian, Jack Roush, Jr. and Alec Udell.

Thorne continued to lead while Dalziel retired with a mechanical failure on lap nine, promoting O'Connell to second. Smith restarted sixth and made his way past his Dyson Bentley teammate Butch Leitzinger and the Cadillacs of Andy Pilgrim and O'Connell with his sights set on Thorne. On lap 15, Thorne had contact with the #96 Mustang of Brad Adams, dropping his McLaren out of contention for the victory and handing the lead to Smith.

Smith would go unchallenged as he picked up a birthday present to remember, his first career Pirelli World Challenge victory and Bentley's first victory in the series. Smith also scored fastest lap in the race. O'Connell finished second after holding off Leitzinger by 0.095 seconds. Pilgrim finished fourth with Anthony Lazzaro rounding out the top five. Thorne came home in sixth ahead of Andrew Palmer and his teammate Alex Figge. Michael Mills was the top GT-A finisher in ninth with Andy Lee rounding out the top ten in his Lamborghini on his GT class debut.

While Baldwin led most of the way, the Aston Martin of Esayian was able to get by the Porsche late after Baldwin had slight contact with the Lamborghini of Andy Lee. Esayian made it a pair of first time winning manufactures in race one from Miller Motorsports Park as he got Aston Martin their first victory in Pirelli World Challenge. Baldwin finished second with Esayian's Aston Martin teammate Drew Regitz rounding out the podium ahead of Aschenbach and Roush, Jr.

Johnny O'Connell has locked up his third consecutive GT championship with a race to go. The Georgia-native has a 152-point lead over Mike Skeen and since Skeen failed to get pole position for the second race, the most points he could score in race two is 145 points.

Wilkins' GTS championship lead has been reduced to two points over Aschenbach with Baldwin trailing by 87 points heading to the final race tomorrow afternoon.

The season finale for the 2014 Pirelli World Challenge season will take place tomorrow at 4:15 p.m. ET.