In a return to Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas for SRO Pirelli GT4 America, we have a packed and stacked grid for the first of two one-hour races coming your way, right now. We join Ryan Myrehn and Calvin Fish, as always, for the race call, with Amanda Busick reporting from the pit lane. The GT4 cars are already on their formation laps. The weather is far better here than what we saw at NOLA Motorsports Park. Three classes, but all cars built to GT4 spec. We’ve got a massive 41 car field and so there will be plenty of car and driver combinations to keep an eye on as always.
We are of course at the home of the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix. So many cars, that we don’t have time to go through the entire grid. So, bear with us, as the race gets underway, we shall point out who is where on the road. We’ve got nearly three and a half miles of racetrack and 20 turns to work with. The suspension is far more compliant on this track for the GT4’s than it is for the GT3 cars. One of the Toyota GR Supra’s is on the pole for this opening race of the weekend, Matt Forbush at the wheel of it, sharing with Carter Fartuch, the #37 Skip Barber Racing School entry.
Tyler Maxson and Copeland Motorsports have their Supra outside on the front row. That is the #74 entry of Tyler Maxson and Tyler Gonzalez, the car we typically refer to as “the Tyler and Tyler show”, so they will be ones to keep an eye on. You know, we might have had yet another grid change. We’ll sort this all out as the race gets underway. Now we see the #51 Auto Technic Racing BMW M4 GT4 at the top of the pile. That is the generation two M4 GT4 in the hands of Zac Anderson and John Capestro Dubets (or JCD, as we call him so often using his initials).
We’ve got a Mercedes AMG GT4 next up. Pro-Am, Silver, and Am all together. We’ve got a mixed candy dish at the front of the grid between the different cars and the different drivers and how they are rated by the FIA and the SRO. Safety car lights out, so we should have a start in just a handful of seconds here at COTA. The field is half aligned. We need to try getting into Noah’s Ark formation. Alright. Maxson at the front. Here they come into the acceleration zone. Green flag! Away we go! BMW to the outside out of turn one and there’s a big kerfuffle in the center of the field!
Tim Pappas aboard the #54 Black Swan Racing McLaren Artura GT4 gets crossed up and clobbers car #97! Pappas sharing the #54 machine with the experienced Dutchman Jeroen Bleekemolen. Our attention is on #97. That is the Porsche Cayman, one of the three Valkyrie Velocity Racing cars and it’s without doubt game over in the first turn! Game over for Pappas and Bleekemolen and for the car of Sean Gibbons and Sam Owen. Such a shame! Such a tough break! Bleekemolen is on polefor race two tomorrow. Anderson takes the lead from the Supra which slid wide. Anderson has to push and now, the safety car is deployed.
Trouble too for the Supra of Carus Callas Racing. That is car #20 in the hands of Terry Borcheller and Nick Shanny, the regular driving duo in that automobile and they are in the lane already. Double yellows wave. Jeepers creepers! 41 cars into the turn just won’t work as it narrows up and everyone becomes the cork in the bottle, stuck in the funnel. We can also see the #8 car getting caught out. That is Elias Sabo aboard the Flying Lizard Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage GT4 he shares alongside Andy Lee. Big damage to the right front on Pappas’ McLaren and the Porsche Cayman is all torn up as well, look.
Your top ten runners are Zack Anderson, Tyler Maxson, Jesse Webb, Kevin Conway, Johann Schwartz, Jon Miller, Kevin Boehm, Matt Travis, Charlie Postins, and Hannah Grisham. A mix of BMW’s, Toyota’s, Porsche’s, Aston Martin’s. Hannah Grisham has experience, racing here at COTA. Conquest Racing got trumped by Auto Technic Racing in a photo finish at New Orleans. Zac Anderson and John Capestro Dubets won last time at NOLA. AutoTechnic are going to be in the fight today, believe me. Watch for that BMW.
That is John Capestro Dubets who just told us the story of their team. We remain behind the safety car. Carus Callas and Terry Borcheller spoke to Nick Shanny on the radio, and he had a cut tire. They are still in the fight but have dropped to caboose on the field. At Smooge Racing, in the meantime, Kevin Conway of course is the team principal as well as driving with co-driver John Geesbreght and racing in the one make series, the Toyota GR Cup. They became part of GT4 America in 2021. Kevin Conway had a relationship with Toyota in NASCAR before going sports car racing on a full-time basis.
This is a ladder system for younger drivers to advance. 40+ GT4 cars in these races every weekend. Alright. We’re set to go back to green. It is time. Green flag! Away we go once again! Anderson gets a great jump and now, Kevin Conway is the Pro-Am leader. Johann Schwartz wants it and takes the Pro-Am lead through the esses. Anderson controlling the overall lead. Tyler Maxson to second spot. Battles all the way through the field. Gray Newell starting The Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4, car #24 sharing with Canadian Roman De Angelis who is the full-time driver in that car in Pirelli GT4 America the rest of the season replacing team boss Ian James.
