RAFA Racing Team’s Gresham Wagner was able to get past Blackdog Speed Shop’s Tony Gaples on a restart with 18 minutes remaining Sunday (Sept. 7). From there, he was able to pull away to win Pirelli GT4 America SprintX Race No. 3 at Barber Motorsports Park with teammate Tyler Gonzalez. It is Gonzalez and Wagner’s second win of the year.
“With the caution, [the race] went from management to having to ace the restart and build a gap on my own,” Wagner told SRO America’s Amanda Busick after the race. “When I looked back after the first couple of laps, I had a bit of a buffer, so I just had to bring the car home.”
The margin of victory was 4.533 seconds over OnlyFans Racing/P1 Groupe’s Matt Bell and Alex Vogel. JMF Motorsports’ Braden Arthur and Mike David Ortmann were third, followed by teammates Jonathan Neudorf and Jesse Webb. ACI Motorsports’ Riley Dickinson and Curt Swearingin were fifth.
In Silver, Gonzalez and Wagner won by 10.071 seconds over Arthur and Ortmann. Neudorf and Webb were third, then The Heart of Racing’s Hannah Greenemeier and Hannah Grisham.
Blackdog Speed Shop’s Michael Cooper started from the overall and Pro-Am pole in his McLaren. Matheus Leist in the NOLAsport Porsche started alongside and trailed him.
However, Leist ran into trouble on the second lap of the race when he slowed in turn 5 with a flat right front tire. He limped back to the pits and got a new tire. By the time he got back out, he was a lap down.
RAFA Racing Team’s Tyler Gonzalez started from the Silver pole in his Supra. He was able to take second overall from Leist before Leist had his tire issue, then managed to keep pace with Cooper.
Cooper managed to hold onto the lead all the way to the mid-race pit stops. While others chose to pit early, his plan was to stay out as long as he could.
Right after Gaples got out of the pit lane, ACI Motorsports’ Loek Hartog had a flat right front tire and was unable to make it back to the pits. That drew the race’s first yellow.
A decent lead eliminated, Gaples restarted with the overall lead. Wagner was right on his tail, having inherited the Silver lead from his teammate Gonzalez. It did not take long for Wagner to get past for the overall lead.
On the restart, Random Vandals Racing’s Kevin Boehm had contact with Marco Polo Motorsports’ Nicolai Elghanayan entering turn 1, resulting in Elghanayan spinning into the gravel. While Nicolai was able to extricate himself from the trap, he ended up driving back to the pits and retiring.
Boehm ended up with a massive tire rub on his left front tire. After driving a few laps on it, he eventually pitted to retire the car. The contact ended any chance of Boehm and Kenton Koch clinching the Silver championship in Alabama.
Once he got the lead, Wagner was able to pull away from the rest of the pack. JMF Motorsports teammates Ortmann and Webb fought it out among themselves for second while Wagner cruised to victory.
The caution also put Dickinson back into play for the Pro-Am lead. He was able to run down Gaples and take over the class lead in fourth overall.
Despite getting the lead, things weren’t easy for the Porsche Carrera Cup North America champion. In order to earn the Pro-Am weekend sweep for himself and teammate Swearingin, he had to hold off Bell in the OnlyFans McLaren.
With the Pro-Am championship being in play for Dickinson, he didn’t race Bell too hard for it. The pass for the class lead occurred entering the Roller Coaster section of the course with eight minutes to go.
From there, Bell was able to pull away from Dickinson to take the class win for himself and Vogel in second overall. It is the duo’s first win of the year.
The margin of victory was seconds over Dickinson and Swearingin. Random Vandals Racing’s Josh Green and Sam Craven were third, then Cooper and Gaples. AutoTechnic Racing’s Matt Million and Tyler Stone were fifth.
Random Vandals Racing’s Darius Trinka started from the Am pole (13th overall) in his BMW. Early on, he was content to follow his Pro-Am teammate Green.
Further back, BimmerWorld Racing’s Charlie Postins spun in turn 5 in the scrum surrounding Leist’s tire failure and dropped way down the order.
By the mid-race stops, Trinka had a decent lead in class. Paul Sparta got in the car a couple of laps before the caution flew for Hartog’s issues. That yellow eliminated his lead.
Shortly after the restart, Thunder Bunny Racing’s Laura Hayes was able to run down Sparta and take the lead away. From there, Hayes was able to hold on to take her first career Am class victory along with teammate Allen Patten in ninth overall. The win comes in the team’s first race weekend with the BMW M4 GT4 (they had previously raced a Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2).
Hayes and Patten’s margin of victory was four-tenths of a second over Postins and James Clay. Skip Barber Racing’s Alex and Michael Garcia were third, then Sparta and Trinka. RAFA Racing Team’s Anthony Geraci and Kenny Schmied were fifth.
Pirelli GT4 America SprintX: Barber Park Race No. 3 Results
There is one more weekend to go for Pirelli GT4 America SprintX teams. That will be at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on the undercard of the Indianapolis 8 Hour.
Race No. 1 is scheduled to go green at 9:50 a.m. ET on Oct. 18. The event 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.