We proceeded behind the safety car and we did not have a clean lap. We've run for 20 minutes. There are puddles on the pit lane surface. Calvin and Amanda took a drive around the track to see where the puddles were. There is water in the apexes of the corners. Watch out, again, for turns 12 and 13 and the crevices that collect the water puddling and leaking out f the grass. The track is indeed raceable as the jet blower and sweeper are still working on it. Not long ago there were puddles all over the place. That sweeper was hauling the mail earlier on. World Challenge legend and champion Peter Cunningham is our driver steward this weekend. At 30 minutes, the pit window opens and it will close at 20 minutes to go. The temperature has plummeted and become more temperate in the last hour.
The restart will be on wet weather tires but with dry weather setups. We will see these chaps on the road with compromised setups. Stevan McAleer said he and Eric Filgueiras were able to find a video on YouTube of wet weather racing at NOLA from last year. It was a Trans Am race. Use any resources you can find. We'll be restarting the motor race this time around. Sounds good. The spray will be an issue. Just survive and get into a rhythm. That's what you want to do. Filgueiras, Adelson, Capizzi, Sam Owen, ad Kevin Conway the top five.
Six through ten, Ryan Dexter, Austen Smith, Gavin Sanders, Scott Noble, and Gray Newell. That's your top ten as the safety car is going to dive for pit lane and part two of NOLA SRO Pirelli GT4 America race one, is on! Filgueiras steps on the loud pedal and barrels towards the green flag! Filgueiras ahead of Adelson. Look at the rooster tails fanning out behind the cars! Hard to see with all the spray that comes up from the rain tires. Tom Capizzi in third spot in the BMW. The grip level in the middle of the road is good and so that is the best spot to be in. You don't really want to be on the full racing line in the wet.
Austen Smith and Kevin Conway are both moving up. Conway running well, and we have four cars side by side, mixing it up for position, look. Two Toyota Supra's, a Porsche Cayman, and a BMW M4. Someone runs a wee bit wide. GT4 cars do have antilock brakes which help in the wet. The restart is clean as Gavin Sanders, the Canadian is piling on the pressure on Tom Capizzi. Kevin Conway, the ex NASCAR driver is pushing hard in the Smooge Racing Toyota Supra in Silver, the #68. Austen Smith off the road. Yikes! Charlie Postins is running well, co-driver for James Clay in the Bimmerworld M4. Sam Owen, in the meantime, is dropping down the order. Not much experience.
He is getting blasted with the proverbial firehose, quite literally with all the water on the road. You'll need a raincoat and galoshes to drive in this standing water. Pit window to open next time by. We are running laps under two minutes for the very fastest cars while the track is providing a lot of grip even in the wet. Gavin Sanders has caught Adam Adelson for second overall. Sanders second in Silver. Full Course Yellow again with 30 minutes to go which is going to delay the pit window even more. Oh dear.
The co-drivers are set and itching to go. By rule the less experienced driver starts the motor race and then hands over to the veteran. Medical and safety vehicles on track. Don't get stuck in the gumbo mud. It looks like cars have hit the wall, but we do not know who they are. Cars headed back down pit lane and we see pit stops during a safety car phase? That's odd. We will touch base with Race Control to see what the deal is. In the meantime, tire pressures are being checked no doubt. Stevan McAleer will get into car #18 and let him drive the last 28 minutes. Nolasport has many cars in the lane right in a row. Jason Hart into the #47. This is the pit window then. Four cars stayed on track.
Gavin Sanders in the Conquest Mercedes, Ryan Dexter in the Dexter Racing Toyota Supra, and two others in the Am division. Pitting under green works but you will lose heaps of time. Tge cayse if tge tekkiwm ub reokatm kiijm ut us a car or two piling into the tires with the puddling water. Maybe some drivers panicked and missed their marks. Jason Bell in the #2 Aston Martin and Paul Sparta in the #98 BMW. Johann Schwarz, driving Marco Solo and will do ten more seconds in the lane, for a total time of 94 seconds total time through the lane. #34 will be behind the eight ball after their stop but under Safety Car, they might not lose as much time as we first thought.
This is a weird race indeed. Michai Stephens is quick but he will have limited time to make a move. Everyone will be hunting and pecking for water on a drying track, barring more rain pouring down. If it does rain you get a rivulet on the front straight if you are on slicks. Everyone is on wet tires. Jason Hart did mention that before we went back to green. Search for water so the rain tires don't chunk. Elliott Skeer is now in the Premier Racing Porsche followed by John Capestro-Dubets, John Geesbreght, and others. The Jason Bell Aston Martin has been pulled out of the tire barrier but the #2 is going no place.
