Veteran racer Audrey Zavodsky of New Boston, MI, held off her two arch-rivals to take the checkered flag in the season opener of the Panoz GT Pro Series this morning at Sebring International Raceway.

(The Panoz GT Pro Series is the official support race for the American Le Mans Series and immediately preceded the morning start of today's classic 12 Hours of Sebring.)  

Cruising safely in the GT class with an 8-second lead midway through the 17-lap race, Zavodsky's biggest challenge came when an incident behind her brought out the yellow caution flag in lap 10.

That enabled closest challenger Eddie Mady of Boca Raton to close to within a second and for Gavin Riches of Fort Myers, last year's GT pro champion to sail into third after starting the race at the back of the 17-car pack. When the track was cleared and the green flag went down again, Zavodsky fought off both drivers, eventually taking the class by two seconds.

Zavodsky, runner up in the 2002 GT Pro Series, is in her seventh year of racing. She holds a Phd in business and is a Ford Motor Company executive -- a corporate nurse responsible for 25 medical locations.

Said Mady on the podium, 'Audrey drove a great race. She's steady and didn't make a mistake, but she took full advantage of ours.'  

GT class pole sitter Barry Ellis finished 14th overall after continually falling back as the race progressed and completed only 13 laps.

GTS driver David Barr of Duluth, GA, began at the pole and was top finisher in the higher horsepower, privately owned class.

In the Panoz GT Pro Series, racers compete in two classes, GT and GTS. GT drivers compete in 4.6 liter, 320 horsepower cars owned and set up to series specification by Panoz Racing Series crews. In the GTS class, cars are privately owned, 5.8 liter cars putting out 385 horsepower.