The final race for Saturday at Sebring is the second race of the weekend (but first overall, official race) for Pirelli GT4 America. We had a wonderful race one yesterday evening. That was a makeup from a washout at NOLA Motorsports Park. Much of the cream has risen to the top here in GT4. We are looking for another fabulous hourlong race and we had a very clean race last night, too. Jesse Webb and Michai Stephens on pole in the #34 Conquest Mercedes with the #88 STR38 BMW outside with Harry Gottsacker and Chandler Hull. All GT4 cars with three classes, Silver, Pro-Am, and Am, based on driver ratings. A one-hour race with a mandatory pit stop in the middle for only a driver change. No refueling and use one set of tires for the whole race, one set of Pirelli P Zero tires.
Charlie Postins and James Clay could clinch the Am class GT4 America title today. They are going for seven straight wins and eight in total in 2023. They said they were done after 2022, not so, and they have come back and blitzed the field again. Crucial laps behind the safety car around this 3.74 mile circuit getting the tires and brakes set for the run into the treacherous turn one. Safety car lights off. Jesse Webb on pole with Harry Gottsacker to the outside, driving front wheel drive touring cars and rear wheel drive GT cars. The field is formed up. Gren flag. We are underway! They fan out already in a land rush to turn one.
Matt Travis moves to the inside of Kevin Boehm already. Lots of cars running wide and off the road into the grass! Nick Longhi in the McLaren Artura GT4 all over the road as Jesse Webb is eking out a gap and a massive crash at the back with Elias Sabo spearing off the road and into the barriers! Rianna O'Meara-Hunt and Gray Newell both off the road! Calamity and disaster for The Heart of Racing. A massive field of GT4 cars congested like mad. Much feistier than yesterday after a clean event last night.
Rianna O'Meara-Hunt is fine and she is back in the race but there is grass in the front grille of the car. Two cars have clouted the barrier. Gray Newell is one and Elias Sabo too. Those are heavily damaged cars and both drivers out of their cars under their own steam. Thank heavens they are OK after plowing into the concrete barriers at unabated speed. Sabo runs with a different car in GTA, GT America. If they needed a spare car they would have to go to the back of the grid. Gray Newell also runs in GT America and Pirelli GT4 America, and I don't know if they have separate cars for each race. Rianna O'Meara-Hunt almost got collected.
It is a shame that Hannah Grisham and Rianna O'Meara-Hunt have not had the results that they wanted. The yellow does throw a wrench into strategy except for tire preservation. That is a moot point. I think the only thing will be a driver combination where a stronger starting driver cannot build a gap before the second driver hits the track. So, strategy is not a big deal really and this eases the pain a bit. Matt Travis, third overall, leading Pro-Am has a buffer over Ross Chouest and Jason Bell. Chouest sharing with Aaron Povoledo and Michael Cooper sharing with Jason Bell. That shemozzle happened in turn six and the pinch point spears both of them off the road.
A lucky escape for the second Heart of Racing car. That was a violent crash, as violent as anything I have seen in these Pirelli GT4 America races. Andy Lee says it was a huge hit and is thankful Elias Sabo is out of the car and OK. Flying Lizard will regroup for race three tomorrow. It had to be more evasive action than actual contact. So, we have a single file restart coming up and we've chewed and swallowed ten minutes off the clock. Where is Paul Sparta? He has no laps on the board and had to take evasive action in turn one with grass in the radiator. Green flag. We go back to racing as Harry Gottsacker is right on Jesse Webb's six.
JCD, John Capestro-Dubets looks outside Matt Travis, and Kevin Boehm is beginning to motor. Johann Schwartz has argy bargy with Richard Rdge and the #89 RENNTech Mercedes nearly comes a cropper! Tommy Johnson sharing with Michael Auriemma. I think it is Auriemma starting. Kevin Conway moving up and we see a battle now between Charlie Postins and Nick Longhi as Kevin Boehm muscles his way by Zac Anderson who scrapped hard for the podium yesterday. A spin for one of the Am class cars and it is hard to tell who it is. Dan Hanley is pushing hard and he held onto the lead sharing with Parker Thompson yesterday evening.
Travis running defensively. He is pushing, is Matt Travis, to stay ahead of Ross Chouest. Matt Travis has the battling BMW's behind along with Daniel Hanley in the Toyota Supra as Johann Schwartz is chasing Jason Bell and we have a spin for the #18 Porsche Cayman for Roland and Austin Krainz. Dropping a wheel off in the dirt, and there could be a right rear flat Pirelli tire for Roland Krainz. He and his son Austin Krainz had a great race yesterday as a car goes off and on in tower corner. Rianna O'Meara-Hunt in recovery mode and a tight squeeze through Sunset Bend. Nelson Calle closes the door chasing down Joey Dasilva.
Calle passes O'Meara-Hunt. Different classes too, based on driver grading, all GT4 cars. Gottsacker pressuring Webb into the hairpin. These two chaps are half a second apart. Chandler Hull will take over for the second stint and he was on the podium in the Fanatec GT World Challenge race an hour ago or so. Four Silver class cars take up space to the next Pro-Am car. Bell and Chouest have been racing for wins and championships in GT America as well as in GT4 America. They draft down the Ulmann straightaway. Kevin Boehm getting used to this BMW learning on race weekends with no testing available.
