Pre-race WeatherTech Championship headlines from Laguna Seca before Sunday's Hyundai Monterey Sports Car Championship presented by Motul.
Wright Motorsports-run Aston claims victory, extends GS points lead...
https://sportscar365.com/imsa/impc/hindman-brynjolfsson-score-laguna-seca-win/
Welcome to the fabled Laguna Seca Raceway on the Monterey peninsula in Monterey, California. This is round three of the 2022 IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge championship. Two hours of production sports car racing is about to get underway. Race number three is ready. 2005 was the first Michelin Pilot Challenge event here at a legendary racetrack that has been around since 1957. The season is still young. and we have not seen a pattern yet. But we see a driver like Ted Giovannis, at age 76, is the points leader. Races will be coming more frequently now. Bryan Herta Autosport has half of the TCR field but have not won yet. We have seen Alfa and Honda win the opening two races at Daytona and Sebring. 41 cars in today's field.
Robert Wickens, because of finesse, has struggled to find the zone with his hand controls and they had a braking issue in qualifying. They will start caboose on the grid. We have Dave Burns and Calvin Fish commentating from the booth today, with pit reporters Parker Kligermann and Matt Yocum. Bill Auberlen and Dillon Machavern in the #95 Turner Motorsports BMW M4 GT4, they want to go for the win today after not being able to get the job done here last fall. Mario Andretti, Bobby Rahal, and Wayne Rainey are names celebrated here. Watch the action through the infamous Corkscrew and also through the final turn at turn 11. The cars are formed up for the start. Low grip, high tire degradation.
Kenton Koch is a fill-in for Jeff Mosing who has a broken rib and is healing up. Get well soon, Jeff. Alexandre Premat outside the front row. Green flag. Koch leads the motor race. The Porsche has the advantage as Koch runs wide and here comes Hugh Plumb already in this two-hour race, and Kenny Murillo is also coming in a hurry in the second Murillo Racing Mercedes AMG GT4. #09, the Aston Martin is off the road with Ramin Abdulvahabi at the wheel of it. A tad of argy bargy and some class crossover betweent the end of GS and the beginning of TCR. Koch leads the motor race over Alexandre Premat and Hugh Plumb.
TCR action hot and heavy as well, look as we see mad scramble here with the end of the GS field. A.J. Muss and Michael Johnson are battling and here is Rory van der Steur actually going for it along with Muss and Johnson as the tires come into their own. The infield has no camber. It is flat as a pancake. We have just started this race on the central coast here in California. 2006 is when this place was last repaved. This could be a race of either one or two pit stops. Chris Miller in the #17 JDC-Miller Motorsports Audi RS3 LMS TCR, he is trying to pass Kyle Washington in the #32 GMG Racing Porsche Cayman in GT4.
A pit lane visit for TGM and the Porsche. Now, was that a penalty? Was it a scheduled pit stop? We are still fllowing Chris Miller as he has a second and a half lead on the #98 Hyundai of Harry Gottsacker. Gottsacker sharing with Parker Chase in the Elantra N TCR. We ride onboard with the #1 Hyundai Elantra now, Taylor Hagler at the wheel of it, sharing with Michael Lewis. The Honda Civic's are beginning to come to the fore and they want to get into it with the Hyundai's as we also see the Alfa Romeo moving up. Audi has the advantage right now and are at the top of the shop in TCR. But it is early doors as we are just ten minutes into the motor race.
Koch, Premat, Plumb, Murillo, Mars, the leaders in Grand Sport. So, that means we have a battle on between Mercedes, Porsche, and one of the Ford Mustang's. Mercedes AMG GT4's, Porsche Cayman GT4's. TCR strategy we are going to see tire degradation play a major factor compared to fuel mileage and slicing the cake. #17 is skipping away and they are in good shape on tire management with a one stop race for fuel. Again, argy bargy between Roy Block and Taylor Hagler. That is the Alfa Romeo and Hyundai kerfuffle. Do not abuse your tires. Make those Michelin's last.
You won't be too worried about fuel. The time delta down the lane is short here at Laguna Seca compared to other tracks. The yellow flags will tell the story as the calculators are on fire right now with the engineers crunching the numbers. Whoa! Some argy bargy with two of the BMW's as Vinnie Barletta crunches into Sean Quinlan. Kyle Raineri in a spot of bother with some contact in the #18 CB Motorsports Hyundai Veloster. The tire popped off the rim on the car he shares with Caleb Bacon, the team boss, who's dad Al Bacon was a legendary GT driver in IMSA. Jeff Mosing cracked a rib by having argy bargy of his own, docking his jet ski.
Kenny Murill is all over the tail of Matty Plumb as Ted Giovanis had to take a drive through penalty. Murillo gives Plumb room out of The Corkscrew. Giovannis was pinged because he crossed lanes before getting to the start/finish line. That is a no-no. Christian Szymczak who is Kenny Murillo's co-driver really did a good job in qualifying. These two won a GT4 championship in SRO last year with this same team. We have also been covering GT4 in SRO here on the blog as you have read. Now then, the Murillo team understand the deal with owning a team after being drivers. Roy van der Steur, Victor Gonzalez, and A.J. Muss, they are all scrapping. Two Hyundai Veloster's and a Honda Civic.
Fender damage on one of the cars. Keep the welly in it and stay out of the sand. Roy Block goes to fifth, down The Corkscrew. Alfa have won at Road America which was last summer and at Daytona back in January to start this season. Muss, a former Olympic snowboarder aboard the #2 Elantra sharing with Ryan Norman. Alan Brynjolfsson is pressing Mike McCann Jr. for tenth place. Porsche Cayman vs. Aston Martin Vantage. Volt Racing vs. McCann Racing. Cars #7 and #8. Situations and circumstances how you will play the cards during this motor race. That is how every race, no matter the track, no matter the cars, works.
Whoops! We have a car off the road and into the gravel trap. This is the #21 Toyota Supra GT4 for Riley Motorsports and Bluff City Racing. Now then, a scrum in progress here, look between BMW and Porsche, and it is pit stop time for the TCR JDC-Miller Audi, car #17. #21 is beached in the gravel and well and truly. He is buried up to the axles. Into the lane here too is the aforementioned #5 Alfa Romeo, I think. Ah. Full Course Yellow, Full Course Yellow. Poor old Anton Dias Perera needs to be rescued, sharing that car with Scott Andrews.
Here's it all again in slow motion and he got off in the gravel trap, tagged the wall, and spun out. The track marshals from the AMR safety team come o the resuce and will clear the Supra out of the kitty litter. Kenton Koch is your leader and we have not seen much change yet. Mercedes, Porsche, Ford, Toyota, BMW, Aston Martin, are the top Grand Sport players as we have been racing for just over 20 minutes. Dias Perera may have had a cut tire and he reported to the team he was coming to the pit lane but never appeared. Something definitely broke on the car. Glad to see him walk away. But it is game over for Perera and Andrews.
A few drivers decided to hit the pit lane just before the yellow and we'll see what that does to shuffle the deck in the running order. It is that candy dish. Blend through assorted car brands and/or assorted flavors of jellybeans, and you never quite know what you will get. So, a sole Toyota Supra shall remain in this race as it looks to be game over for #21. They will have to wait for another race to show what they've got. Wholesale pit stops for GS and the pit lane is jammed with teams and cars with tire changes and fuel taking place very early in the game. We are not even half an hour into this motor race yet and the strategy play is to get fresh tires and loaded up with fuel early in the going.
Then there will be one more round of wholesale stops before the end. That is what makes Michelin Pilot Challenge so fascinating to watch. As we know, in other forms of GT4 and TCR racing in different series, some of the races are a lot shorter, or the GT4 and TCR machines are included in grids with GT3 cars for long distance events. To the lane, the TCR entrants led by a couple of the factory Hyundai's of which there are six or so with Bryan Herta Autosport. Fuel and tires for all of them. One of them is going to get away before the rest of the TCR's here. You can see that the TCR machines have a central mounted wheel but with five individual lug nuts instead of one central locking nut. That is how TCR and GT4 work.
In the WeatherTech Championship, those cars have central locking wheels just like we see with the new generation NASCAR Cup cars this year. It looks like everybody is in line now and we are getting close to a restart minus one car of course of the 41 starters. The top 11 cars in Grand Sport elected to stay out. Murillo and TGM had to split their strategies including TGM Porsche and team manager, Joe Varde, a former driver. Some of the other teams are slicing the cake into 45-minute blocks. Victor Gonzalez leads TCR in Honda #99 who is on a different strategy, doing one stop. Low grip, don't chase the power, and save fuel. Sheena Monk, in the Ford Mustang, car #877. She is a snowboarder, a golfer, a basketball fan, and has three dogs.
Monk and Marcelli are going with the Ford Mustang GT4 after their Toyota Supra was absolutely obliterated in an accident. Mason Filippi in the Hyundai also had to change back to the Veloster. No new Elantra's were available from Europe where they also race in TCR competition over there. Sheena Monk has run a McLaren 570S GT4, to a Toyota Supra GT4, and now to a Ford Mustang GT4. Tough to go through three different cars in a short time period. Well, well, well. The Mercedes will have a few Porsche's right on his six. Giovannis gets dropped as James Pesek who won with Chad McCumbee at Sebring.
Alan Brynjolfsson wants a bite of the cherry but can he get it? Yes. Poor old Ted Giovannis is dropping like a stone. There is the #69 Absolute Racing Porsche Cayman, Anderson Tanoto at the wheel of it. We saw him last weekend at Sonoma Raceway here in California in SRO GT4. Oh criminy! Sheena mMonk has spun in The Corkscrew! Is she dead in the water? Wait for the field to go by and she has sunk down to the bottom fo the field as there's a three-four wide mess out of turn 11! Holy mackerel! Monk has started the car and she is able to use gravity to free herself from the sand. Maybe she stalled. In replay, Tanoto was too aggressive and spun Monk out.
