AutoTechnic Racing claimed their second win of the season after a late charge through the Silver class pack at Barber Motorsports Park in Pirelli GT4 America, with BimmerWorld doing the same in the Am class. Meanwhile, in Pro-Am, it was NOLASPORT who made another appearance in victory lane.
Silver
Corey Lewis led the field to the green flag from the overall pole position in his No. 68 Smooge Racing Toyota Gazoo Racing GR Supra GT4 EVO, but came under threat quickly from Pro-Am driver Roman De Angelis, who snatched the spot away.
Lewis retained the top spot in the Silver class as Eric Filgueiras, in the No. 28 RS1 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport, had his hands full to keep the No. 77 VPX Motorsport Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport of Alex Ellis behind throughout the opening corners.
As teams performed their driver changes near the halfway mark under full course caution, RS1 got the jump over Smooge Racing as John Capestro-Dubets managed to squeeze ahead of Tyler Gonzalez in pit lane as they returned to the track.
The race returned to green flag running with 27m remaining, and Dubets took the opportunity to sweep ahead into the overall lead, but Zac Anderson was on the charge in the No. 51 AutoTechnic Racing BMW M4 GT4 G82, with Kenton Koch looming closely behind in the No. 97 Random Vandals Racing BMW M4 GT4 G82 as well.
Another safety car brought the pack back together again, and Dubets felt the heat as the race restarted again with under 10m remaining. Anderson and Koch were able to sweep past into first and second, with Dubets dropping down to fourth as Gonzalez took away the final spot in the top 3.
Koch raised a challenge to Anderson, but the AutoTechnic Racing driver kept his composure to go on and claim the overall victory.
“Oh man, the amount of debris and rubber buildup on the track was intense,” Anderson said. “I was on the radio with the team saying, ‘I hope the other drivers are dealing with this much stuff on their tires because it’s going to make for a wild restart.’ I adjusted for it and knew JCD would leave me a lane—he’s still my guy from last year, and always will be. I have to thank the AutoTechnic crew for always giving us these rocket ships, and a huge thanks to my teammate Colin Garrett, 11/11 Veteran Project, Operation Motorsport, and everyone who has made this season possible. This win feels great. It’s been since Sonoma, and we really needed it. We’ve fought hard to get here.”
“Zac and I are pretty tough on ourselves, and we’ve been that way all season,” Garrett said. “When our performance is there but the season isn’t going quite as we hoped, these races mean a lot more. My drive today wasn’t my best, and Zac always finds the areas where I fall short. He’s been an amazing teammate, and we’ve become like brothers. I’m really happy to be working with the AutoTechnic crew. This feels great—congrats to everyone on the win!”
Pro-Am
Roman De Angelis started from the front row in the No. 24 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 EVO, but he wasted no time moving up into the overall lead on the opening lap.
Comparatively, Matt Bell, who was running second in class in the No. 43 P1 Groupe Mercedes-AMG GT4, had a challenging first lap and dropped some positions, promoting Matt Travis up ahead of him in the No. 47 NOLASPORT Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1436]
De Angelis, who was running on an alternate strategy, got to work as he began to build a gap to the rest of the field. However, his advantage dwindled when a safety car came out due to the No. 23 TechSport Racing Nissan Z NISMO GT4 grinding to a halt on track just before the halfway mark.
Gray Newell took over from teammate De Angelis, but dropped some positions on the race restart, with NOLASPORT’s Jason Hart taking over the class lead instead. Soon after, Newell found himself under threat from Tyler McQuarrie in the No. 82 BimmerWorld BMW M4 GT4 G82 as well.
In the final laps, McQuarrie powered ahead of Hart, with Matheus Leist taking the opportunity to do the same in the No. 89 RENNtech Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT4. The fight wasn’t over just yet, as the two went nose to tail and Leist ran into the back of the BMW, sending McQuarrie for a spin.
The incident resulted in a post-race time penalty for Leist for incident responsibility, which therefore promoted NOLASPORT’s Hart and Travis back into the class lead at the finish line. The No. 7 ACI Motorsports Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport of Curt Swearingin and Kay van Berlo and the No. 5 Flying Lizard Motorsports Nissan Z NISMO GT4 of Damir Hot and Rodrigo Baptista benefitted from the argy-bargy, completing the podium.
“I want to thank Matt and NOLASPORT for bringing me back for this race,” Hart said. “It’s been such a long time since I’ve raced at Barber, so it was a lot of fun to jump in the car, especially with the rain yesterday and how the cautions played out today. I’ve never driven a (Porsche) RS here before, but it was an absolute blast.”
Am
As the green flag waved, Rotek Racing’s Robb Holland retained the lead in the Am class in his No. 099 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport, but Charlie Postins had his sights set on the top of the field, inching closer at every lap in his No. 36 BimmerWorld BMW M4 GT4.
Postins translated this mounting pressure into an overtake for the lead on lap 15, however, Holland remained on his rear bumper until the first full course caution emerged. As James Clay took over the helm of the No. 36 BimmerWorld BMW, he didn’t miss a beat and stayed in first place after the restart. Kris Wilson advanced in the class as well, commanding the No. 98 Random Vandals Racing BMW M4 GT4 and moving up to second place.
Drama unfolded as Wilson and Clay made contact with less than 20m to go. The Random Vandals machine came to a halt a lap later, bringing out the safety car once more.
With Wilson’s car out of the way, racing resumed with 8m left to the race. Jaden Lander in the No. 099 Porsche took advantage of the restart to try to catch back up to Clay, but he was unfazed and remained completely focused on taking the win. The BimmerWorld duo returned to victory lane for the second time in 2024, with Rotek Racing joining them on the podium, as well as Nicholas Shanny and Chris Walsh in the No. 20 Carrus Callas Raceteam BMW M4 GT4 G82.
“This feels really sweet,” Postins said at the podium celebrations. “I’m not sure why, but it seems like, for the first time in a long time, we’ve actually gone out and earned a win. It was a tough race, but I like to think we raced fairly. It feels like we truly won this one, rather than having it handed to us. That’s why this win feels so good, and to have James bring it home, that was just awesome. It really was a great race.”
James Clay echoed his teammate’s thoughts; “As Charlie said, it’s great to win one. It feels like it’s been a while—because it has been—but we know we’re capable of winning races, even strings of races. We came into this weekend determined to win, like we do every weekend, but this time, it felt like we had a car that could deliver. Let’s see how tomorrow goes, and of course, the next race. The championship’s not over yet.”
The Pirelli GT4 America field will return for race two on Sunday, September 8th at 10:45 a.m. CT.