The same is true for the BMW M4 GT4 #98, Random Vandals Racing, for Al Carter and Paul Sparta. Random Vandals will have a TCX program debuting maybe as soon as our next racing weekend in SRO America at Virginia International Raceway, so, presumably they will indeed be using a BMW M2 CS Racing model for that effort. Random Vandals are doing club racing and they are also looking at entering TC America for developing young drivers. We were right. Michai Stephens will be behind the eight ball. Sanders would have indeed been running on track when the safety car was out before they hit the pit lane.
James Clay now runs ninth overall and leads the Am class. He ran in the rain in the late part of qualifying. Charlie Postins' family is good friends with the Hobbs family and his father ran with David Hobbs a number of years ago. That's cool. Charlie Postins has been a designer for Nissan and he ran at the Nurburgring in NLS with James Clay. Stevan McAleer, too, a Scotsman. Ian James, an Englishman, who has lived in Arizona for many years. The Brits know how to race in the rain. Aaron Povoledo and Ross Chouest are coming back into the game, Povoledo racing now. They have been using one car for both GT4 America and GT America, GT America not here at NOLA this weekend. So they got jolly lucky.
Eighth overall for this team, so the locals from New Orleans are running well. Ross Chouest from New Orleans. Aaron Povoledo from Canada. They've been working together for a decade. Aaron Povoledo was coaching another driver at Sebring, and they struck up a conversation at dinner that night while driving at Sebring and that is how their friendship began. Conquest team boss John Farrow said that the wrong thing happened. Gavin Sanders is clearly not happy about giving up track position. This motor race is definitely more of a marathon than a sprint. Win some, lose some. Gavin Sanders has a background in karting.
John Farrow is one of the team bosses along with Eric Bachelart and Conquest Racing. Bachelart a veteran of open wheel and sports car racing I believe. This will hurt them in the points. They are deep in the pack overall and in the top five in the Silver class. High talent, but not a deep field numerically. Michai Stephens is running behind Dominic Starkweather in one of the Toyota's. More rain is coming, again, with 15 and a half minutes on the board. Safety car out on track still with the lights flashing. Oh boy. More water puddling, look. You know something, we might not get back to racing.
Now, tomorrow, we could see more rain, ordinary rain vs. a deluge. We could see dry conditions. We don't know. This race will end early or so it seems. Flagman Tom Hansing is not ready yet. Maybe one more lap behind the safety car. Then, we'll see what happens. 75-76% of the race now completed. Will that work for scoring half points or full points? We are in a full points scenario presently. We exoect tge checkered flag this time by. Elliott Skeer won his first ever race in a Porsche in 2015 in Porsche Carrera Cup supporting IndyCar. It will be a first win for Premier Motorsports, and first wins for Elliott Skeer and Adam Adelson in SRO Pirelli GT4 America.
Gavin Sanders was right in that this race has been a marathon instead of a sprint. This one is going to end about eleven minutes early. So, a 49 minute motor race or 50 minutes or so. This is how the race will end as we are on the final lap. Checkered flag. RS1 win it. Eric Filgueiras and Stevan McAleer. So, here are your winners.
Overall/Silver: #18 Filgueiras/McAleer RS1 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport
Pro-Am: #120 Adelson/Skeer Premier Racing Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport
Am: #36 Clay/Postins Bimmerworld Racing BMW M4 GT4
So, in the Am class, another win for James Clay and Charlie Postins. They follow up their race one triumph at the season opener at Sonoma, California. Filgueiras cuts fastest lap of the race too at 1:59 flat. 1:59.057. So, that's all she wrote for race one in GT4 America and we'll see you tomorrow as RS1 has pole for both Silver and Am classes. The times were far tighter in Q2 for race two. The results are provisional at this time and a start review was going to be done. However, the results I am giving you appear to be official.
Adam Adelson says that the race is less important than what led up to it and the stars have aligned for Premier Motorsports. Such are the vicissitudes of racing. James Clay caught the safety car in his stitn and drove fast. Charlie Postins, the Brit, he too is happy. Bimmerworld win the Am class and these two chaps have run together a lot at the Nurburgring and here stateside. So, that's a wrap of a topsy turvy day here at NOLA. Thanks for sticking with us through the delays, putting a bow on Saturday racing in New Orleans.
We'll see you tomorrow. Good night from The Big Easy, everybody.
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