Smooge Racing’s Tyler Gonzalez controlled to take the lead from Random Vandals Racing’s Kenton Koch at the end of the mid-race pit window on Saturday, April 6. From there, Gonzalez controlled to hold the box to win No. 1 Pirelli GT4 America SprintX. race at Sonoma Raceway with teammate John Geesbreght.
“The [grounded drivers] definitely played a role there, but I kept my cool,” Gonzalez told SRO America’s Amanda Busick in the victory lane. “That Toyota Supra was on track all day, so I knew I had the car [to win], I just had to do it. I’m glad we did it.
Geesbreght and Gonzalez’s margin of victory was 0. 792 seconds over Koch and Kevin Boehm. AutoTechnic Racing’s Zac Anderson and Colin Garrett were third, followed by TechSport Racing’s Jonathan Neudorf and Michai Stephens. BimmerWorld Racing’s Tyler McQuarrie and James Walker Jr. were fifth.
The four most sensible teams were the four most sensible groups in the Silver category. Fifth place in silver went to John Capestro-Dubets and Eric Filguerias of Rennsport One in their Porsche.
The Nissan TechSport Racing cars of Eric Powell and Jonathan Neudorf led the 28-car green box (Powell was the Pro-Am poleman, while Neudorf took pole in the Silver class). Powell controlled to make Neudorf transparent and open a small gap.
As the race continued, Powell managed to place four Silver-class cars between him and Walker in the No. After 15 minutes of racing, he had a 15-second lead in class.
Meanwhile, Smooge Racing’s John Geesbreght controlled to eliminate Neudorf on the opening lap and take the Silver lead. That lead didn’t last long as Neudorf regained it 4 laps later.
Neudorf managed to hold the lead until the mid-race pit stops, where he passed the baton to Stephens. Stephens is a fast driver, but he can’t do much when it comes to contact.
Shortly after his pit stop, Stephens was hit by Anderson at Turn 6, causing him to spin. Stephens didn’t touch anything, but fell to fourth place in his class. The incident will be reviewed later Saturday evening. If a resolution is made, we will update this summary.
Random Vandals Racing’s Kenton Koch also took the lead in the category. When P1 Groupe’s Matt Bell pitted Mercedes Onlyfans Racing against others, Koch found himself leading the overall standings. . . for about 15 seconds.
Shortly after Bell’s pit stop, Tyler Gonzalez took the lead from Koch to take the overall lead in Smooge Racing’s Toyota GearWrench. Once in front, Gonzalez was able to put a few seconds on Koch.
However, traffic allowed Koch and Anderson to pull Gonzalez back in the closing laps. Koch’s best chance came with just under nine minutes left when Gonzalez cut the pavement at Turn 3a and eventually landed on two wheels.
Koch took advantage of this opportunity to pass the inside at Turn 4. Gonzalez was able to hold off that move and held on to win.
At Pro-Am, Powell was one of the last drivers to do his mid-race pit prevention. Prevention in the pits was slow and teammate Colin Harrison struggled to regain speed. This caused it to fall into the overall order, but retained the Elegance leads with a decent lead.
That merit was slowly reduced but actually thanks to BimmerWorld Racing’s Tyler McQuarrie. Roman DeAngelis of Heart of Racing was also there. The duo knocked Harrison down and began fighting. Finally, McQuarrie was able to take the lead with thirteen minutes remaining.
DeAngelis was able to follow McQuarrie ahead of Harrison. The rest of the race saw the two veterans fight. McQuarrie managed to retain enough merit to ensure that DeAngelis never attacked him. That was enough for McQuarrie and Walker to take the winner.
The margin of victory is 0. 425 seconds over DeAngelis and Gray Newell. RENtech Motorsports’ Michael Auriemma and former INDYCAR driver Matheus Leist finished third in their Mercedes, followed by Harrison and Powell. Tom Dyer and Flying Lizard Motorsports’ Todd Parriott finished fifth in their Aston Martin.
In the Am class, BimmerWorld Racing’s Charlie Postins started from pole in his BMW. Postins lost a few positions on the first lap in the general classification, but managed to maintain the advantage.
In the early days, Postins’ main festival was Hannah Greenemeier of The Heart of Racing, who debuted in the series. The rookie driver was very competitive, keeping his Aston Martin in the top 10 at the start of the overall standings.
Postins was able to lead until the middle of the race without any problems. Team owner James Clay took over, but he wasn’t going as fast as Postins. This allowed the Aston Martin, now with Hannah Grisham at the wheel, to weigh lowering it despite a slower pit stop.
The two drivers battled hard for much of the second part of the race, but Grisham got the chance with less than five minutes remaining. He passed Clay on the Esses and controlled to maintain braking at Turn 9. That was all it took to take the initiative.
From there, Grisham was able to hold on and take the win in the Elegance Am in 13th overall for her and Greenemeier. For Grisham, it’s her third straight win after sweeping the weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway last October with former teammate Rianna O’Meara. Hunting.
The margin of victory was 0. 716 moments over Paul Sparta and Kris Wilson of Random Vandals Racing. Wilson controlled to take second position on the final lap from Clay and Postins. Robb Holland and Rotek Racing’s Jaden Lander were fourth, while Troy Lindstrom and AutoTechnic Racing’s Matt Million were fifth in their BMW.
The No. 2 Pirelli GT4 America SprintX race at Sonoma Raceway is scheduled for 1:55 p. m. And Sunday afternoon. Coverage will begin at 1:50 p. m. ET on the GT World YouTube channel.
Phil Allaway serves 3 main roles in Frontstretch. Es the administrator of the site’s FREE email newsletter, which runs Monday through Friday and on weekends. He ensures the honesty of TV stations with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and is the site’s sports car racing host. editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press secretary for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, New York. It covers all the on-track action, from regular DIRTcar Modified races to occasional visits from roving series, such as the Super DIRTcar Series.