Anderson, calm down, sunshine. In 2018, Sheena Monk had a massive accident here, nose first and a somersault in a Lamborghini Super Trofeo car! That looks ugly! Kenny Murillo leads the motor race by 2.6 seconds over Hugh Plumb, James Pesek, and the rest. Alfredo JNajri had some contact there with Tanoto. Elbows out. Muscle your way around this legendary circuit at Laguna Seca. That's the way to play the game, sunshine. Speaking of games, more sports car fun and frolics down through The Corkscrew. Now then, BMW on Mercedes and an old rivalry bubbling up again. Turner vs. Murillo. Speaking of Turner, the other blue and yellow BMW M4 is in the pit lane.
The battle of the Hyuundai's also resumes up the hill they go, up the Rahal straightaway and back into The Corkscrew again One of the Honda's looks like he's lost spots. That may be Victor Gonzalez from the look of it. In replay, ah, he ran in way tdeep and cut the downhill of The Corkscrew across the sand. That was a hold onto your hat moment. In the lane now, look, is the #93 CarBahn with Peregrine Racing Porsche Cayman. We will check that one in a moment as more passes go down through The Corkscrew. #93 is being shared by Sameer Ghandi and Tyler McQuarrie. Laguna Seca, the dry lake bed, since the 1950s, has been a great track here in Salinas, California, and the local council has voted for more money to keep upgrading the circuit including new pavement in the not too distant future.
We will see resurfacing next year in 2023. At the front, Murillo leads Plumb by 4.5 seconds. Gonzalez missed his braking point, and he will turn the care over soon, to co-driver Karl Wittmer. Crunching fuel numbers, you can go past the halfway mark on fuel, 60 minutes plus. Don't bank on a yellow. Have flexibility on your fuel even if your tires get ratty. Roy Block tries it on Chris Miller, late in the turn. Block is going to push on the inside to turn six, and bish, bash, bosh, he makes the pass up the Rahal straightaway and down again through The Corkscrew. Victor Gonzalez is clawing his way back, look.
Turn into the corner but don't leave it too late and here comes Robert Wickens in the #33 Hyundai, fighting his way up the order with 50 minutes on the board. So ten minutes before halfway. Gonzalez slams the door in Wickens' face. But then, he pays the price and spins off into the sand. In replay, Gonzalez gets frazzled, giving Miller a tap, and then, into the next turn, it just was not on and he spun off the road. Wickens gets the traction and he is going to pass Chris Miller for third, or will he? Miller wants it. Wickens holds it to the inside and his team mate goes with him. Harry Gottsacker follows Wickens through.
In TCR, the discussion point is all the contact. Oh boy. #69 off the road and that is Anderson Tanoto again. Jeepers creepers! He has been in the wars today so far. Let the boys and girls have at it for hard racing, but there is a line that has to be drawn with a thick black marker to say, "ladies and gentlemen, take it easy." Pit lane will be closed when we go to yellow so the TCR boys and girls are in the lane for service and driver changes. Taylor Hagler hands over to Michael Lewis. They have had two runner up finishes after their 2021 championship. Anderson Tanoto is being rescued. Tanoto, from Jakarta, Indonesia. In replay, he has the TCR Audi right bahind and got biffed by the #15 Audi who dove super late into the turn.
That #15 entry is the #15 Belgrade & Techniseal Racing Audi RS3 with the DSG gearbox for Eric Rockwell and former Hyundai driver, Denis Dupont. That is the only DSG Audi in the field and we see a couple more with sequential gearboxes. Now, trouble in paradise here for the Porsche? The #46 Cayman is in the lane maybe for regular service, but it is hard to say as the marshals, rescue Anderson Tanoto. Will they let him get back into the race? It was clear that Rockwell gave poor old Tanoto the rough end of the pineapple, and well, he is out and so is the #46. Well, #46 is not out but it will go behind the wall for the time being to affect repairs.
Porsche #46 is back in the race as we see fans watching from the very top of The Corkscrew, with then sign telling you where you are. Wholesale Grand Sport pit stops now. These are the second stops we talked about. Kenny Murillo out of #72 and he will hand over to Christian Szymczak as the refueling is taking place and the tires are being changed. Index the wheel and hit the lug nuts with the rattle gun. These rattle guns are different because of the five-lug nut wheel design. The #877 Ford Mustang just pitted and there's contact as the TGM Porsche of Matt Plumb had to get out and had contact with the TCR Hyundai! Hole in the radiator and the day is done for the TGM Porsche. We saw that in the most recent WeatherTech race at Long Beach with a pit lane scrum between Corvette Racing and the Pfaff Porsche team where the Porsche got a holed radiator and got the worst of a pit lane shemozzle.
TCR cars now in the lane for service. Feeding time for the horses out on the prairie here. Both Hyundai Elantra's in the lane for BHA and so are the others as we watch from the rear facing tail's away shot. VCMG Honda in the lane and now everyone else is bottled up at pit out like a highway traffic jam and this see the Hyundai quartet move ahead of everybody else. Past halfway in the motor race. Less than an hour to go. 55 minutes and change on the board. Some shuffling at the top of the shop in Grand Sport, look. Now into the lane, the #09 Aston Martin for Automatic Racing. These boys are off sequence on their pit stops. Fuel, tires, and a driver change should see Rob Ecklin getting into the car.
The order in Grand Sport has shuffled with Trent Hindman's Aston Martin ahead of Jason Hart's Porsche Cayman with Bill Auberlen and Robby Foley in the BMW's, Robin Liddell in the Camaro, Tom Long in the Toyota Supra for Forbush Performance, car #6, and more taking their places. Most cars have pitted and a few are off strategy. Everyone is close. Eric Foss in the Mercedes, followed by the #14 Riley Motorsports Toyota Supra of Serge Camilo. Treent Hindman now leads. Nate Stacy in the #60 Mustang and Christian Szymczak in tenth. So, we aee going to see Owen Trinkler trying hard to get back on the lead lap as Trent Hindman leads Jason Hart.
The Turner Motorsport's BMW's are in the fight. Poor old Owen Trinkler is six laps down and will take a massive hit in the championship battle. Wide through The Corkscrew for Christian Szymczak as Chad McCumbee and Nate Stacy are pushing hard in the two Ford Mustang's for different teams. Robin Liddell making his way through in the #71 Rebel Rock Camaro who did not race on the west coast in 2021. He won in Michelin Pilot in 2015 in his championship season with Andrew Davis here in Michelin Pilot Challenge. Leading TCR, John Morley in the #61 Road Shagger Racing Audi RS3 LMS TCR. Morley is a racing instructor here at Laguna Seca sharing with Gavin Ernstone. Ernstone, the Englishman, he says the team is in good shape.
Ernstone says there's less argy bargy going on and we have seen massive melees in the past. Road Shagger Racing looking for the win. We know the BHA Hyundai team are going to push hard to give everything they have, throwing the kitchen sink at the Audi boys. Trent Hindman breaking away from Jason Hart to the tune of 2.1 seconds. 5.9 seconds between the top ten in Grand Sport/GT4. Hindman, Hart, Bill Auberlen, Robby Foley, Sergio Camilo, Eric Foss, Nate Stacy, Robin Liddell, Stevan McAleer, and Billy Johnson, the top ten.
45 minutes left on the board as Jon Morley leads his home race. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, it is Honda vs. Hyundai, redux. Now, Hart into The Corkscrew is right on Auberlen's six. Did Auberlen pass for second? If so, he is 2.3 seconds in-arrears as Hindman in the Aston Martin has bolted. McCumbee and Stacy, scrapping fot tenth in Grand Sport in the battle of the Mustang's. A huge gaggle of GS cars chopping and changing through The Corkscrew. Meanwhile, we see the Porsche's crapping hard as well. Side by side stuff here, look, in GS with 42 minutes on the clock. Throw caution to the wind. Stevan McAleer is really pushing hard. Christian Szymczak has Chad McCumbee all over him like the cheap suit here.
Szymczak has moved up and we can see KohR Motorsports and both of those guys going for it. Stacy and Johnson really pushing with the oldest GT4 car in the field. That Mustang takes care of it's tires if the driver manages the Michelin's well. The Mustang is a renown muscle car, but the GT4 Mustang has boatloads of downforce and is good under braking. Oh no! Marcelli has been turned and spun off the road crashing the Mustang! Oh good grief! The JG Wentworth/PF Racing crew will be beside themselves! This is a short yellow as it is within 15 minutes of a preceeding Full Course Yellow as they pull Kyle Marcelli to a place of safety. Did he get tagged or drop a wheel off into the sand. Someone got into the back of hism, and he got turned, and... ker-runch! Straight into the wall. Not enough room and he got pinballed into the barriers.
This is a short yellow and if I were the team boss at JG Wentworth Racing with another wrecked racer, I'd be pulling me hair out. J.G. Wentworth is a cash lender. Well, these folks will need some money to try and fix this secondhand motorcar. That's for dead sure. Call your sponsor. They may be able to help. Hello? J.G. Wentworth? We need cash to fix the race car. Kyle Marcelli will check in at the care center and see how things go. Sheena Monk is frustrated and understandably so as some drivers are out here not using their heads it sounds like. Will Turner, team boss at Turner Motorsports says we won't count our chickens (or our tacos), yet. It is anyone's game. Half an hour on the board. That's it.
Green flag and Hindman lights the rocket boosters. Jason Hart lurking in third between the two BMW's and the #14 Toyota Supra is fling now too with Sergio Camilo at the wheel of it. Sorry. Thiago Camilo. Made a mistake with his name. Thiago wants by Jason Hart and now Eric Foss and Stevan McAleer both go by. McAleer is right on Foss' tail. McAleer now under fire from Billy Johnson in the Mustang! Holy smokes! It is go time, now! Push it! Hindman ahead of Auberlen by 9/10ths of a second. Hindman told to hit his marks. But he has a legend and a tough competitor in his rearview mirror. Bill Auberlen wants a title and has not had one for a long time.
John Morley and Mikey Taylor in identical Audi's. Morley has more track experience, but Taylor is pouring on the steam. This is a brand-new Audi for Road Shagger after wrecking their primary car at Daytona at the beginning of the year. Hindman now leads Auberlen by a second. The TCR battle is hot and heavy as Tyler Gonzalez now all over the back of Mikey Taylor. So the Hyundai's are coming to the fore trying to move past the Audi's as McAleer slams his way past Foss. Foss has Billy Johnson right on top of him. This is going to be a battle royale to the bitter end.