Jesse Webb is third in line in the Mercedes, and now, Kevin Conway is falling like a stone. Kevin Boehm in the #92 Random Vandals Racing with CrowdStrike BMW M4 GT4 is going for it. Boehm is a touring car champion and has to get used to swapping from front wheel drive touring cars to rear wheel drive GT4’s sharing with Kenton Koch. One of the Skip Barber Racing School Toyota Supra’s has spun, car #37. That is the Forbush/Fartuch entry we talked about earlier. It is so easy to get tipped into a spin through the turns.
Johann Schwartz continues leading in Pro-Am as Conway and Boehm are side by side and Boehm is clear. Matt Travis, meanwhile, in too deep on the ABS into turn two and is going to get passed. Travis in the #47 Nolasport Porsche Cayman sharing with Jason Hart and he is about to be passed by another of the BMW’s. Three wide battling with Am class leader Charlie Postins. Hannah Grisham, too, has her hands full with Silver class competitor Daniel Hanley. Hanley in the #999 TGR Hanley Motorsports Toyota Supra he shares with Canadian sports car veteran Parker Thompson.
Charlie Postins, teaming with James Clay are running very well in the Am division. We are also watching car #19. That is Francis Selldorff sharing with Andrew Davis in one of the three ACI Motorsports Porsche Cayman’s in the field. The STR38 BMW M4 GT4 hops over the curbs as well. That is Robert Mau at the wheel f the #438 sharing with Chris Allen of New Zealand. Zac Anderson meanwhile is off like a rocket over the rest of the field and everyone else is eating his dust with almost 15 minutes on the board in this race.
Jon Miller passes Johann Schwartz. Miller is chasing down Anderson, Maxson, and Webb and Schwartz will be defending for all he’s worth against Kevin Boehm. Watch the third place Mercedes of Jesse Webb and Michai Stephens. They are down on speed on the straightaway compared to their rivals. Miller in the slipstream snatches the spot away from Webb, the Canadian driver. Discipline is the key. Don’t panic and don’t drive aggressively. Be smart.
Boehm has won amateur titles and touring car titles in SRO America. He has test mileage as a Honda North America engineer in rear-wheel-drive cars, but not race mileage necessarily. Honda of course does not produce a GT4 spec car. Johann Schwartz, the Dane, is a drift racer, just like Daiyo Shihara in touring cars. Gray Newell is slowing! He is off the pace! He got tipped into a spin for sure by someone else. Deary me. That could have been his Aston Martin rival, Ross Chouest, aboard the Chouest Povoledo Racing entry, car #50. Jon Miller passes Tyler Maxson for second. BMW, BMW, Toyota, Mercedes, BMW for the top five. Four Silver’s followed by the Pro-Am leader, Johann Schwartz.
Matt Travis is being harried by Charlie Postins, the Am leader. Porsche Cayman vs. BMW M4. Kevin Boehm spins out of sixth overall! Oh boy. We’ve never seen Boehm make an error like that. He is so used to having his foot buried in the throttle, spinning, which is how you drive a front wheel drive car. Rear wheel drive does not work that way. The battle is on, meanwhile, as Jesse Webb is being monstered by Tyler Maxson. The BMW’s were struggling at NOLA but they are bullish about tire preservation here at COTA. An hourlong race with a pit stop but no tire changes, only driver changes.
Maxson is a great, young talent running mostly with Copeland Motorsports. He is a two-time SRO TC America champion for Copeland Motorsports in both 2019 and 2020. He has done some prototype racing and ran the 24 Hours of Dubai in 2022 in Creventic endurance racing competition. Anderson has uncorked fastest lap and gapped Miller by 3.10ths of a second. Auto Technic have found the sweet spot with this new BMW M4 GT4. They’ve been a BMW team for a long time. But this new M4 GT4 is a revolution as opposed to an evolution.
They’ve really stepped up their customer racing program with the GT4 cars. They have gained a lot of success and did so with the old platform, here and in other GT4 based championships and it brings the car into line with the GT3 version of the M4. BMW have their fingers in many pies between their factory prototype program and their customer efforts in GT3, GT4, and touring cars across the board. Schwartz is giving Maxson everything he can handle, up on the wheel. Glad to see him back racing in this championship after dominating touring cars, sharing with Colin Garrett who did run TC America earlier and in the NASCAR truck series race that raced here at COTA.
That event was way back in March. Good battle for seventh in the overall. That is the Travis and Boehm scrap. Boehm up on the wheel and wants to move. He sends it around the outside but oversteers through the esses! Offline there are marbles all over the shop. Charlie Postins next up, leading the Am division. Second place in Am is one of the other Auto Technic BMW’s. This is the car driven by Satakal Khalsa sharing with Rob Walker. The pit window is now open, with an 81 second pit lane delta.
