In the hands of Jimmy Doolittle, the R-1 won the 1932 Thompson Trophy race. At that time Doolittle also set a new world landplane speed record of 296 mph in the Shell Speed Dash, a straight line course. Lee Gehlbach, flying the R-2, finished fourth in the Bendix due to oil leak problems and fifth in the Thompson. Once again, the Granville Brothers brought home the trophies. They were on top of the world. Then in 1933, in the hands of pilot Russel Thaw, the R-2 stalled on landing approach at Indianapolis, rolled, and hit the wingtip. Although he recovered with only wing and landing gear damage, the R-2 was out of that race. Russ Boardman, pilot of the R-1, was shaken by Thaw's accident and, pulling the R-1 off prematurely, stalled and caught a wingtip, flipping the plane onto its back. Boardman died from the injuries. The R-2 was repaired and while landing at Springfield in 1933, James Haizlip found himself floating too far down the 2,000 ft runway. As was done with most airplanes of that period, he kicked the rudder to sideslip and kill the speed. This caused one wing to stall, and once again the R-2 found itself rolled into a ball. Haizlip escaped without serious injuries, barring his pride.

Granville Brothers Aircraft used parts from both crashed airplanes to build the R-1/R-2, a hybrid model initially flown by Roy Minor. During a test flight out of Springfield, he made thirteen landing attempts before finally getting it on the deck; whereupon he slid off the end of the runway with the brakes locked. The airplane caught its wheels in a ditch, performed a complete somersault, and landed upright on the road. After another trip through the shop, the R-1/R-2 ended up with Cecil Allen. Despite warnings from Miller and Zantford Granville, Allen Granville installed a large fuel tank well aft of the center of gravity (cg). The two designers feared the cg would be moved so far back that the plane would be impossible to fly. Ignoring their warnings, Allen took off with the tank full, lost control, crashed, and was killed. Thus ended the R-1 and R-2 racers, as well as the Gee Bee line of aircraft.

The Granville Brothers Aircraft, Inc., liquidated in the fall of 1933. They built a total of 22 aircraft - including 9 biplanes, 8 Sportsters, 2 Senior Sportsters, 3 Super Sportsters, and one long-tailed racer. They had a large, cantilever monoplane under construction that disappeared into history. After liquidation, the workforce went on to build the QED for the 1934 England-to-Australia race and Time Flies, a racer for Frank Hawks.

Even though none of the original Gee Bee Sporster Series aircraft survive today, they were without doubt some of the most unique and beautiful aircraft ever to grace the skies.

Non-flying replicas of the R-1 have been built at the New England Air Museum and the San Diego Air & Space Museum using original plans for the aircraft. A flying replica of the R-2 was built by Steve Wolf and Delmar Benjamin that first flew in 1991. Benjamin flew an aerobatic routine in this aircraft at numerous airshows until he retired the aircraft in 2002. This aircraft was put on display the Fantasy of Flight in Polk City Florida in 2004.