He dominated in the touring car ranks in years past. Capestro-Dubets trying Boehm to the outside through turn three and Capestro-Dubets pokes his nose in but gets sliced by Hanley who gets a head of steam. Excuse me. Hanley has a head of steam on JCD while Kevin Boehm wants to move past Matt Travis, in a championship fight of his own. Charlie Postins has caught Richard Edge for the Am lead and JCD gets to Kevin Boehm's door. He can answer back, using thrust. That was bananas! They race hard and race clean. Capestro-Dubets looks right and jinks left to the inside of Boehm and Boehm spins and Hanley takes evasive action!
There was a jinx there! Sheesh! I said it. Commentator's curse. Quality racing? Here's it all again, in slow mpotion. Boeh,m is squeezed and Hanley thankfully did not get collected! That was incredible! The space of a sheet of A4 paper! This is Dan Hanley's first season racing any car at all. Postins passes Edge and Nick Longhi coming forward. BMW M4 GT4 vs, Porsche Cayman vs. McLaren Artura GT4. Nick Longhi won with Rumbum Racing and Matt Plumb in SRO. Longhi has mentored promising talents like Aurora Straus. Much like Niclas Jonsson has done the same thing, the Swede. Longhi paired with Kaia Teo, 17 years old from New Jersey.
She started racing in Spec Miata at age 13. Harry Gotrsacker turns the CrowdStrike Fastest Lap at 2:11.988 with the pit window coming up in about six minutes. Nick Shanny goes off in the dirt, spears across the wrong and hits the wall on the... boom! This might bring out a safety car which would delay the opening of the pit window. Safety Car dispatched. Full Course Yellow. The window will be delayed on the next lap after the restart. Try opening it on a round number on the clock and will last ten minutes, to shorten up the final stint especially if you run deep into the window. It gets tricky. Don't back yourself into a corner.
The minimum pit lane delta from pit in to pit out is 84 seconds including the driver change and no one second joker to use. Anything over the minimum is a drive through penalty issued by the stewards and now, Nick Shanny is back on the road, thankfully. No damage or mechanical woe. The Boehm and Capestro-Dubets shemozzle is under review and now Dubets is in the top three in Silver and I don't think the stewards are going to call this. Zac Anderson says two cars were fighting really hard to turn one and there was no coexistence. JCD will not magically disappear with a wall in the way.
We have to coexist. That is the opinion. Eyes up, hammer down. If you hit a turn one bump, your steering input too, will change the arc of the car through the turn. Incident under review. No idea of the adjudication yet. The stewards just might let them get away without a penalty. There is a donut on the door of the #51 BMW with John Capestro-Dubets third and Kevin Boehm and Kenton Koch are 13th hanging onto their championship hopes by their fingernails. Parker Thompson tells us about Dan Hanley, keep digging. He was sad that he didnt go to the inside. He Scandinavian flicked that car in the right direction and they will keep it up.
Maybe they should buy a lottery ticket, but they want the champagne this evening, Parker Thompson says. Green flag. Harry Gottsacker has a head of steam and Capestro-Dubets tries it and now JCD is up to P2! Trouble for Jesse Webb! I wonder if he has clag on his tires or worse, a cut down tire. Pit window to open next time by as Eric Powell is moving up. He is not feeling well and had to take an IV before the race. Colin Harrison hurt himself outside the car and so Powell is running Marco Solo and he has to jump out, run to the wall, and get back in, adding three extra seconds to the pit stop. Other teams have done it. Zac Anderson did the same last time these cars races when JCD wasn't available.
Webb will have to push now, and they dive for the pit lane as do a bunch of other cars, ready for the driver change. The pit window is now open. All Pro-Am cars are in. Postins hands off to James Clay looking for their seventh straight victory and the Am class title with three races to go. JCD has a donut on the car from yesterday's race as well. Michai Stephens is now in the Conquest Mercedes. Jason Hart in the Nolasport Mercedes and Parker Thompson now in the Toyota Supra, Supra quick! Supra quick? Super quick? Take both. Better to be born lucky than rich.
Auto Technic to the lane to get Zac Anderson into the car so JCD's back will be OK. Drivers will be in a rhythm. Harry Gottsacker can now maximize the pace of the car. 22 minutes left in the race. Nick Longhi staying out in the Crucial Motorsports McLaren before handing off to Kaia Teo. The overcut might work. Zac Anderson goes through and has to get going to get ahead of Michai Stephens. Kenton Koch making up for lost time. It is go time. Michael Cooper takes the #2 Aston Martin over from Jason Bell in the Flying Lizard Motorsports Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4.
