Random Vandals Racing’s Kenton Koch was able to get past Dome Motorsport’s Marc Miller with five minutes to go Saturday (July 19). From there, he held on to win a rain-plagued Pirelli GT4 America SprintX Race No. 1 at VIRginia International Raceway with Kevin Boehm. It is the duo’s fourth win of the year and third in a row.
The margin of victory was 2.72 seconds over Miller and Nate Cicero. RAFA Racing Team’s Tyler Gonzalez and Gresham Wagner were third, then VPX Motorsports’ Alex Ellis and Danny Dyszelski. AutoTechnic Racing’s Zac Anderson and Colin Garrett were fifth. The top-five finishers overall were also the top-five in the Silver class.
Cicero led the field to green in his series debut under threatening skies. Normally, there are no tire changes in Pirelli GT4 America SprintX, but rain will change that.
It was sprinkling at the start, but before the first lap was complete, it started pouring. With the entire field on slicks, this was problematic. While 89x Motorsports’ Michael Fitzpatrick did have a brief off-course excursion, no one ran into trouble before the full course yellow was thrown.
A lap later, the red flag was thrown due to lightning in the vicinity. As a result, the race was stopped for 35 minutes.
During that break, a decent amount of rain fell on the track. Once the lightning hold was lifted, everyone changed to rain tires.
The first time around after the race resumed under yellow, nearly the entire field stopped for their mandatory driver changes. There were some changes at the front of the field when that happened, but Miller was the first one off the pit lane in the Dome Mercedes.
Unfortunately, Dome Motorsport’s team was a little too quick on the pit lane. The team’s overall pit time was .128 seconds under the minimum. That translates to a 1.28-second post-race penalty.
The only driver that chose to stay out was Marco Polo Motorsports’ Nicolai Elghanayan in his Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO 2. His strategy was flawed because it was more or less dependent on the race never going back green.
The race did go back to green, but with just seven minutes to go. Miller swept around the outside of Elghanayan entering turn 1 to take the overall lead.
Koch was able to get a good run on the restart and follow Miller by Elghanayan. Entering turn 10, he made the move for the lead on Miller at a place on the circuit where passing doesn’t usually take place.
In Pro-Am, NOLAsport’s Matheus Leist started from pole in second overall. He handed off to Michael Auriemma in the top-five overall.
After the restart, Random Vandals Racing’s Josh Green was able to take the class lead shortly after the restart. Any chance that Auriemma would have had to catch up ended when he spun out in turn 3.
On the final lap, ACI Motorsports’ Ryan Yardley went too fast into turn 1 and took The Heart of Racing’s Hannah Greenemeier with him. Neither driver hit anything, but lost a significant amount of time. That moved BimmerWorld’s Tyler McQuarrie up to second.
That all came far too late as Green held on to take the class win in sixth overall with Sam Craven. Similar to their teammates Boehm and Koch in the Silver class, it is their fourth win of the year and third in a row.
The margin of victory was 2.921 seconds over ACI Motorsports’ Riley Dickinson and Curt Swearingin after Dickinson made a last-lap pass. McQuarrie and James Walker Jr. were third, then AutoTechnic Racing’s Matt Million and Tyler Stone. Blackdog Racing’s Michael Cooper and Tony Gaples were fifth in their McLaren.
In Am, BimmerWorld’s James Clay started from the pole in seventh overall. He held on during the first lap, then handed over to Charlie Postins after the red flag.
Postins ended up with a substantial advantage over the rest of the class. His closest challenger, Thunder Bunny Racing’s Allen Patten, got hit with a pit road speeding penalty and was forced to do a drive-through.
Postins and Clay ended up taking an easy victory in seventh overall. It is their fourth straight victory.
The margin of victory was 8.121 seconds over RAFA Racing Team’s Anthony Geraci and Kenny Schmied. Rigid Speed Company’s Joseph and Lucas Catania were third, then Random Vandals Racing’s Michael Kanisczak and Paul Sparta. Skip Barber Racing’s Alex and Michael Garcia were fifth.
Pirelli GT4 America SprintX: VIR Race No. 1 Results
Race No. 2 for Pirelli GT4 America SprintX is scheduled to go green at 11:25 a.m. ET Sunday morning. Coverage of the race will begin at 11:15 a.m. ET 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.