I don't know where to start. So many drivers and cars want it. How bad do you want it? McAleer is pushing Robby Foley who has Jason Hart ahead. Hart is moving ahead after having to save a splash of gas. We have seen three Full Course Yellow's in the race. Now it is time to pull the pin and go all out. Nolasport coming off a 2021 championship in SRO GT4. Bill Auberlen, meanwhile, chasing Hindman as Hart is off and so does Foss! Some feisty drivers want the glory and they are fighting hard. Jon Morley and Mikey Taylor still have their tussle going and here comes the Alfa Romeo of Tim Lewis! This is mad! Oh no. No drive for Mikey Taylor! Game over as the engine has gone bang.
Will we see another yellow? That'll put the cat among the pigeons. Something broke on the driveline of the #17 JDC-Miller Audi. A broken axle, maybe? Thank heavens Tim Lewis snuck by with no damage. Owen Trinkler also in trouble down the hill. This is the #64 TGM Porsche, the other Cayman. No fire in the belly of the beast and we have Full Course Yellow number four on the speedway here at Laguna Seca. These GT4 and TCR entries are homologated so setups can't be altered much. The temperature is cooling with the jackets coming out. The marine layer of fog is descending over the track just off the Pacific Ocean, the Monterey Peninsula. We often see that in the morning but also in the afternoon.
We will have about 15 minutes for an Old West, high noon shootout here at Laguna Seca. Use the brakes to put heat into the tires and get set to buckle down. #11 has had a quiet day. Gary Ferrera and Kris Wilson had their transporter break down, so they had to put a trailer on a dually pickup truck and travel to the track. It is cooling off big style before the end of the motor race. Two Bronze rated drivers in the #11 Capstone Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT4. Green flag. Hindman punches it and Auberlen will push from the word go. Hindman closes the door and hetre comes Robby Foley on Jason Hart! Two Turner BMW's on the podium. What can Auberlen do to pass Hindman in the Aston Martin?
Parker Chase goes off in the dust to pass Tim Lewis. Hyundai vs. Alfa Romeo in TCR. Lewis says Chase "used me up!" Big smoke for the #33 of Mark Wilkins with a tire rubbing on that Hyundai Elantra. Not a good day for the firm of Wilkins and Wickens. Wilkins to the lane as Stephen Simpson barges Denis Dupont for position. Mark Wilkins got crunched by Karl Wittmer in the Honda and that's what caused the damage and subsequently, the very expensive smoke. Hyundai in and out of the lane. Now, Morley has Parker Chase right on his six going for the win. Morley is a savvy veteran. He knows what to do. The veteran vs. the youngster.
Parker Chase raced in NASCAR Xfinity competition, so he knows how to use the chrome horn. Now, Tim Lewis Jr. flies past Chase! Yikes! Parker Chase said NASCAR had too much contact. Jon Morley wants it all. He wants the gold medal, the trophy, here at Laguna Seca. Meanwhile, it is hot and heavy in GS as one of the Turner BMW's is in the lane, the #95 of Bill Auberlen and Robby Foley. Check that. Foley is now in #96 and he just got passed by Stevan McAleer in the Porsche. A spin look, for the Hyundai Elantra. Can't see the number. Morley in lapped traffic in the Andretti Hairpin, mega crunch into the #2 Hyundai. Tim Lewis committed to the inside and tagged the #2.
Tim Lewis Jr. right on Jon Morley's six. Seven and a half minutes to go. Argy bargy everywjere as Bull Auberlen had come to the pit lane while Thiago Camilo makes a pass. For the second consecutive race at Laguna Seca, Auberlen has a flat tire! Goodness gracious! No tacos for Turner Motorsport tonight. Incident responsibility and a drive through penalty for Jon Morley! Road Shagger Racing will be gutted! Too much contact in this championship and in TCR. IMSA are going to be drawing a major line in the sand here. Too many yellows and too much anxiety during the motor races. We need more green flag action and the drivers need to chill out.
Tim Lewis Jr. will take the TCR lead over Tyler Gonzalez. Gonzalez, 17 years old, running in TCR races in 2021. He teamed up with Tyler Maxson last year. A suckerpunch for the Road Shagger Audi team who wanted a second win at Laguna Seca. Not this year. Tim Lewis Jr. leads TCR over Tyler Gonzalez as Trent Hindman is being chased down by Stevan McAleer. Volt Racing changed over to Aston Martin late in 2020. 2021 was not a good year for Hindman and Alan Brynjolfsson and they kept the same car but changed teams for this year. McAleer, the Daytona winner in Pilot Challenge, he will score a good chunk of points today, too.
Denis Dupont is chasing down Parker Chase (no pun intended), for a podium in TCR. Dupont wants it into the Andretti hairpin. He tries the crossover but no. Two minutes left on the board. Parker Chase has great car control and is not dirt tracking the car anymore. He has settled down his driving but he runs wide and Dupont has the run. Argy bargy on corner entry and ehre comes Stephen Simpsion and Simpson passes them both! Holy cow! Simpson is moving in. Parker Chase has to play catch up. Lewis Jr. leads over Gonzalez. Dupont, Simpson, Chase, that is the scrum we are watching.
Dupont might be able to pull away, but he could have damage. Hindman leads McAleer by three secnds. Final lap. Trent Hindman is going for the checkered flag and into the final turn, he does it! Volt Racing, Alan Brynjolfson and Trent Hindman are your winners! The Alfa Romeo team in TCR are going to win their second race of the year. Alfa Romeo win TCR at Laguna Seca. Dupont has a run on Gonzalez to the flag and pours on the steam for second in TCR! Holy schnikes! Dupont was almost in no man's land but outacclerates the Hyundai in TCR for second in class!
Overall/Grand Sport: #7 Brynjolfson/Hindman Volt Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4
TCR: #5 Block/Lewis KMW Motorsports with TMR Engineering Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce TCR
Another action-packed Michelin Pilot Challenge event in the bag. Holy smokes! This racing is good! If you aren't watching IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge, you are missing out of some top shelf action. Check it out. We do it all again in just two weeks with the Mid-Ohio 120 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on Saturday, May 14th. Join us at Mid-Ohio. Trust me, you will not want to miss it.
No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-05 turns lap a tick better than track qualifying record set by same car last year.
https://www.imsa.com/news/2022/04/29/taylor-acura-on-record-pace-at-weathertech-raceway-practice/
All you need to know about tomorrow's IMSA WeatherTech Championship race at Laguna Seca Raceway.
https://www.imsa.com/news/2022/04/29/weathertech-raceway-laguna-seca-resource-guide-3/
Super sub Kenton Koch storms to Laguna Seca pole for Murillo Racing...
https://sportscar365.com/imsa/impc/koch-takes-murillo-mercedes-amg-gt4-laguna-seca-pole/
News from Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, California, setting up for this weekend and round four of the 2022 IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship, the Hyundai Sports Car Championship.
News stories from Michelin Pilot Challenge headed into the third race of their 2022 campaign at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, California, scheduled for Saturday afternoon.
Lots and lots of news from the FIA World Endurance Championship heading into round two of the 2022 season, the 6 Hours of Spa Francorchamps, this coming weekend, and even more when it comes to the next race after that, the granddaddy of all sports car races, the whole deal, the big kahuna, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, at Circuit de la Sarthe in Le Mans, France, in June.
The No. 64 Team TGM Porsche is tied for the GS points lead in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Heading to WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
We talked to #85 CP Racing drivers Charles Espenlaub and Shane Lewis after the Hankook 12H SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS 2022, where they took 2nd place overall and P1 in the GT3-AM class together with fellow driver Charles Putman.
Visit the 24H SERIES website for more information on the 2022 Championship and all of our upcoming races: https://www.24hseries.com/
From the official IMSA website, the latest WeatherTech Championship stories heading for Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, California, this weekend.
The IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship returns to action this weekend, once again, in California, at Laguna Seca Raceway. Here's the latest news and notes via Sportscar365 in a weekend preview. Plus, look for additional articles with stories from the official IMSA website.
SRO and Lamborghini Super Trofeo will not race at the new Ozarks Raceway in mid-May as was announced at the end of the Sonoma race report in the middle of May. Instead of that, they will go down to the land of the bayou and race at NOLA Motorsports Park in New Orleans, Louisiana.
https://sportscar365.com/imsa/lamborghini-st/nola-replaces-ozarks-on-calendar/
Check out this week's episode of Double Stint featuring NLS recap and news of the week...
https://sportscar365.com/podcasts/double-stint-nls3-recap-news-roundup-more/
Farfus, De Phillippi lead historic 1-2-3 finish for new BMW M4 GT3 in NLS3…
https://sportscar365.com/other-series/n24/rowe-leads-bmw-m4-gt3-podium-sweep-in-nls3/
Global supply chain issues forces Falken squad to sit out Saturday’s NLS round…
https://sportscar365.com/other-series/n24/falken-withdraws-from-nls3-due-to-lack-of-tires/
Qualifying, and the race, for the latest round the Creventic 24 Hour Series, the 12 Hours of Spa with Radio Show Limited commentary from John Hindhaugh and Ben Constanduros in the broadcast booth plus pit reporting from Joe Bradley and Nick Damon.
Qualifying:
Race (Part 1):
Race (Part 2):
Report from ADAC GT Masters season-opener plus other racing action and news...
https://sportscar365.com/features/roundup/weekly-racing-roundup-4-25-22/
German squad goes from third to first and takes second Audi win of the season...
https://sportscar365.com/other-series/24hseries/phoenix-racing-takes-victory-at-spa-12h/
American squad up front at overnight intervention in Hankook 12H Spa…
https://sportscar365.com/other-series/24hseries/cp-racing-leads-12h-spa-at-halfway-point/
German Ferrari beats BoDa Bentley to dominant pole at Spa Francorchamps…
https://sportscar365.com/other-series/24hseries/wtm-racing-takes-pole-position-for-12h-spa/
More news leading up to the rescheduled 2022 running of the Bathurst 12 Hours at Mount Panorama for the Intercontinental GT Challenge. The race is slated to take place in a few weeks in mid-May.
