Random Vandals Racing’s Kenton Koch was able to run down and pass Smooge Racing’s Corey Lewis with 13 minutes to go Saturday (Aug. 17) in turn 3. From there, Koch pulled away to win Pirelli GT4 America SprintX Race No. 1 at Road America with teammate Kevin Boehm. It is Boehm and Koch’s second win of the year.
Boehm and Koch’s margin of victory was 4.364 seconds over AutoTechnic Racing’s Zac Anderson and Colin Garrett. Rennsport One’s John Capestro-Dubets and Eric Filgueiras were third in their Porsche, then Smooge Racing’s Tyler Gonzalez and Corey Lewis. ACI Motorsports’ Curt Swearingin and Kay van Berlo were fifth.
The top-four finishers were the top-four teams in the Silver class. The Heart of Racing’s Hannah Greenmeier and Hannah Grisham were fifth in class, eighth overall.
Capestro-Dubets started from the overall pole in his Porsche with Gonzalez alongside. Gonzalez got the run on the outside of turn 1 and was able to clear Capestro-Dubets to take the overall lead. Further back, chaos broke out.
OnlyFans Racing/P1 Groupe’s Matt Bell was hit from behind by BimmerWorld Racing’s James Walker Jr. and spun in front of much of the pack. Vogel was then hit in the driver’s door by Random Vandals Racing’s Paul Sparta. Blackdog Speed Shop’s Tony Gaples was also involved.
Everyone was ok after the crash, but the view of the crash from Bell’s car was truly frightening. The OnlyFans Racing Mercedes is a write-off due to frame damage.
Once the green came back out, Gonzalez was able to open up a decent advantage over Capestro-Dubets. That held up until the mid-race pit stops.
Most of the leaders pitted at the first possible opportunity to make their driver changes. DeAngelis chose to stay out to maximize his time in the car.
Those stops ultimately didn’t change too much on the surface. The Heart of Racing had a slightly slower stop that ended up dropping deAngelis’ teammate Gray Newell from third to fifth, but the Silver contenders held station.
However, there was a quirky situation on the Smooge Racing pit stop in that Gonzalez stopped the car short in his pit box. He indicated in an interview with Clark afterwards that the Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO has an auto-shut off in the pits and that it failed to engage, leading to the car creeping forward. That creeping resulted in the stewards issuing a post-race five-second penalty to the No. 68 Toyota.
The man on the move was Koch in the CrowdStrike BMW. Koch made a move on Anderson for third first. There was a fair amount of contact made between the drivers.
Getting by Filguerias for second was a little easier. By that time, SRO America officials had already announced the post-race penalty to Lewis, so Koch was technically the leader on the road.
Despite that, Koch ran down Lewis and battled hard for the lead. Exiting turn 1, Koch was able to get a run on Lewis and make the move stick in turn 3.
From there, Koch was able to put a decent gap on the rest of the Silver leaders and hold on for the win. Lewis finished third on the road, but the five-second penalty dropped him to fourth.
In Pro-Am, The Heart of Racing’s Roman deAngelis started on pole and was able to run in the top-five early on. Swearingin was giving chase, but had Silver class cars in between himself and the Aston Martin.
After the pit stops, Newell still had the class lead, but van Berlo was charging. He set the fastest lap of the race and ran down Newell to take the class lead.
From there, van Berlo ran off and hid en route to the victory. It is Swearingin and van Berlo’s third win of the year.
Swearingin and van Berlo’s margin of victory was 14.609 seconds over Flying Lizard Motorsports’ Damir Hot and Andy Lee. DeAngelis and Newell were third, then TechSport Racing’s Jonathan Neudorf and Johan Schwartz were fourth, while RENNtech Motorsports’ Michael Auriemma and Matheus Leist rounded out the top-five.
In Am, BimmerWorld Racing’s James Clay started from pole in 12th overall. In the squabble in turn 1, Rotek Racing’s Robb Holland was able to take the class lead away.
After the pit stops, Jaden Lander continued to lead until he just grazed the grass under braking for turn 14. That resulted in Lander having to back off just enough for Charlie Postins to put BImmerWorld Racing back in the Am lead.
Postins was able to hold on from there to take the win on the road. However, back during the pit stops, the team was caught speeding in the pits. Instead of forcing them to pit for a drive-through penalty, officials issued a post-race three-second penalty. That three-second penalty was more than enough to swing the class and give Holland and Lander their second straight win.
Holland and Lander’s margin of victory was 1.124 seconds over Clay and Charlie Postins. Carrus Callus Raceteam’s Nick Shanny and Chris Walsh were third, then NOLAsport’s Lee Carpentier and David Peterman. KRUGSPEED’s Lance Bergstein and Anthony Geraci were fifth.
Pirelli GT4 America SprintX: Road America Race No. 1 Results
Race No. 2 for Pirelli GT4 America SprintX is scheduled for 11:55 a.m. ET Sunday morning. The race will be streamed live on theĀ GT World YouTube channelĀ and onĀ SpeedSport1.
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.