Rennsport One Wins Road Atlanta GT4 America Race No. 2

Rennsport One’s Spencer Pumpelly was able to take the lead from Blackdog Speed Shop’s Tony Gaples on the final restart Saturday (June 13). From there, he was able to hold on to win Pirelli GT4 America Race No. 2 at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta with Luca Mars. It is the team’s third overall victory of the year and their fourth straight Silver class victory.

Mars and Pumpelly’s margin of victory was 1.661 seconds over Gaples and Michael Cooper. Random Vandals Racing’s Sam Craven and Kenton Koch were third, then AutoTechnic Racing’s Kevin Boehm and Francis Selldorff. Dome Motorsport’s Marc Miller and Allen Patten were fifth.

In Silver, Mars and Pumpelly won by 7.444 seconds over Boehm and Selldorff. RAFA Racing Team’s Tyler Gonzalez and Westin Workman were third, followed by Kellymoss’ Ashley Freiberg and Loni Unser. The second Kellymoss entry of Paul Bocuse and Erika Hoffmann was fifth.

Cooper, fresh off of overall victory in Race No. 1 Friday, started from the overall and Pro-Am pole. With the significant pace that he showed on Friday, the goal for Cooper was to run away from the field as much as possible during his stint.

Unlike Friday, some of the top drivers were able to keep pace. NOLAsport’s Matheus Leist could match Cooper ‘s times. Towards the end of the run, Cooper began to open up the gap.

The mid-race pit stops resulted in the lead being expanded to nearly 10 seconds over Matt Travis. However, that lead was eliminated with a full course caution coming out with 22 minutes to go.

Random Vandals Racing’s Judson Holt was caught out by Bryan Herta Autosport’s Alessandro Chiocchetti coming out of the pits and clipped the wall in turn 2. He then shed some debris in the Esses.

Holt was ok, but the car was injured. He ultimately pulled off at turn 5 and retired.

On the restart, Pumpelly was able to move up from third to take the overall lead away from Gaples entering turn 1. Meanwhile, Gaples was able to maintain a gap over Travis.

In Silver, Mars started from the class pole in second overall. While he was able to hold onto the class lead on the first lap, he did lose second overall to Leist.

Gonzalez was able to move up to second in class early on. He was able to just about equal Mars’ lap times, but Koch was in between himself and Mars.

Mars pitted at the earliest opportunity to swap Pumpelly into the Porsche. Once in the car, Pumpelly continued to expand the team’s advantage over the RAFA No. 68.

Once he took the overall lead from Gaples, Pumpelly was able to drive out to a five-second lead over ACI Motorsports’ Yves Baltas.

In Pro-Am, Craven was able to take second away from Travis and immediately started to put the pressure on Gaples. Meanwhile, Travis spun in the Esses after contact from Baltas and had contact with the tire barriers. He was able to resume, but dropped back to 25th overall. Baltas was given a drive-through penalty for the contact that dropped hm a lap down.

Gaples was under some pressure from Craven in the closing laps for the class lead, but the McLaren was stronger in certain parts of the track. That was all Gaples needed to hold on for the class win in second overall. The victory ties Cooper with Peter Cunningham for most SRO America wins all-time with 43.

“It’s incredible to be in such formidable company as the great Peter Cunningham,” Cooper told SRO America’s Amanda Busick after the race. “Lot of respect there. We’ve shared a lot of dinners and adult beverages together over the years. I’m not stopping here. I want the record. Sorry, Peter.”

Cooper and Gaples’ margin of victory was seconds over Craven and Koch. Miller and Patten were third, then BimmerWorld Racing’s Tyler McQuarrie and Michael Petramalo. McCumbee-McAleer Racing’s Nolan Allaer and Michael Tosi finished fifth on the road despite Allaer serving a drive-through penalty for avoidable contact early on.

However, with a couple of laps to go, Tosi got into Kellymoss’ Tom Kopczynski and spun him in turn 3. That resulted in a post-race drive-through penalty being assessed that converts to a 38-second time penalty.

That penalty dropped Allaer and Tosi to 11th in class. As a result, Precision Racing LA’s Ryan Eversley and Karl Forman ended up fifth in Pro-Am.

ACI Motorsports’ Alex Garcia started from the Am pole in 17th overall. Similar to Friday, he was able to hold onto the lead. Once again, BimmerWorld Racing’s James Clay was able to keep pace.

Towards the end of the first stint, Clay ran up on Alex Garcia, who was being held up by the Silver-class entry of Freiberg. 22 minutes into the race, Clay was able to make the move in turn 3 for the lead and cleared the No. 21 BMW in the Esses.

After the mid-race stops, the battle resumed with James Walker Jr. now leading over Michael Garcia. Right before the caution came out, Michael Garcia was able to get a run exiting the chicane and took the lead under the FOX Factory bridge.

After the restart, the battle was back on. The two continued to fight for the lead while also doing battle with Pro-Am competitors. With eight minutes to go, Michael Garcia was fighting for overall position with AutoTechnic Racing’s Roland Krainz and had contact. That gave Walker another chance at the lead, but he could not do anything with the No. 21.

The battling brought TechSport Racing’s Frankie Muniz into the picture. A strong run in the second half of the race moved him up into the top 15.

After fighting for the entire second half of the race, the Garcia brothers were able to hold on for the Am win in eighth overall. The margin of victory was 4.256 seconds over Clay and Walker. Muniz and Tyler Stone were third, then Dome Motorsport’s Laura Hayes and Eddie Killeen. Colorado Motorsports by Flying Lizard’s Zach Lumsden and Kris Wilson were fifth.

Pirelli GT4 America: Road Atlanta Race No. 2 Results

Next up for Pirelli GT4 America will be a visit to Road America in Wisconsin. Race No. 1 is scheduled for Aug. 28 and will be streamed live on the GT World YouTube channel.