News and notes as well as more from the IMSA official website.
Davey Euwema joins John Dagys on this week's show to recap ELMS opener and more...
https://sportscar365.com/podcasts/double-stint-paul-ricard-recap-listener-questions-more/
Sunday action from Sonoma Raceway in SRO America with Ryan Myrehn and Calvin Fish commentating from the booth and Amanda Busick reporting from the pit lane.
GT America Race 2
TC America Race 2
It is time, for the second and final race of the weekend for SRO GT World Challenge America, in their season opening weekend here at Sonoma Raceway in the California wine country. Yesterday, a new season commenced in grand style, and we will once again see 20 GT3 race cars compete in round two of the championship. A very Happy Easter to everybody. Once again, we join Ryan Myrehn and Calvin Fish in the commentary box and Amanda Busick in the pit lane for the race call. Two and a half miles and 12 turns. Sonoma equals four kilometers in metric measurement. Turns two and three are a wild ride. Manage your Pirelli P Zero tires. That is one of the criticl elements as we get set to close out the weekend. Yesterday, Jordan Pepper led the field but Jean Claude Saada spun. Steven Agakhani and Russell Ward scrapped with each other. David Askew plowed into the tires.
The Am class Ferrari battle between Triarsi and AF Corse and the Ferrari's really scrapped. Conrad Grunewald won over Onofrio Triarsi. Robby Foley had a battle with the Lamborghini of Giacomo Altoe. At the front, K-PAX won it with Andrea Caldarelli and Jordan Pepper. Caldarelli and Pepper will have their work cut out for them. Loris Spinelli has pole for this motor race in the #6 US Racetronics Mercedes he shares with Steven Agakhani. Caldarelli qualifies second and this is K-PAX Racing's home base at Sonoma Raceway. Giacomo Altoe and Misha Goikhberg will have a lot to prove. Corey Lewis and Jeff Burton in the #191 Zelus Motorsports Lamborghini is another one of the Bologna cars to keep an eye peeled for.
Again, Loris Spinelli is top of the shop and he wants to keep the Lambo behind the Mercedes. Steven Agakhani says the team did a superb job getting the car prepared for the two races this weekend. They scored pole by a mere seven thousandths of a second. Loris Spinelli will maximize everything he has the 20 GT3 cars fire up. K-PAX Racing are just as confident. Jordan Pepper says that the team at K-PAX can build on their win from yesterday. What will the strategy be? K-PAX plan to run a reverse strategy of some kind. One full service pit stop, 90 minutes, and two drivers sharing the car. Strategy and the undercut will be critical. Come in ASAP when the pit window opens. With tire degradation, we will see what happens. Again, 20 cars starting the race as we are on the formation laps for race two here at Sonoma.
Tire warmers are allowed (blankets or ovens) in SRO GTWC America. The cars are weaving back and forth to clean the tires, riding the brake against the throttle to build heat into the tire as well as pressure. The field has been reversed and the professional drivers qualify. We are going to see fireworks early doors. Trust me. Maintain your professional driver's stint as long as possible before the swap. We have onboard cameras in a Mercedes, a BMW M4, and a Lamborghini. You will be hearing a V6, a V8, and a V10 engine. The safety car is in the pit lane. Race two at Sonoma is set. We've got a green flag and we are underway!
Spinelli gets the jump and here comes Giacomo Altoe almost slamming the pit wall as Mario Farnbacher moves up as Giacomo Altoe recovers but Phil Ellis and Jan Heylen are both coming in a real hurry. RealTime Racing are back in the #43 Acura NSX GT3. Michael Cooper sharing with Erin Vogel as Dirk Muller is sharing the other DXDT Mercedes with David Askew. Corey Lewis is trying to move foeward but rattles over the curbs. Into the chicane for the first time. Robby Foley in the #96 Turner Motorsports BMW M4 GT3 is right there, sharing with the legend, Bill Auberlen.
So, we look at the top ten about a lap or so in and it is Loris Spinelli, Andrea Caldarelli, Mario Farnbacher, Giacomo Altoe, Phil Ellis, Jan Heylen, Michael Cooper, Dirk Muller, Colin Braun, and Corey Lewis. Spinelli is motoring ahead. He had speed and then faded in race one yesterday. Colin Braun is carving his way through the field and gains seven places. He had to make hay while the sun shines and by gosh, did he ever. Dirk Muller races with Multimatic and he is teamed up in a Pro-Am duo with David Askew for the 2022 season. DXDT Racing is the team Colin Braun used to drive for in SRO America. GT3 cars echo through the northern California hillsides. Nick Wittmer has fallen back at the back of the queue, the Canadian in the ST Racing BMW M4 GT3 who won at Mugello in Italy a while ago in the Creventic series.
In front, it sounds like an Italian race to me with Loris Spinelli and Andrea Caldarelli. The three- pointed star of Mercedes Benz vs. the raging bull of Lamborghini. The Pirelli P Zero tires are beginning to hit their sweet spot. Each sector will see cars, team,s drivers, having advantages over the others. A good battle here, look, for third place as Giacomo Altoe in the Lamborghini is monstering Mario Farnbacher, the rapid German, known as "Super Mario". He is sharing the Racer's Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3 with Ashtyn Harrison, a Honda development driver who we have heard a lot from already in 2022. This team is under the direction at Racer's Edge of team boss John Mirachi. Farnbacher deep into the corner. These two have swapped places, both factory drivers.
Farnbacher at Honda Performance Development and Altoe for Lamborghini Squadra Corsa. Altoe's family are racers and own a track in Italy. Use all of the road over the crest in turn three. Now, look at this, folks. We already have someone who has gone fastest of all, has gone purple, in the sector. Caldarelli uncorks a 1:37.266. Fire the car over the top without seeing the exit. Downhill through The Carousel, in turn six, you are playing chicken with the throttle. Through turn seven, it is a wide corner. Racer's Edge out of Florida and K-PAX on home soil at Sonoma Raceway, right in their own backyard. Colin Braun takes a lot of curb, make sure the suspension is compliant to handle the bumps.
High speed is achieved down the front straight and into turn one at around 144 miles an hour. Spinelli in the Benz is not as quick running second. Tire management a big deal. We harp about it. But it is the honest truth. Get the tire to it's sweet spot. On Friday in Free Practice, the tires dropped off, but got better with rubber on the road for more traction as Loris Spinelli leads the motor race while Andrea Caldarelli continues to push hard. The gap is 8/10ths of a second between Spinelli and Caldarelli as Mario Farnbacher is doing all he can to hold off Giacomo Altoe. Altoe is a Pro class car and Farnbacher is a Pro-Am entry.
Lurking and probing in the background is Jan Heylen racing with Charlie Luck in the second place Pro-Am Porsche 911 GT3R. That is the #45 Wright Motorsports entry. Spinelli brakes deep into turn 11 and so, we can see Caldarelli might have a bite of the cherry here. He is going to do everything to make the move on Spinelli for the race lead. Caldarelli fights the Lambo over the bumps and into turn three the elevation change as the world falls away off the edge of the road. Spinelli is missing an apex here or there, just going all out and trying to hold the race lead. That Lamborghini for K-PAX is Darth Vader's car. It has a very sinister look. You know who is in your mirrors if you see that stealth racer coming. Darth Vader, or Racer X from Speed Racer.
Caldarelli taking a tight entry into the turn, while we see Spinelli opening the radius of the turn to gain more space on the road. Caldarelli and the stealth fighter Lambo are really beginning to hit their stride. We can see he is closing up on Spinelli hand over fist already. Yesterday we saw Spinelli scrapping with another Mercedes in the hands of Philip Ellis, and then, they faded as the race went on towards it's conclusion. Farnbacher has to be the cork in the bottle here and has to have Mario Farnbacher seeing red just like the paint on that Acura. He must be thinking, "why won't this bloke just let me by?!" Altoe is more patient than that.
We will see his co-driver, Misha Goikhberg, the Canadian, with a good bit of prototype experience but not so much in GT cars, take the wheel in the second half. Watch for the aero wash with the aerodynamic appendages on then front of these cars. Wright Motorsports was the Pro-Am champion team last year sharing with Fred Poordad. Yours truly was saddened that he could not cover all the races last year in SRO America. This year, that could very well change. Sonoma is an amazing track and we might just see a similar character at the new Ozarks track in Missouri for the next round of the series and you will hear more about that at the conclusion of the race today once we find out who the winners will be.
Everyone is wondering about how the Ozarks track will look. In mid-May we'll find out as everyone who has seen the drawings and so forth of the place is calling it a miniature Nurburgring. Farnbacher runs wide and Altoe is staying in the picture. Altoe can get more aerodynamics. He scraps his way over the curbs. A sharp front end will be a hinderance over the bumps and the curbs. Bill Auberlen is currently fending off the challenge of Am class leader Conrad Grunewald in the #61 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 he is sharing with Jean Claude Saada. They were the team to beat in Am in yesterday's race. Bimmerworld are making their GT3 debut with Bill Auberlen and Chandler Hull, the driving duo. They were on the Pro Am podium yesterday.
They had another car they were testing at Virginia International Raceway, crashed it, totaled it, and now they have another new car that seems to be working and of course due to what everyone knows we are gojng through in the world these days, supplies are an issue. Different classes for the two drivers, but Auberlen and Grunewald run 14th and 15th in the overall classification of 20 cars. Colin Braun is chasing after Dirk Muller in identical cars, two Mercedes AMG GT3's. Muller has run with Porsche, Ferrari, Ford, Mercedes... you name it. Altoe off in the dirt, slices past Farnbacher and Ellis says "thanks a bunch", and tries to make a move after Altoe probably got junk all over his tires.
Look at this! This is a double whammy, because Ellis is to Altoe's inside and likewise, Farnbacher is just about to be passed by Jan Heylen as well! Hip and shoulder. Argy bargy between Altoe and Ellis into turn 11! Ellis is pinched down to the inside on Altoe and kills two birds with a single stone, picking up two places. Man oh man! Did you see that?! Altoe is not finished yet. The Italian will now run down the German and make Ellis feel the heat! Heylen now demotes Farnbacher as well, look. Heylen overtakes for the lead in the Pro-Am class. Ellis will be cackling like a madman inside his helmet after seeing this ruckus.
