Random Vandals Racing’s Kevin Boehm ran down Sam Craven and took the lead away with 13 minutes to go Sunday (May 18). From there, Boehm pulled away to win Pirelli GT4 America SprintX Race No. 2 at Sebring International Raceway. The win with teammate Kenton Koch is the duo’s first weekend sweep of the season and their third win overall.
“It was pretty clear that we had a good race car this weekend, but more important than that, we’ve got a great team,” Boehm told SRO America’s Jonathan Grace. “Kenton and I really gel together behind the wheel and really love driving together. When it all clicks, we get results like this.
The margin of victory was 3.146 seconds over Craven and Josh Green. RAFA Racing Team’s Tyler Gonzalez and Gresham Wagner were third, then AutoTechnic Racing’s Zac Anderson and Colin Garrett. VPX Motorsport’s Danny Dyszelski and Alex Ellis were fifth.
Boehm and Koch won the Silver class by 4.882 seconds over Gonzalez and Wagner. Anderson and Garrett were third, then Dyszelski and Ellis. Van der Steur Racing’s Luca Mars and Max Hewitt were fifth.
Van der Steur Racing’s Luca Mars started from the overall pole in his Aston Martin with ACI Motorsports’ Riley Dickinson alongside. However, it was Blackdog Speed Shop’s Michael Cooper that got an excellent start from third on the grid. Cooper was able to make the move to the inside of Dickinson and Mars to take the lead entering turn 1.
Once out front, Cooper was able to open up a decent advantage. 15 minutes into the race, that lead was nearly four seconds over Mars and the better part of five seconds over second in class.
Dickinson was that man early on. However, Green, who won in class Saturday, was able to get up to second in Pro-Am 10 minutes into the race.
With mandatory mid-race pit stops, the worst possible thing that could happen is a safety car period during the stop. 32 minutes into the race, Rigid Speed Competition’s Lucas Catania stalled on course. That brought almost everyone that hadn’t already pitted in for their stops.
Sure enough, a lap later, the yellow came out. Of those running towards the front, only Dome Motorsport’s Marc Miller and NOLAsport’s Matheus Leist had not pitted yet. Both teams were effectively relegated to the rear of the field as a result.
Tony Gaples in the Blackdog McLaren ended up with the overall lead for the restart with 19 minutes to go, but he didn’t last long at the front. Almost as soon as the race restarted, Sam Craven took Random Vandals’ No. 94 BMW to the front.
Despite losing the overall lead at the start, Mars was able to easily maintain the Silver lead over RAFA Racing Team’s Tyler Gonzalez early on. The distance was not that great, but Mars had three Pro-Am cars between himself and Gonzalez.
Saturday’s winner Kenton Koch in the CrowdStrike BMW started fifth in class, 11th overall. From there, he slowly moved up the order, eventually taking second in class from Gonzalez.
The full course caution came out after Koch had pitted and handed over to Kevin Boehm. It put Boehm right up on the tail of Hewitt in the van der Steur Aston Martin. On the restart, Boehm was able to get past Hewitt for the class lead, giving Random Vandals Racing a one-two.
From there, Boehm ran down Craven and pressured him for the overall lead. With 13 minutes to go, Boehm was able to take the overall lead away exiting turn 13.
At the time, Eddie Killeen had spun the Dome Motorsport Mercedes into the tire barrier exiting turn 1, The thought was that Killeen wasn’t going to be able to get back underway, thus bringing out a second full course caution. So, the team managed to swap places.
Despite losing the overall lead, Craven had pulled out to a decent advantage over the rest of the Pro-Am field. He was easily able to hold on to win the class in second overall.
Craven and Green’s margin of victory was 12.923 seconds over Cooper and Gaples. JTR Motorsports Engineering’s Anthony McIntosh and Parker Thompson were third, then BimmerWorld Racing’s Tyler McQuarrie and James Walker Jr. OnlyFans Racing/P1 Groupe’s Matt Bell and Alex Vogel were fifth in their McLaren.
In Am, RAFA Racing Team’s Kenny Schmied started on pole in 17th overall. However, his time at the front was very short lived. In the opening laps, Random Vandals Racing’s Michael Kanisczak moved up into the lead in his BMW.
Once in the lead, Kanisczak was able to maintain a steady pace and keep his position. Ultimately he was able to pull away from BimmerWorld Racing’s Charlie Postins and Schmied, who dropped down the order.
When Paul Sparta got into the car, he had a small penalty hanging over his head for a short pit stop. Despite that, he was running 12th overall and had good pace.
However, once the green came back out, Sparta started dropping back. He eventually fell into the clutches of BimmerWorld Racing’s James Clay. Clay was able to take the class lead with 10 minutes to go. The Supra of Thunder Bunny Racing’s Laura Hayes followed soon after.
That wasn’t the end of Sparta’s issues. With a couple of laps to go, Sparta collided with RAFA Racing Team’s Anthony Geraci exiting turn 13 and spun into the wall. He was able to get off of the barrier, but was forced to pull off.
In the closing laps, Hayes reeled in Clay and made a race of it for the class win. She was able to pull an over and under move exiting turn 16 and managed to clear the BMW entering Sunset Bend with just over a lap to go.
With multiple classes in play, Hayes got caught up in a battle with JMF Motorsports’ Jonathan Neudorf and The Heart of Racing’s Hannah Greenemeier for overall position. That allowed Clay to move to Hayes’ inside exiting Sunset Bend on the final lap.
Clay was just barely able to outdrag Hayes to the line to pick up the weekend sweep. For Clay and Postins, it is their third win of the season in five races.
The margin of victory was a mere .051 seconds over Hayes and Allen Patten. Fast Track Racing’s Judson Holt and Denny Stripling were third, then Skip Barber Racing’s Alex and Michael Garcia. Geraci and Schmied were fifth.
The officials are still reviewing the incident between Geraci and Sparta. If any ruling is made that changes the result, we will update this recap.
Pirelli GT4 America SprintX: Sebring Race No. 2 Results
Next up for Pirelli GT4 America SprintX will be VIRginia International Raceway. Race No. 1 will be July 19 with live coverage 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.