Driver changes the only factor in the pit stops in Pirelli GT4 America. Travis, Boehm, Webb, and more in the lane. Casual stop for the Copeland team. Driver changes only. Maybe they’ll need a water jug or an ice cream down there. Some drivers will assist, and other teams will use a crew member. Clean, well-executed stops and Krugspeed may have been in well before everyone else. That is the #72 Toyota Supra being driven by Anthony Geraci and Jaden Lander. I think Auto Technic BMW came out of the lane first. Getting close to the halfway mark. Jon Miller chasing down Zack Anderson and poor old Anderson will hit traffic. He has not hit the lane to swap to John Capestro Dubets yet. The #88 BMW M4 GT4 has also pitted. Silver rated drivers can split the difference. Jon Miller has turned over to Chandler Hull. Michai Stephens has a buffer and now, Colin Garrett is in the fight with John Geesbreght. Michai Stephens is fine right now. Fastest lap of the race so far for Anderson. 2:15.958 is the CrowdStrike Fastest Lap. Execute the driver change.
JCD chomping at the bit and on a high after winning at NOLA. If you have not seen that April finish at NOLA in the only GT4 America race there, go to the GTWorld YouTube channel archive and check it out. Khalsa in the lane in the second Auto Technic BMW. John Capestro Dubets is well in front of his nearest rival. Who will cycle into the second spot? I think it is Chandler Hull with Michai Stephens third and then comes Tyler Gonzalez, I think. Michael Cooper has taken over from Jason Bell in the #2 Aston Martin Vantage GT4. That is the Flying Lizard Motorsports entry, the first of their two cars.
Walker, Clay, Hull, and more. Parker Thompson up on two wheels over the curbs! Great battles, great drivers, and a melting pot of manufacturers and cars in GT4. Walker fades over guarding the place. Behind them there, look, it’s Parker Thompson, the reigning champion in Porsche Cup North America. Wow. This is some feisty, spicy battling. Oh dear! Rob Walker runs wide! Chris Allen now at the controls of the #438 STR38 car. That car was started by Robert Mau.
Here is the running order. John Capestro Dubets leads Chandler Hull, Michai Stephens, Tyler Maxson, John Geesbreght, Kenton Koch, Jason Hart, Colin Garrett, (excuse me, Colin Garrett, and then Jason Hart), James Clay, and Parker Thompson. Clay passes Allen and now Allen and Walker could be in a scrap of their own. Michael Cooper, a multiple GT4 champion in SRO America and in GT4. Cooper will have a good starting spot for race two tomorrow. This is so tough. Focus forward and reduce the gaps. Clay and Thompson going for it.
Contact there, look, for the Am class lead between Chris Allen, and the other BMW. The BMW swallows the Supra in one gulp. The Supra has the strength, Parker Thompson, from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. More debris on the road. Thompson wants out of this and wants to move up. Thompson clears James Clay and the BMW just stretches it’s legs. The straightaways are an advantage. Allen has a double draft and knows discretion is the better part of valor.
Michael Cooper now is going to press his way through the top two in the Am class. Cooper has to catch Garrett and Hart in Pro-Am. John Geesbreght is still the Pro-Am leader in the Smooge Racing Toyota Supra. Cooper side by side, look, with Allen. Wow. The Aston Martin started seventh in class and is now in fourth. We are seeing Jason Hart in Pirelli GT4 America for the first time this season after running solely in GT America, the single driver championship for GT3 and GT4 cars. Michael Cooper is still scything through the field.
Michael Cooper is now charging with less than 20 minutes still to go. Cooper right on John Geesbreght’s heels. Colin Garrett leads Jason Hart and John Geesbreght in Pro-Am. Cooper still ahead. He has damage on the Aston Martin as James Clay does on the BMW as well. Clay is eking out an advantage as Walker wants by Allen with Andrew Davis and Francis Selldorff next up. Now then, we are looking at the scrap for the Pro-Am lead. Colin Garrett vs. Jason Hart. Hart to the inside and Garrett almost spins! Geesbreght says “thanks, boys” and goes to the first spot!
Open the door, and Geesbreght walked right through. That was a save and a half! Hart would have copped a penalty on that one for dead sure. Garrett clatters over the curbs. Jason Hart tries the BMW, but no dice. Hart in the Porsche strong on the brakes but not so much on acceleration against the BMW. Hart is indeed getting feisty going for the big points. Texans first and third. Geesbreght from Fort Worth, and Jason Hart as well. Wow! Chris Allen makes the move on Charlie Postins! Allen is a well-known amateur racer and ran at the Nurburgring 24 Hours.