Hard to see if Altoe was square into the corner and we shall see what the stewards think of that one. Loris Spinelli leads Andrea Caldarelli at the sharp end, but only by 3/10ths of a second. Those two have broken away from this hammer and tongs battle. Trap speeds into the slow braking zone at turn 11 see Heyklen the slowest at 45.3 miles an hour, Farnbacher at 47.8, Caldarelli at 49 even, Michele Beretta at 49.7, and at the top of the shop in cornering speeds it is indeed Phil Ellis running 52.1 miles an hour. The Mercedes is one of the well rounded GT3 cars and performs every task a driver asks of it, extremely well. The brakes are good. It is compliant over bumps. It has good mechanical grip as well. Altoe in fourth place right now.
Spinelli and Caldarelli are the leaders, it should be the other way 'round. Ellis and Altoe are now allowed to scrap amongst themselves and have drawn away from Jan Heylen and Mario Farnbacher. Farnbacher losing ground just slightly. Caldarelli has uncorked the fastest lap of the motor race so far at 1:37.208. Caldarelli has a Captain Cook into turn one but no dice there. It's a rodeo ride through turns one and two while Loris Spinelli slams the door in his face. Cresting the hill through turn three, plunging downhill into four. The Carousel has road continually falling away as Jordan Pepper looks on. He is up for the challenge for the next stint. Pepper bish bash boshed it in a rainy qualifying session.
He was faster than anyone in the dry, during the wet Q1. Unbelievable. Pepper said "not bad for a guy who comes from a country where it doesn't rain all that much." South Africa does have a rainy season as we have seen in Intercontinental GT Challenge at the Kyalami 9 Hours. But, for the most part, the man is spot on. Pepper's career blossomed in Europe and is now racing in North America. Caldarelli continues monstering Spinelli. Spinelli's second and a half lead has evaporated. Spinelli may not quite have a car on the same level as Caldarelli but, by gum, he is hanging in there expertly right now. In Am, Conrad Grunewald has gone by Bill Auberlen's Pro Am BMW M4 GT3 and now we see Bryan Sellers also doing his level best to move in on Auberlen.
Sellers, who drives an M4 BMW in a different GT3 championship, he is at the controls of the #08 Qelo Capitol/DXDT Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 sharing the car with Scott Smithson. Grunewald passing a legend and veteran like Bill Auberlen, you can bet your bottom dollar that is a feather in his hat. Auberlen may be piloting an unhappy BMW at this moment or maybe he is not content with the setup on the car. Once again, it is early days for the M4 GT3 being in this realm of competition although we have seen the car in other championships including the European part of SRO which opened their season a wee while ago at the Imola circuit in Italy.
In replay we can see that Grunewald tried the slingshot move on Auberlen and he absolutely stuck that pass like glue. Truth be told, Auberlen probably let Grunewald go and realized the fight was not for a class position. Bryan Sellers though, is coming, and fast, chasing down Auberlen. We saw Smithson race in GT America on the street course in St. Petersburg, Florida, earlier in the year, and of course, Smithson is a former SRO Touring Car competior. Sellers is coming off a massive win about a week or ten days ago here in the state of California at Long Beach, in another sports car series.
Sellers coached Smithson in TCR. We run onboard with Colin Braun chasing Jorg Muller and Michael Cooper. Braun, the Texan, now living in North Carolina. As far as Acura are concerned, the RealTime team had success here in SRO at Sonoma in 2019 at a time when yours truly was not really following the series, but back then Dane Cameron shared a GT3 spec NSX with Mike Hedlund in SRO racing. Great to see true legends of the World Challenge form of sports car racing in RealTime, back. RealTime and Racer's Edge will be scrapping hard to see who is top dog at Acura, not unlike Acura's prototype efforts in a different championship.
Loris Spinelli, holy mackerel! He is taking it like a champ here against the absolute mind games that a GT3 world champion like Andrea Caldarelli must be playing with him. Spinelli has not cracked like an egg under all the pressure. He is holding his own brilliantly. Up the hill you can see Spinelli uses more of the road entering the turn and Caldarelli takes a shallower line going into the corner. With the elevation changes here at Sonoma, with the massive rear wings on these GT3 cars, you can lose your sight line over the crest of a hill as you speed uphill and down dale. It is a bit of a trick on the old eyes of these drivers.
Ashton Harrison has faith in her teammate Mario Farnbacher that he can come back into the game. Harrison is racing her first event here at Sonoma. The car has run very well in all conditions here at Sonoma. She started off in Mazda MX-5 Cup, became the first female driver to win in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo World Final. In recent years, Ashton Harrison graduated from the HPD GT3 Academy and that punched her ticket into the highly competitive world of GT3 sports car racing after running in a single make championship or two where all cars are equal and it is down to the skill of the driver. But we continue to watch this intriguing battle between Caldarelli and Spinelli.
We are close to the one hour to go mark as we watched third in the Pro class, Philip Ellis, the German who is now racing under a Swiss license. He has had a solid but somewhat quiet run in the Mercedes he is sharing with Russell Ward at Winward Racing. They are early in their development as a team and Russell Ward along with his dad Bryce are overseeing the team. Wowzers. More action at the top of the shop as we can see Spinelli nearly clattering into Caldarelli! Loris Spinelli has the bit between his teeth right now. Caldarelli wants to put the old squeeze play on Spinelli and create a buffer ahead of his teammate in the sister K-PAX Racing Lamborghini.
The next stint with these two cars will see Stephen Agakhani (who is nowhere near as experienced), racing against the very experienced South African who we heard from earlier, Jordan Pepper. How hard do you push in stint one, before stint two and that hand off of the car to your co-driver? Stephen Agakhani in spite of limited experience has had the pace all weekend and so it shall be a fascinating matchup. The Lambo is very strong on corner exit compared to the Mercedes as we can see Spinelli defending with everything he's got. The fight is on and the shark is right on the back of the minnow. Cue the "Jaws" music.
One hour to go. With each passing lap, Spinelli's task of fending off this menacing stealth Lamborghini is becoming more and more of a challenge. Caldarelli wants to get to Spinelli before the pit window opens. K-PAX chasing US Racetronics. Where has Corey Lewis gone? He has dropped three places giving way to Ryan Dalziel, Robby Foley, and Michele Beretta. The two Italian's are keeping the racing clean. K-PAX race strategist Thomas Blom is calling the strategy as poor old Corey Lewis has a cut down rear tire. He and Jeff Burton on a new team. The sister car is next up with Madison Snow at the controls sharing with Jason Harward, the GT America winner from earlier this morning, his first GT America triumph.
Jan Heylen continues to lead Pro Am at the keyboard of the #45 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R. Heylen and Charlie Luck are father-in-law and son-in-law and both coming off of 2021 championships. Phil Ellis cuts across the grass at turn nine. Now, what will the stewards have to say about that? We shall see. Tire degradation a major deal here at Sonoma. That is the one corner track limits will be called. Don't slingshot through that turn. Wow. Caldarelli is still hounding Spinelli and hammering his way over the curbs! Their engineer at K-PAX is ill and so he has to do the engineering remotely from the hotel room. Andrea Caldarelli has racing in his genes, in his family. His father was a driver. His brother-in-law is former Formula 1 driver Vitantonio Liuzzi.
Andrea Caldarelli tested a Formula 1 car a couple of times but has now found a fabulous career in sports car racing. Spinelli has been handling the pressure like a professional and hasn't cracked yet. We are getting ready for the driver changes. How will Stephen Agakhani run? How will he do against Jordan Pepper? Can Loris Spinelli hang on until the pit window opens? In the meantime, Philip Ellis is steadily closing in, little by little. Caldarelli will be able to see Ellis and Altoe to catch up as Spinelli is backing Caldarelli up. Dirk Muller passes Michael Cooper for the final Pro-Am podium place. Now, Cooper is falling right into the clutches of Colin Braun. Cooper and company stated they can roll the dice on tire strategy. If he has to take scrubbed tires that will work, to help co-driver Erin Vogel out.
Caldarelli is doing all he can to get onto terms with Loris Spinelli in the Mercedes Benz and Spinelli is just having none of it. Ellis is flying and keeping Giacomo Altoe behind. Jordan Pepper waits as Loris Spinelli has Caldarelli right behind and here comes Philip Ellis. He is really pressing hard and gaining ojn the leaders. Caldarelli knows his teammate will do well, but risk is nothing something the Caldarelli/Pepper team wants to deal with. What will K-PAX do? #1 will have to duck to the pit lane and where will we see the #3 of Altoe fall in place? He too will have to hand the car over on the pit stop to Canadian Misha Goikhberg of course.
Less than 50 minutes remain. Pit window is open. Caldarelli has a sniff but there is no way Spinelli will let him go past. Poor old Caldarelli is the meat in the sandwich because if he does not duck to the pit lane, then Philip Ellis will be all over him like the proverbial cheap suit, and he does not want el cheapo suito there, giving him an ice cream headache. We know Stephen Agakhani has good pace. Loris Spinelli has desired track position right here and right now. When Pepper has fresh Pirelli P Zero's on that Lambo, he will be a monster on the outlap. That ought to be worth admission in a ringside seat when Pepper gets behind the wheel of the Lambo and punches it. What will these three teams do? Ellis, a DTM man, in an identical GT3 car as the German championship runs to these exact regulations just like in SRO.
Spinelli and Caldarelli dive for the lane, while Ellis and Altoe stay out. Clean pit stops the order of the day and eke into the one second joker if you can. 87 seconds is the minimum pit lane delta from pit in to pit out including the service with four new Pirelli tires and the driver change. If you are too long or too short, you will be pinged with a penalty. Most of the Pro-Am field if not all stay out. Driver change, tire change, and fuel. Jordan Pepper into the car. Four mechanics allowed to work on the car. Two tire changers and a single rattle gun. No muss, no fuss. Don't panic. Fuel, driver change, tire change, done. Car stationery. Good deal. K-PAX, bish, bash, bosh, right to the front in 86.5 seconds just under the 87 second minimum with use of the joker.
