Rennsport One’s John Capestro-Dubets swept around the outside of Blackdog Speed Shop’s Tony Gaples with 19 minutes to go Sunday (May 5) to take the overall lead. From there, Capestro-Dubets pulled away to win Pirelli GT4 America SprintX Race No. 2 at Sebring International Raceway with teammate Eric Filguerias.
The victory counts as a weekend sweep for Rennsport One, their second one of the weekend. Earlier, Trent Hindman and Spencer Pumpelly wrapped a sweep of the two Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS races.
The only reason that this event counts as a weekend sweep for Rennsport One in Pirelli GT4 America SprintX is that the winners from TechSport Racing failed post-race inspection Saturday. They were moved to the rear of the field, resulting in Capestro-Dubets and Filguerias being awarded the win hours after the race.
Capestro-Dubets and Filguerias’ margin of victory was 3.124 seconds over AutoTechnic Racing’s Zac Anderson and Colin Garrett. TechSport Racing’s Jonathan Neudorf and Michai Stephens finished third, followed by Random Vandals Racing’s Kevin Boehm and Kenton Koch. Gaples and Maxwell Root ended up fifth.
The top-four finishers were the top Silver class finishers as well. Hanley Motorsports’ Daniel Hanley and Parker Thompson were fifth in Silver.
Root, driving in place of Michael Cooper, started on the overall pole in his Nissan. He spent much of the first half of the race running away from the field and setting quick laps.
Thompson started on pole in his Supra. Thompson was able to easily hang with Root in second overall. Meanwhile, Stephens, who won on Saturday, got nerfed off-course by The Heart of Racing’s Roman DeAngelis exiting turn 3 and dropped all the way to 19th overall.
Root had opened up a four-second lead overall and nearly eight seconds over DeAngelis in class. The advantage continued to expand to over six seconds by the time the mid-race pit stops came along.
The plan for Root was to go as long as possible before stopping. During the tops, JMF Motorsports’ Jake Cowden stalled on the Uhlmann Straight. While the safety car did not come out because of it, it did likely bring in some of the teams before they would have preferred to stop.
As a result, SRO America waited until everyone stopped before bring the safety car out. Gaples maintained the overall lead, but now had the top Silver class runners on his tail.
A lap after the restart, Capestro-Dubets took the lead entering turn 1. From there, he was off to the races. He was never seriously threatened en route to victory
Behind Capestro-Dubets, it was an all-out scramble. Garrett was able to move through the pack to get to second in Silver behind Gaples’ Pro-Am Nissan. It took a number of laps for Garrett to get past the veteran Gaples, but pulled away once he did from Gaples and the rest of the Silver pack.
Neudorf was able to get through the scrum and managed to catch Garrett in the closing laps. He was unable to get by despite running his tail off to do so.
Despite losing the overall lead, Gaples was still very quick with his Nissan. Keeping pace with the Silver runners allowed him to open up a big lead on the rest of the Pro-Am class. Despite slipping back to fifth overall, that was more than enough for Gaples and Root to take the Pro-Am win. With the penalty to TechSport Racing Saturday, this marks the new Nissan Z GT4’s first win.
Gaples and Root’s margin of victory was 11.217 seconds over DeAngelis and Gray Newell. That is provisional at the moment. The stewards indicated that they would review the contact between DeAngelis and Stephens after the race.
ACI Motorsports’ Curt Swearingin and Kay van Berlo were third, then RySpec Racing’s Dan Dyszelski and Johan Schwartz. TechSport Racing’s Colin Harrison and Eric Powell were fifth.
In Am, Rennsport One’s Austin Krainz qualified a strong sixth overall in his Porsche. That gave him a sizable distance over the rest of the class, which he took advantage of.
Further back, BimmerWorld Racing’s James Clay spun out Orlando Motorsports Services’ Nick Longhi in turn 7. That resulted in Clay getting a drive-through penalty.
Once Austin’s father Roland got in the car, he was able to maintain the eighth position overall. However, he made a slip with 13 minutes to go. That was all Random Vandals Racing’s Paul Sparta needed to get past and take the Am lead.
From there, Sparta was able to hold on to take the class victory with Kris Wilson in 10th overall. The margin of victory was 1.444 seconds over Austin and Roland Krainz. The Heart of Racing’s Hannah Greenemeier and Hannah Grisham finished third, then AutoTechnic Racing’s Ryan Keeley and Matt Million. Clay and Charlie Postins recovered from their early penalty to finish fifth.
Pirelli GT4 America SprintX: Sebring Race No. 2 Results
Pirelli GT4 America SprintX teams will take next weekend off before traveling to Austin, Tex. for the third weekend of the season. Race No. 1 from Circuit of the Americas is scheduled for 5:45 p.m. ET May 18 and will be streamed on the GT World YouTube channel along with SpeedSport1.
About the author
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.
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