Of course, as we were covering these events at COTA, the Nurburgring 24 Hours was also running on the very same weekend and you no doubt read a ton about that event. Allen raced at the Nurburgring 24 in 2021. Allen and Robert Mau will be in Pirelli GT4 America for the full season in 2023. 13 minutes to go. John Capestro Dubets ten and a half seconds to the good over Chandler Hull and then Michai Stephens. Chandler Hull, amazingly made this race as he had a huge crash in the race that preceded this one, race one of course in Fanatec GT World Challenge America.
Hull is battered and bruised but he is quick here in GT4. Will he and his co-driver Bill Auberlen see action tomorrow? We’ll find out I suppose. Kenton Koch is in recovery mode chasing down Tyler Gonzalez in yet another Toyota vs. BMW scrap. Kenton Koch has reeled this bunch in. Koch has 11 minutes to make up places. Geesbreght is really running well. Just amazing. He has his head down, hitting his marks. Colin Garrett is an unknown quantity in GT4.
We know he is great behind the wheel of a TCX BMW in TC America. Jason Hart, though, is the crème de la crème in GT4 at the wheel of the Porsche. John Geesbreght as well, he is really stepping it up to go toe to toe with Jason Hart. My goodness. Inside of ten minutes remaining in this motor race. Jason Hart’s Porsche Cayman could be porpoising offline but in a straight line he is OK. Side by side stuff between Chandler Hull and Michai Stephens! Oh boy! Look at this! Stephens tries it but can’t get it done. He has caught up in a hurry to Hull and is right on his six.
Stephens cuts back to the other side. Oh my! This is hot, this battle for second in Silver. Stephens sends it late. Stephens is doing all he can! Here he comes late on the brakes inside through turn one and Kenton Koch tries Tyler Gonzalez but runs wide! Stephens makes the pass for second. Nail the last corners of the esses and create a gap before the backstretch. The BMW has the power, the speed, in a straight line. Kenton Koch has the hammer down and looks to the inside of Gonzalez as the front end washes out.
Koch sees a podium. He has his elbows out and they call him “Striker”. Lapped traffic ahead. Gonzalez has a run and now does the crossover to the inside and Gonzalez wants it back. You can put just a sheet of paper between those boys. Wow. This has been quite the recovery drive for Random Vandals after Kevin Boehm’s spin. Stephens has a handling advantage through the rhythm section of the course. Koch is in trouble after getting stymied by a lapped car. Gonzalez is digging deep, putting in the effort. Copeland Motorsports really show what they’ve got with the two Tyler’s of course.
Koch has to make good his escape over Gonzalez. Less than four minutes to go with John Capestro Dubets leading overall and in Silver by 13 seconds. One of the Am class contenders has spun. That is the #77 Jon Branam driven TR3 Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4 he shares with Paul Kiebler and Branam has spun off and has to get back on track. Three into one won’t work. Four into one! That was not on. Terry Borcheller will also have big damage! Yikes!
Borcheller has had lots of success, a two-time Rolex 24 winner with both Bell Motorsports and with my friends in IMSA at Action Express. Meanwhile, John Capestro Dubets is really going for it still and he is likely going to bring it home to the checkers. Their lead after the pit stops went to eight seconds and has now ballooned to 12 seconds. White flag next time by for the Auto Technic #51 BMW M4 GT4. JCD at the wheel of it. White flag. One lap, 3.42 miles, 20 turns to go. Michai Stephens comfortably in second but Chandler Hull surely will keep him honest.
High commitment moves from Michai Stephens, we have seen that before. He is a fast, classy, smart racing driver. Kenton Koch in fourth place right now sharing of course with Kevin Boehm. John Capestro Dubets and Zack Anderson for Auto Technic Motorsports win race one in Pirelli GT4 America at COTA! In Pro-Am it will be John Geesbreght and Kevin Conway winning in fine style! Geesbreght took off towards the end.
In the Am class it will be Chris Allen and Robert Mau earning the victory in 12th overall!
Overall/Silver: #51 Capestro-Dubets/Anderson Auto Technic Racing BMW M4 GT4
Pro-Am: #68 Geesbreght/Conway Smooge Racing Toyota GR Supra GT4 Evo
Am: #438 Allen/Mau STR38 Motorsports BMW M4 GT4
Anderson earns Crowdstrike Fastest Lap at 2:15.958. Cue the dance music, and we see the results sheet. Hats off to Anderson and JCD. Geesbreght really put in a remarkable drive in Pro-Am and a nose to tail Am battle we saw as well. So, we had everything in today’s opening GT4 race of the weekend at COTA. Some of the drivers who went out in the first turn, hope to have their race cars ready to go for tomorrow. Let’s hope the repairs are successful. Quite the action-packed race one of the weekend and we will be ready to go for tomorrow, and we’ll see you then, here in Austin, Texas. For now, we bid you good night from COTA and from the live music capitol of the world. So long, everyone.
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