Poor old Spinelli was three seconds slower. So, this will indeed vault K-PAX and the boys into the pound seats as are almost halfway home in race two here at Sonoma. US Racetronics were a tad too conservative in their execution. They will be scrambling to play catch up here. We watch Ellis. What will the undercut vs. the overcut be? Oh. Wait, wait, wait. Folks, we've got trouble with a capital T. Phil Ellis is the Pro leader but the #6 car is hobbling. Three wheels on me wagon for the #6, look. That right front for Steven Agakhani is cattywampus. The right front tire is cut down. The erstwhile leader has hit trouble.
Wow. That happened in one of the worst spots on the track it could, right in the middle of The Carousel. Holy moly Martha! There's not much damge. This is a bizarre incident right out of lane on the outlap and now he has to trundle 'round two and a half miles to get back to the lane and be home and hosed. Altoe does another spot of agricultural racing, and he too is off the road just a smidgen but recovers. The dominos are falling as the pit window is about to close. Don't slam your fingers in it. We can see Ellis and Altoe diving for the lane. It's the overcut for these two. Where will they shake out compared to the overall leader? Jan Heylen now leads in Pro-Am.
Heylen is going as deep into the window as he can before turning over to teammate and father-in-law, Charlie Luck. Altoe motoring into the pits on the rev limiter. Fuel and tires for the #3 K-PAX Lambo handing over to Misha Goikhberg. Winward and the #33 in the lane as well as Philip Ellis hands the car to Russell Ward. Pepper in the #1 Lamborghini slithers wide in the hairpin turn at 11. He still needs tire temp. Those Pirelli P Zeros are still cold. Russell Ward beats Misha Goikhberg out of the pit lane as the race resumes for those two chaps. Pepper goes by, so the miscue is no harm no foul. We will see Pepper, Ward, and Goikhberg, the top three once timing and scoring recycles itself.
This is all about in action, how the undercut works on these pit stops. Pepper quicker on the out lap than Ellis on the in lap on worn Pirelli tires. Jan Heylen will make one more lap before ducking to the lane from the Pro-Am lead for Charlie Luck to take over. Mario Farnbacher moves to second in the Acura with Jorg Muller in third spot. Just about everybody staying out on track for as long as possible here. Samantha Tan has taken over from Nick Wittmer at ST Racing in their BMW M4 GT3, car #38. Heylen will dive to the lane on this lap but don't cut it too fine. Dirk Muller, third place in Pro-Am is being harangued by Michael Dinan on fresh tires aboard the #96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3. Dinan of course, sharing with Robby Foley.
Dinan has just taken over the BMW and he gets stymied on the out lap being a lap down to Dirk Muller as he will hand the car to David Askew I believe. Colin Braun has just pitted and I believe George Kurtz could very well have just handed over to him. Muller to the lane to hand over to David Askew and the Pro-Am leader at Wright Motorsports is in. Family ties as Jan Heylen married Charlie Luck's daughter last November. Wright Motorsports won in Pro-Am in the race yesterday and are looking to defend their 2021 title they earned with Jan Heylen and Fred Poordad sharing the car. Also to the lane is the #93 Racer's Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3.
Mario Farnbacher handing to Ashton Harrison. Scott Smithson has spun off the road in the #08 DXDT Mercedes. That is the Qelo Capital sponsored entry he is sharing with Bryan Sellers. Poor old Smithson has spun on the outlap as the #93 Racer's Edge Acura is released with Ashton Harrison at the wheel of it. She has had much seat time in an Acura NSX GT3 and ran in a Pro/Pro class at the 12 Hours of Sebring last month. Ashton Harrison is embedded within the Wayne Taylor Racing organization and so she is learning from a top team. She is learning the importance of the debriefs with the engineers and what information is critical to be aware of during the races.
Jordan Pepper scything his way through lapped traffic going around the Ferrari for Triarsi Competizione. Cannot tell which of the two cars on their team is being passed. Triarsi has the #13 Ferrari 488 GT3 for Scotsman Ryan Dalziel sharing with American Justin Wetherill, and the sister car is shared by the team owner Onofrio Triarsi, and Charlie Scardina. Pit stops for race two have cycled through. They are done and dusted. Just 38 minutes left on the clock. These races have been 90 minutes for a long while and there will be one lone enduro for GTWC America, the Indianapolis 8 Hours at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Intercontinental GT Challenge in the fall.
K-PAX has a notebook on the Lambo even after racing with Bentley in the past. The wheel has been machined and something was trapped in there, lathing the wheel in half causing the tire puncture. Scott Smithson is still sutck in the grass. Victory chances for Scott Smithson and Bryan Sellers are no more. He spun out on cold tires. This is going to reset the entire field and we shall see how the final half hour turns out. Jordan Pepper's lead has been erased and he will have Russell Ward, Misha Goikhberg, and others bearing down on him. This is the first safety car of race two after Scott Smithson's spin and being stranded in the culvert at the side of the speedway.
The right front wheel of Steven Agakhani on the Mercedes, has split. DXDT and Winward stopped and checked. Maybe there was a stone that sheared the wheel away from the tire. The holes in the center of the wheel are where the drive pins from the hub locate. Maybe something was trapped between the brake caliper and the wheel itself that would cut the tire to shreds. The Mercedes teams will be relieved this is a fluke incident. That's for dead sure. There was no real panic at K-PAX. Bad luck though for US Racetronics who have fallen like a stone. Steven Agakhani is 18th in the overall a lap down. Half the field on the same lap. Nine cars, including Michael Dinan. Everyone will be bunched up. This is anyone's motor race.
It will be a spicy end to the race today at Sonoma to cap off the weekend. The Pro-Am battle will see a contest between Charlie Luck, Ashton Harrison, David Askew, and George Kurtz. They were team- mates in the past, (Askew and Kurtz), but no longer. Erin Vogel in fifth for RealTime Racing, she was also a former teammate at DXDT Racing and Mercedes during 2021. With this yellow, the drivers will now have the impetus to push it and go hell for leather in the last half hour. The 2022 schedule has massively challenging tracks with no free passes. We are looking forward to the Ozarks track in Missouri for the next races. Blind elevation changes at high speed. It will be a rollercoaster ride. It will be a thrill for everybody. Scott Smithson's Mercedes is now out of the ditch, but he is stone last on the field in 20th place.
This becomes a test session for Smithson for the final half hour. Jan and Margaret Heylen are very happy. Ozarks Raceway, the next track on the schedule is amazing and we will have that race soon. It is a truly challenging and brand-new circuit. The green flag flies at Sonoma Raceway and we are in for the final 26 minutes of racing. Jordan Pepper leads and Russell Ward runs really wide allowing the door to open, possibly, for Misha Goikhberg! A massive stack up there as Charlie Scardina just wanted to move out of the way. Pepper scampers away as Goikhberg will now be pressing Ward in second place for all he is worth. Misha Goikhberg has both prototype and GT3 experience and so he will be right on the button for the whole rest of the way.
Race Control doles out a drive through penalty for a pit stop violation to the #94 Bimmerworld BMW M4 GT3 of Chandler Hull. He will have to ht the lane to serve the penalty. Erin Vogel has her hands full now with Stephen Agakhani and George Kurtz among others. Agakhani has a fast race car but is a lap down. He is in damage limitation mode. Hull to the lane to serve the penalty. Michael Dinan picks up three places and has two Pro-Am cars to clear before getting to the top three in Pro. Samanta Tan, too, moving up three places, 11th overall and seventh in Pro Am. She has Niclas Jonsson working with her as a driver coach and a mentor. ST Racing and Samantha Tan, her goal in the next few years is to be able to compete at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Pepper extends his lead as Russell Ward, too, has breathing room over Misha Goikhberg. The Pro-Am fight is still hot and heavy. Charlie Luck leading Ashton Hsrrison. George Kurtz is still trying all he knows to run down his former team boss and teammate, David Askew. Michael Dinan is now closing up on Ashton Harrison as we have just over 20 minutes of this race remaining. Things are a tad awkward for both Harrison and Dinan now. Jason Harward behind these two in the Zelus Lamborghini is 16th, one lap down. Dinan will be quicker than Harrison. Can she chase down Charlie Luck for the Pro-Am win? Samantha Tan is gaining hand over fist passing both Justin Wetherill and Erin Vogel.
George Kurtz has caught David Askew and Samantha Tan is within striking distance through The Carousel, using all the road on corner exit. Watch the surface change into turn seven. She is chasing Am class leader Jean Claude Saada. Tan is chasing down George Kurtz. Jordan Pepper leading the race by 7.8 seconds as we watch the two Mercedes AMG GT3 Evos battle each other as George Kurtz has the advantage over David Askew. Michael Dinan passes Charlie Luck. Ashton Harrison is coming in a hurry. Dinan and Goikhberg are fighting for the final spot on the podium. Kurtz is right on Askew's gearbox coming to the hairpin at turn 11.
Askew on guard on the inside as Kurtz is maneuvering for a pass. These two know each other very well. Samantha Tan is closing in on both of them. He has to go for it otherwise Samantha Tan will be right on his six. 16 minutes of racing to go. Kurtz closes on Askew and Samantha Tan closes on them both. Kurtz is trying hard to move by his former teammate in an identical car. Crowdstrike Racing with Riley Motorsports vs. DXDT. Top corner speeds at turn six, dominated by the Mercedes AMG GT3. Identical speeds at 93.8 miles an hour for George Kurtz, Bryan Sellers, and Dirk Muller. Then, David Askew is next at 91.9 miles an hour followed by Russell Ward at 91.3 miles an hour.
That AMG Mercedes is suited through The Carousel. The Mercedes performs well throughout the duration of the whole lap here at Sonoma Raceway. I'm not a betting man. But, let me tell you, dollars to donuts, George Kurtz is going to send it very soon. Jeff Burton in the Lamborghini for Zelus Motorsports being warned of quicker cars coming from behind by the blue flags. Whoa! Paint traded there, look, between Kurtz and Askew! Askew is driving in a proactive manner as opposed to a defensive one. This is bound to end in tears if Jeff Burton does not move over for these two. Burton balks Askew. Burton wisely moves over knowing discretion is the better part of valor. Samantha Tan will try making the same move and Burton gets chopped by a Ferrari! That would be Jean Claude Saada I think.