Michael Cooper has championships in SRO America in TC, GT4, and GT3, as Andrew Davis fights with Aaron Povoledo and Tyler McQuarrie. No extreme heat in Sebring for a change. Harry Gottsacker and Nick Longhi are the only two drivers who owe us a pit stop. Chandler Hull coming out of a GT3 car into a GT4 car with different power, handling, and braking points, as Kaia Teo, she will cycle into the Am class order. Drive through penalty for a restart violation for Harry Gottsacker! That smashes their hopes to bits! Oh man, oh man!
Gottsacker taking the pain now and they will actually have to do their mandatory stop as well. Samantha Tan Racing had two penalties in the GT3 race earlier. Chandler Hull will get into the car and then have to drive back through the pit lane next time by. So this gamble did not work out. Anderson leads Stephens with Parker Thompson coming back into the picture as well. Don't sleep on the triple nine Supra. Michai Stephen closing up and Kaia Teo, she is off the road. Hello, tires. Ugh! Will this develop into a safety car? She ran wide, and got nto the grass, and a big clonk with the tire bundles. Safety car deployed. #88 have not served their drive through penalty yet and I think they'll just have to take a time penalty or something.
They are out of the points and the potential for a podium. Kenton Koch has moved up and Michai Stephens too, will catch up, with Zac Anderson's gap erased. The #88 BMW M4 GT4 did serve their penalty according to race control. Jason Hart and Michael Cooper closing in. Hart in the fight for the title but Cooper has no skin in the game. Something has happened in Am to James Clay and Charlie Postins, flying Plummet Airways to fourth in class. Matt Halcomb leads Chris Allen, so, it is ACI Motorsports vs. STR38 I believe. A top four finish might just seal the deal for the #36 team. They'd still have enough as someone has their doormopen. That is Eric Powell. He is not feeling well.
Nissan putting everything into this GT4 program and Brian Heitkotter will start at the pointy end for race two tomorrow, race three, actually. Time penalties for short pit stops to Kay van Berlo in car #7 post-race. Tommy Johnson in the #89 Mercedes and the #80 car, Kaia Teo, out of the race for bringing ou this yellow. Academic for the Crucial Motorsports McLaren Artura GT4 she shares with Nick Longhi. Kenton Koch sits fourth, fighting for a podium spot. Satakal Khalsa in the #253 car, it is a one and done year for he and Rob Walker in the Auto Technic Racing BMW M4 GT4.
Khalsa wants to win before the season is out. We have a restart with seven minutes to go. Buckle up. Cinch down the belts for bringing the action. Green flag. Parker Thompson and Kenton Koch driving through the red mist and a big off for John Geesbreght in the Toyota Supra and a fight for the lead! Parker Thompson told to go for it and Kenton Koch is pushing but the safgety car is out! That could be game over for any green flag running! Holy mackerel! Is John Geesbreght OK? We really hope so. Aaron Povoledo could have gotten a piece of that shemozzle. I suspect we will not restart this race.
Rather anticlimactic, eh? Oh. This is JCD and Kevin Boehm apologizing to each other for their coming together. The turn one lap one incident under review by race control. White flag. One more lap to go under yellow. This situation has indeed corrected itself. Just leave it alone, probably. John Geesbreght's Toyota Supra is still buried in the tires. The steward's office will be busy sorting all this stuff out. No tea and biscuits for the drivers but tea and biscuits for the stewards indeed, or coffee and biscuits, maybe. Matt Halcomb and ACI Motorsports are positioned well for a race win and Dr. Robert Mau and Chris Allen will come home second.
Random Vandals are ready to celebrate an improbable win here in race two of the weekend in Pirelli GT4 America, from 13th to the win! Both drivers in the incident are OK. Ub reokatm ig nab! Gyge gut fir Geesbreght and then outside, inside, and into the lead for Kenton Koch over Parker Thompson. Holy mackerel! The results of this race will likely be provisional when we are talking about the class winners. There are no gaps under yellow and it would cause someone if there was an applied time penalty to fly Plummet Airways down the order.
Race three tomorrow, we might make some changes. The checkered flag waves. Kenton Koch and Kevin Boehm win this race! Random Vandals do it. Zac Anderson third. Parker Thompson on the podium again for Hanley Motorsports. Pro-Am has Jason Hart, Michael Cooper, and Tyler McQuarrie. Matt Halcome, provisionally is the Am winner as we cue the dance music again.
Overall/Silver: #92 Boehm/Koch Random Vandals Racing BMW M4 GT4
Pro-Am: #47 Travis/Hart NOLASPORT Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport
Am: #58 Edge/Halcome ACI Motorsports Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport
A lot still to be looked at and we'll be back tomorrow for race three of the weekend and we'll have to sort out these incidents including the Geesbreght and Povoledo shemozzle we saw. The stewards will have a long night ahead, including Race Director Brian Till. So, a wild second race for Pirelli GT4 America at Sebring is now complete. We'll see you tomorrow for the third race of the weekend and any news, we'll pass it along to you this evening or tomorrow. Kenton Koch is a star in GT4 racing. Take note. Believe me.
Pirelli GT4 America race of the year? Could very well be. ...And, we've got more action tomorrow! We'll see you then. For now, good night from Sebring International Raceway amid the orange groves of central Florida. Bye bye.
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