Rennsport One’s John Capestro-Dubets and Eric Filgueiras were dominant Saturday (July 20). They held off early challenges and pulled away to win Pirelli GT4 America SprintX Race No. 1 at VIRginia International Raceway.
The margin of victory was 3.153 seconds over AutoTechnic Racing’s Zac Anderson and Colin Garrett. Smooge Racing’s John Geesbreght and Tyler Gonzalez finished third on the road, but their pit stop was .867 seconds too short. That is penalized times 10.
As a result, JMF Motorsports’ Jake Cowden, driving solo after teammate Demi Chalkias got sick, ended third. Geesbreght and Gonzalez were credited with fourth, while ACI Motorsports’ Curt Swearingin and Kay van Berlo were fifth.
The top-four finishers were also the top-four teams in the Silver class. Fifth in Silver was the TechSport Racing Nissan for Jonathan Neudorf and Michai Stephens.
Capestro-Dubets started from pole in his Porsche. At the start, he was able to hold off Cowden and Garrett. The three drivers quickly opened a gap on Random Vandals Racing’s Kevin Boehm.
Eventually, Capestro-Dubets and Cowden dropped Garrett and continued their race for the lead among themselves. When the mid-race pit stops came, Capestro-Dubets pitted at the first possible opportunity to hand over to Filguerias.
Cowden, since he was driving alone, chose to stay out longer. Since he was driving alone, his minimum pit lane time was 73 seconds as opposed to 70 seconds for eveyrone else. The additional pit time cost him positions.
Filgueiras came out of the pits with an advantage of more than five seconds over Anderson. Anderson had Kenton Koch right on his tail.
Anderson and Koch fought hard for second, but Koch’s BMW slowed suddenly with four minutes to go, having run dry of fuel. He would finish two laps down.
In Pro-Am, Matt Bell in the OnlyFans Racing P1 Groupe Mercedes started from pole. Early on, RENNTech Motorsports’ Michael Auriemma was Bell’s main competition, but Bell had put significant distance on him in the opening laps.
Bell kept himself out as late as he possibly could before making his mandatory stop to put Alex Vogel in the car. Unfortunately, the pit stop was not very quick. As a result, Matheus Leist in the RENNtech No. 89 was able to take the class lead with ACI Motorsports’ Kay van Berlo in tow.
Leist lost some time trying to get past Stephens, which allowed van Berlo to catch up. At the beginning of the final lap, van Berlo was able to blast around the outside of Leist to take the lead. From there, van Berlo held on to take the victory with teammate Curt Swearingin. For Swearingin, it was his second win of the day after he won the GT4 class in the GT America race.
Swearingin and van Berlo’s margin of victory was 1.589 seconds over Auriemma and Leist. Flying Lizard Motorsports’ Rodrigo Baptista and Damir Hot were third in their Nissan, then AutoTechnic Racing’s Mark Brummond and Mike Skeen. The Heart of Racing’s Roman DeAngelis and Gray Newell were fifth.
In Am, BimmerWorld Racing’s James Clay started in sixth, nine positions ahead of the next car in class. In the early laps, Clay was able to move into fifth overall and put significant distance between himself and the rest of the class.
Further back, Rotek Racing’s Jaden Lander spun out in turn 3 and backed into the tire curtain during the mid-race stops. He was able to continue without issue.
Once Charlie Postins took over, he had a big lead and was able to take it easy. He ended up dropping to 15th overall, but took his and Clay’s first win of the year.
Clay and Postins’ margin of victory was 8.265 seconds over Rotek Racing’s Robb Holland and Jaden Lander. Random Vandals Racing’s Paul Sparta and Kris Wilson were third, then Carrus Callus Raceteam’s Nick Shanny and Chris Walsh. KRUGSPEED’s Lance Bergstein and Anthony Geraci were fifth.
Pirelli GT4 America SprintX: VIR Race No. 1 Results
Pirelli GT4 America SprintX Race No. 2 is scheduled for 10:55 a.m. ET Sunday morning. The race will be streamed live on the GT World YouTube channel.
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.