Tan also was the cork in the bottle there. ST Racing have gone around the globe with races lately. Andrea Caldarelli still holds the fastest lap of the motor race at 1:37.208. Jordan Pepper leading the race to the tune of 14 and a half seconds. Charlie Luck leading in Pro-Am as Ashton Harrison in the Acura for Racer's Edge is in hot pursuit. Less than ten minutes remaining. Troubles for Jeff Burton in the Zelus Motorsports Lamborghini who has spun. David Askew too, could have gone off the road. Askew has dropped down the order. Maybe he had an off course excursion. George Kurtz is third and on the final podium step.
Samantha Tan continues shadowing George Kurtz. Samantha Tan is new to GT3 relatively while George Kurtz has been running GT3 for some years now. Under seven minutes to go and Ashton Harrison has caught Charlie Luck. Luck runs wide through turn nine. Is the handling fading on the Porsche? Harrison fires it into turn two but can't quite make it, letting Charlie Luck know she is there as Jordan Pepper is 20 seconds ahead of Russell Ward. Michael Dinan though, is consistently reeling in Misha Goikhberg. Michael Dinan is coming, fast.
Goikhberg continues managing the gap. Bumpy into the turn seven brake zone and a change of surface powering down and up through the esses and back to power to get through the esses with three and a half minutes to go. Jordan Pepper, Andrea Caldarelli and K-PAX Racing are looking to sweep at home at Sonoma Raceway like they did last year. Harrison is closing up but you can't dive deep into the turn. Just close in inch by inch with not lots of time left on the board. Keep it clean. Ashton Harrison, she has to try putting Charlie Luck under pressure. In Pro-Am Ziad "Z Hog" Ghandour moves by Erin Vogel. Ziad Ghandour from Lebanon, driving with Italian Michele Beretta for TR3 Racing in a Lamborghini Huracan GT3.
Jean-Claude Saada leading in the Am class sharing the #61 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 with Conrad Grunewald. They got a reprieve over the Triarsi Am class Ferrari which went a lap down. Those two were at it hammer and tongs yesterday. Pepper, a great driver, a true stud driver here, running with Bentley. Now he is fully employed by K-PAX. K-PAX will be racing the 24 Hours of Spa later this summer. One lap to go. Ashton Harrison will have anchance to attack for the lead, but Charlie Luck will have to defend. One lap to go. White flag this time by. Harrison closing on Luck.'
Jordan Pepper through turns ten and 11 for the last time. The home team, K-PAX will deliver a victory! Pepper and Caldarelli break out the broom and sweep!
Overall/Pro: #1 Caldarelli/Pepper K-PAX Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3
Pro Am: #45 Heylen/Luck Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R
Am: #61 Grunewald/Saada AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3
So, a sweep for every team and driver pairing that won the Saturday race and they all win on Sunday as well! Wow! K-PAX come out of the box at the top. The next event will be at the brand-new Ozarks International Raceway which is going to be quite the circuit. It is built as a miniature version of the Nurburgring in Germany or that is what it looks like. Yours truly hopes to give you a view of what the circuit will look like. We will see SRO America there in mid-May, so, in another month. Join us in the Ozarks. It should be a fun weekend of motor racing. For now, so long from the wine country in Sonoma, California.
It is time for race two of the weekend for Pirelli GT4 America here at Sonoma Raceway in Sonoma, California. Time for the drivers and teams to lay their cards on the table to see who will take the second victory of the opening round of the championship. 42 cars among three classes in GT4 America raced yesterday. RS1 and BSport Racing won in yesterday's contest. The question is, will they repeat? Or, will we see new winners today? The Am class victory went down to the wire as well. What is in store today on Sunday? A very Happy Easter to everyone, even though we are publishing this particular blog entry a tad later than yours truly would have liked. The cars are on their formation laps. We saw a barnburner in race one and today could very well be the same. The Pro drivers start compared t the Am drivers doing so yesterday. Today it is the reverse. Extend the professional driver's run deep into the window before pitting and going for it in the second half of the race.
We have some very successful GT4 drivers in this event who have won races and championships during their careers. We have plenty of storylines in these 42 cars. A great variety of automobiles are represented as well. Gavin Sanders is very excited to be racing in the states along with Michai Stephens. Sanders, hailing from Mount Albert, Ontario, Canada aboard the #34 Conquest Racing/JWF Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT4. Michai Stephens is right alongside the winners of yesterday's GT4 contest here at Sonoma, the RS1 Porsche Cayman shared by Stevan McAleer and Eric Filguieras, car #18. McAleer knows he needs to get the jump and control the field. Here we go. The safety car is in the lane. This GT4 field is massive. Just when you think you have seen the end, there's more. A massive crocodile of cars getting ready to start race two in the northern California wine country.
McAleer leads the field to green. The flag waves and we're away! He is eking out a gap already as Michi Stephens has his hands full with Aaron Povoledo in the Aston Martin. Povoledo passes the similar car of Kenton Koch. Povoledo of course, sharing the #50 car with Ross Chouest on a team both of the drivers are partners in, Chouest Povoledo Racing. Kenton Koch is able to rebound and now we see Povoledo being harried by Jason Hart in the Nolasport Porsche Cayman. This is the #47 car. Hart is the reigning Pro-Am GT4 SRO America champ. Keep a close eye on him as this hourlong race continues.
Through The Carousel for the first time of asking. McAleer followed by Stephens as Justin Piscitell runs wide in the Toyota Supra moving past Lars Kern at the wheel of the Porsche Cayman for Absolute Racing, car #899. Kern is a Porsche factory driver. Through the chicane for the first time as Stevan McAleer leads Michai Stephens. James Sofronas also is moving up slicing past Guy Cosmo. Porsche Cayman GT4 on Mercedes AMG GT4. That is the #032 car he shares with Kyle Washington. Now, the listed driver says Washington, but no. Sofronas has started the automobile per the rules with the professional drivers starting race two and Washington shall take over at the midway point in this motor race.
Povoledo still has Hart all over him. Hart has the power and speed through turn three. He won nine races and had 11 podiums last year. Matt Travis has moved on and Scott Noble is his Pro-Am co-driver. Travis was a character to be sure. Michai Stephens is really pushing the envelope. Conquest, is the same team that ran in Champ Car and IndyCar decades ago with Eric Bachelart, former driver, from Belgium, the team owner. Stephens is being monstered by Kenton Koch as we speak. The Pro-Am class leader wants by the second place Silver rated car. Again, the only difference here is driver ratings. Other than the manufacturers and types of cars, these GT4 cars are all equalized under Balance of Performance.
Things won't be such a big issue in the race's second half today because the professional drivers will turn over to their less experienced co-drivers for the second half. Fastest lap of the race so far is 1:47.091 set by Britain's Michael O'Brien in the #26 Prive Motorsports/Topp Racing McLaren 570S GT4 he is sharing alongside American Thomas Surgent. This is the sole McLaren in the Pirelli GT4 America field. So, we will be keeping an eye on #26. In 2021, Matt Travis was very quick paired with Jason Hart. Scott Noble, Hart's new co-driver is less experienced. Michai Stephens is doing all he can to keep Kenton Koch behind him. Koch leads the Pro-Am category.
Kich to the inside, and he tags Michia Stephens. Be careful over the curbs. Koch passes. Jason Hart is reeling in this trio. He wants a bite of the cherry. Kenton Koch must be thinking, "what can I do so I don't make contact with someone else?" He and Ian James were playing rounds of dodge 'em cars, yesterday. Oh dear. We have a car stopped on the road, the #19 which is the second of the three Nolasport Porsche Cayman's. Thomas Merrill driving alongside Alain Stad. Merrill was motoring through the pack moving up 20 some odd places but it is game over for him and Stad, his co-driver will see no action today.
Oh my goodness! Something broke on that Cayman on the right front! The right front brake locks and the wheel looks like it is sheered off the hub or something and turns violently to the right and back up into the wheel well! That's a busted right front suspension. That was drama! We are only six minutes into this hourlong race. But it is game over for the Merrill and Stad duo. Nowhere to go for the #32 Mercedes AMG GT4 of Cole Ciraulo either. Ciraulo sharing with Kris Wilson in the #32 Snow Brothers Racing Mercedes. Race Control clearly looking at the incident and deciding if a Full Course Yellow is called for. Aaron Povoledo, the Canadian, he is inching ever closer to Michai Stephens. Povoledo was an open wheel driver at one time but now is a sports car racer. Full Course Yellow is out as Cole Ciraulo is in pit lane and the pit crew determines what to do.
Stevan McAleer's two second advantage has been totally erased. Eric Filguieras is a solid co-driver even without as much experience as his co-driver. No tire changes like GT World Challenge America but a mandatory driver change along with tire pressure adjustments with a 92 second pit lane delta time. Water dribbling out of the radiator of the Mercedes, puddling on the floor. RS1 bish bash boshed the strategy yesterday in race one. Cole Ciraulo and Kris Wilson will be back next time. Young and old alike on that team are having fun with nicknames as Cole calls Kris "grandpa" jokingly, and equally so, "Crazy Cole" is Cole Ciraulo's nickname. Not a good day for Capstone Racing.
Kenton Koch, leading Pro-Am alongside Bryan Putt, picking up where they left off after a wild and crazy race one scrum yesterday. James Sofronas is indeed driving the #032 GMG Porsche Cayman. Washington is multitasking racing in three different classes and championships this weekend. We will hear from Washington now, gulping down an energy drink. He is a sports fanatic and doing multiple racing championships with more incentive to train and to go for it as a driver. He and James Sofronas are best friends. He is teaching Kyle Washington how to be a racing driver. We will hear from Jason Bell as well. Bell wants to stay consistent and he knows Andrew Davis will have some work to do.
