RAFA Racing Team’s Tyler Gonzalez bullied his way around Blackdog Speed Shop’s Tony Gaples to take the lead with 12 minutes to go. Despite a five-second avoidable contact penalty being levied, Gonzalez held on to win Pirelli GT4 America SprintX Race No. 1 Saturday morning (Oct. 18) at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with Gresham Wagner. It is their third win of the year.
“What a crazy race,” Gonzalez told SRO America’s Amanda Busick after the race. “I thought I had a little more breathing room than I had when I caught up to [Gaples]. It was a little dicey there, but I knew I had to get around him. I made it happen. There was a little contact, but that’s racing.”
The margin of victory was 5.058 seconds on the road over JMF Motorsports’ Jonathan Neudorf and Jesse Webb. However, they were penalized for passing off the track. That moved their teammates, Braden Arthur and Mike David Ortmann to second, 2.418 seconds behind. Neudorf and Webb were third, then Riley Technologies’ Eric Filgueiras and Spencer Pumpelly in their Porsche. Van der Steur Racing’s Max Hewitt and Luca Mars were fifth.
Michael Cooper started from the overall and Pro-Am pole in his Blackdog Speed Shop McLaren, but it did not take long for trouble to break out. In the first turn, Dome Motorsport’s Marc Miller spun out after contact from Random Vandals Racing’s Josh Green. The resulting stackup collected NOLAsport’s Matt Travis, Random Vandals Racing’s Darius Trinka and BimmerWorld Racing’s James Walker Jr. and brought out the full course caution.
Miller, Travis, Trinka and Wallace were all out on the spot. No penalties were assessed for the incident.
By the time the green came back out, it was almost time for the mid-race mandatory pit stops. Sure enough, the stops started a lap after the restart.
After the pit stops, Gaples ended up with a 10-second lead over the top Silver contenders. ACI Motorsports’ Dan Sibille was second and dropping fast. OnlyFans Racing/P1 Groupe’s Alex Vogel was up in the hunt as well, but ended up getting spun out.
Unfortunately for Gaples, the Blackdog Speed Shop got him off of the pit lane .997 seconds too quick. That is decupled to a 9.97-second post-race penalty.
In Silver, van der Steur Racing’s Luca Mars started on pole in his Aston Martin. He was well ahead of the crash and managed to stay ahead of JMF Motorsport’s Jesse Webb prior to the yellow coming out.
After Hewitt got into the No. 39, he came out of the pits and into a battle with Neudorf and Gonzalez. Neudorf was able to get past on Hulman Boulevard. Once the round of stops was complete, it was ultimately the pass for the class lead.
A lap later, Gonzalez was able to slip past Neudorf to take the Silver lead in second overall. From there, he ran down Gaples.
The battle for the overall lead did not last long, but was a little rough. Gonzalez got to Gaples’ inside in turn 10 with 12 minutes to go. Contact was made, but Gonzalez was able to get past. Neudorf was able to follow past into second.
The SRO America officials did not like Gonzalez’s tactics and hit him with a five-second post-race penalty for avoidable contact. This put him on par with Neudorf, who had been penalized earlier for passing off of the track. From there, Gonzalez was able to pull away from the pack to take the victory.
Gaples spent the remainder of the race minding his gap over Random Vandals Racing’s Sam Craven. If it dropped below 9.97 seconds, he would lose the class. He was able to just barely hold on for the class victory in eighth overall despite crossing the line in fourth.
The margin of victory was .671 seconds over Craven and Green. AutoTechnic Racing’s Matt Million and Tyler Stone were third, then ACI Motorsports’ Jan Heylen (substituting for Riley Dickinson, who is racing at Circuit of the Americas) and Curt Swearingin. Vogel and Matt Bell ended up fifth.
Random Vandals Racing’s Kevin Boehm and Kenton Koch clinched the Silver championship by starting the race. It’s good that they did because Boehm was forced to pit during the caution due to a cut right front tire from debris. As a result, they finished at the back of the class.
In Am, Trinka started on the class pole, then got eliminated in the first turn crash. As a result, RAFA Racing Team’s Anthony Geraci took over the advantage.
After the stops, BimmerWorld Racing’s Charlie Postins was able to snatch the advantage, but this was far from over. The fastest car in class was the Rigid Speed BMW of Lucas Catania.
Catania was able to get around Postins with 15 minutes to go for the Am lead on the road, but he had a 3.45-second penalty hanging over him due to a short pit stop. Alex Garcia, who ran down Catania late and took over the lead, had a 4.83-second penalty hanging over him.
Ultimately, Alex Garcia won the Am class on the road. However, once the penalties were applied, Fast Track Racing’s Judson Holt and Denny Stripling, who finished third on the road, ended up with the win.
The margin of victory was 1.646 seconds over Alex and Michael Garcia. Lucas and Joseph Catania were third, then Geraci and Kenny Schmied. Postins and James Clay ended up fifth.
Pirelli GT4 America SprintX: Indianapolis Race No. 1 Results
The final race of the Pirelli GT4 America SprintX season will be Sunday morning at 9:45 a.m. ET. Coverage will start at 9:40 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.