Bell knows the challenge of this track and the new track at Ozarks coming up in Missouri in May. Sports car racing veteran Joe Foster is also involved with this team. GMG has had a lot to juggle over the years racing with different manufacturers from Aston Martin to Audi to Lamborghini to Porsche. Sofronas is about serving his customers at GMG as well as mentoring the drivers he is working with. Drive multiple cars and do lots of testing in order to learn how to be a sports car driver, a GT racing driver. Kyle Washington is a businessman who owns several corporations, and he applies his business acumen to motor racing. We look at overall top speeds run so far in this race.
Michael O'Brien in the McLaren is fastest, for car #26 at 128.6 miles an hour followed by Zach Anderson in the #51, the first of the Auto Technic Racing BMW M4 GT4's at 128 flat. Anderson sharing with Austen Smith of course. Eric Curran is next on the list in the #49 Team Saleen Saleen 1 GT4 Cup car. He co-drives that entry with the man himself, Steve Saleen, who has been modifying Ford Mustangs and building his own race and road cars, for many, many decades now. Curran, Stevan McAleer, and then, Thomas Merrill who we spoke of going out of this race, they tied with the same trap speed at 127.3 miles an hour.
O'Brien's dad, Mike O'Brien raced in Formula 3, Sports 2000, and British Touring Cars in England. He also raced in British GT for former Formula 1 champion Jenson Button. Under 45 minutes left in the race with ten minutes before the opening of the pit window. The green flag is back out and we are back underway as Kenton Koch is right on top of Stevan McAleer! McAleer manages to get away while Koch is falling right into the clutches of Michai Stephens. Don't count out Povoledo either. He is right on it as well trying to make his move. Single file through most of the field but behind the Saleen of Eric Curran we see a stackup beginning to happen.
Side by side stuff here, look, between a Toyota GR Supra GT4 and a Ford Mustang GT4. That's Aaron Telitz racing with Billy Johnson, a couple of veterans of production sports car racing. Billy Johnson, though, he has damage to the rear diffuser on the Mustang and that can't be good for aerodynamic efficiency for the Ford factory driver. The new Saleen GT4 entry is not fully homologated yet but it will be after this race is complete and the company can get the data so the SRO can analyze it. A battle of the Supra's look as John "Smooge" Geesbreght is passed by Aaron Telitz. Geesbreght in the #68, the first of the two TGR Smooge Racing Supra's he shares with former NASCAR driver Kevin Conway.
The second car on that team, #69, is shared by Telitz and Todd Coleman. Telitz has been very successful for Lexus in a different North American sports car series and so, he can take that knowledge and experience and apply it to the Supra GT4 program here in SRO America. Telitz was aiming for an open wheel career, and slipped through that net, but has been very successful in sports cars under the watchful eye of 1996 CART Champ Car champion Jimmy Vasser. Michai Stephens, meanwhile, has fallen to fourth place and is falling into the clutches of Jason Hart in the Porsche Cayman after Aaron Povoledo in the Aston Martin made a pass. Overnight adjustments made by the Conquest team may not be panning out as they'd like.
In an era of Balance of Performance in the world of sports car and GT racing, damage limitation and maximizing opportunities for success are what it is all about. Michai Stephens is settling in for the balance of this race and will have to see where the chips fall. McAleer, Koch, and Povoledo, the top three. Stephens is still being monstered by Jason Hart. Guy Cosmo, too, is feeling the heat from Michael O'Brien. Stephens has an ill handling race car and so this has surely put him into a bit of a pickle. Stephens, if he lets these other chaps go, he will be farther behind Stevan McAleer. We also watch Derek DeBoer at the wheel of the TRG Porsche Cayman, car #66 sharing with Jason Alexandridis for The Racer's Group, a team that has been legendary over the years and has won at both the Rolex 24 at Daytona overall, and in class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
A couple BMW M4 GT4's going at it for position. One of them is driven by Paul Sparta for Random Vandals Racing, being harried by James Clay in the Bimmerworld BMW M4 GT4. Clay wants by Sparta. Sparta sharing with Al Carter and Clay with Charlie Postins in a two-car attack for Bimmerworld in GT4 America this year. Aaron Telitz has moved up eleven places to 19th overall from 30th starting spot. Wow. After a tough qualifying run, Telitz still is climbing the ladder. Keep pushing, sunshine. That's the mantra. Keep pushing. James Sofronas, meanwhile, in the #032 GMG Racing Porsche Cayman leads the Am division.
Michai Stephens takes a wide arc into the turn but in doing so, he is vulnerable to the second place Nolasport Porsche. Plunging downhill through The Carousel they go. Michai Stephens entered the words "how to be a race car driver" on Google, and while working in construction, decided to change career paths, follow his dream, and here he is today. He is contending for the podium in the Silver class. Colin Mullan, in a part-time 2021 effort, won a few races, but is not back with the Conquest team this year. Pay close attention, too, to Hattori Motorsports. They are another Toyota supported team with a Supra GT4 in this race, car #016. Matt Plumb sharing with Seth Lucas. Shiggeaki Hattori, team boss, he has had a lot of racing success particularly in IndyCars and also in the NASCAR truck series, and the Xfinity Series.
Austin Dillon drove for them, and they won a truck series championship. There is a connection to Toyota. Hattori had a few Indianapolis 500 starts. A great battle here, look, between Billy Johnson and Aaron Telitz, for 12th place. Mustang vs. Supra. With these two experienced veteran drivers, it would be no surprise if this were a battle for the overall lead. The stewards have handed a penalty to the Zelus Motorsports #888 Aston Martin. We shall have to see what that is about. It is for a restart violation, and sadly, that car is nowhere on the entry list yours truly is using for reference on this event. Billy Johnson has plenty of experience in GT4 for Ford. Aaron Telitz, by contrast has open wheel and GT3 experience as Telitz moves past Johnson for position in his first ever GT4 start!
Telitz really went for it. The Mustang is great under braking, but Telitz really went for it and Johnson is trying to get him back. The pit window is now open. No rule mandates the leader being the first to hit the pit lane. The early pit stoppers get breathing space. Telitz passes Johnson for 12th in the Pro-Am class. Jason Hart, meanwhile, continues to push and tries to force Michai Stephens into a mistake. Hart is a wingman for Koch and Povoledo as we get closer to the second half of the race. The next half of the race will see Gavin Sanders vs. Eric Filgueiras. McAleer out front by 2.7 seconds as Johnson has dropped behind Aaron Telitz, and Eric Curran is pressing hard in the Saleen along with Steve Saleen, the eponymous creator of the car.
Curran has come back into World Challenge after competing in this form of racing for many years. He moved over to prototype racing for a while and was successful there, winning championship titles with a team in a different championship who I am friends with, Action Express Racing, and has also had a successful career off the track. Curran is from California and sells exotic cars for a living. Side by side stuff between O'Brien in the McLaren and JCD, John Capestro-Dubets aboard the seond Auto Technic Racing BMW M4 GT4, car #52. JCD sharing with Tom Capizzi. Capestro-Dubets tries passing O'Brien. Stevan McAleer uncorks the Crowdstrike fastest lap of the race at 1:47 dead. 1:47.022 with just over half an hour to go and the pit window remaining open.
That fast lap came a couple laps ago and he has dropped the pace now by a good 7/10ths of a second. Par for the course here at Sonoma, we are beginning to see tire degradation on the Pirelli P Zero's. That is unavoidable at this point in the motor race. That said, the new Pirelli tire is more durable with a new compound and a different construction, a stronger one. Andy Lee in the #8 Flying Lizard Motorsports Aston Martin along with Terry Borcheller, second in Am, they are reeling in a couple of cars. Borcheller and Nick Shanny sharing the car. Borcheller is a Rolex 24 winner and is back in sports car racin full time for the first time since 2015 or so. John Capestro-Dubets takes the long way 'round Michael O'Brien and takes the spot away.
Half an hour to go as we get into the second part of the race and O'Brien is still in strife as Andy Lee is right on his back door. O'Brien defends into the hairpin. Lee and his co-driver Elias Sabo scored a podium in yesterday's GT4 race here at Sonoma. The dominos are beginning to fall as teams dive for the lane and for the driver changes. Eric Filgueiras will take over from Stevan McAleer in the #18 RS1 Porsche. Borcheller passes Lee but not for class position. Instead that is for an overall place. We will see Elliott Skeer take over the #120 Premier Motorsports Porsche Cayman from Adam Adelson. Billy Johnson, too, brings the Ford Mustang GT4 to the pit lane.
Johnson will hand off the #124 ARG/Rotek Racing car to Edgar Lau, the driver from Hong Kong. Don't cut it too fine on the in lap. McAleer can do a couple more laps but he may head for the lane this time by. Cars must be in the pit lane before you reach the 25 minute mark. Trigger the pit entry line at the very least. McAleer has one more lap in hand. Through the chicane he comes. McAleer and Kenton Koch both pit and so is Michai Stephens. Povoledo and Hart stay on track. By staying out you are going to lose speed to cars that have their second driver in the seat. Filgueiras takes over from McAleer. They won a GT4 event at Daytona International Speedway back in January. Bryan Putt takes over from Kenton Koch aboard the BSport Racing Aston Martin, car #15.
Koch taller than Putt, so they have a different seat insert for him. The team are bleeding down the pressure on the Pirelli tires. Povoledo, Hart, James Sofronas, Guy Cosmo, Terry Borcheller, Justin Piscitell, and Aaron Telitz all stayed out. RS1 beats BSport into and out of the pit lane. How quickly will the second drivers get up to speed? Filgueiras has raced a lot but not in sports car racing while Bryan Putt comes to racing later in life. BSport have gained half a second on their pit stop and they likely used their one second joker they are allowed once per weekend. Nolasport in the lane with the Porsche Cayman. Can they gain something on their pit stop?
Nolasport are very experienced in these SRO sprint races but with a different driver pairing. Ross Chouest replaces Aaron Povoledo in the Aston Martin #50. Am drivers onboard the cars. The pit window has closed, so everybody is good to go for the final 23+ minutes of race two in GT4 America here at Sonoma. BSport has the best pit time at 1:31 using their joker while everyone else is in a range of 1:35-1:39.
