Coming to the white flag Saturday (Sept. 26), Blackdog Speed Shop’s Tony Gaples spun after contact from Dome Motorsports’ Allen Patten. ACI Motorsports’ Trenton Estep was able to avoid the incident and win Pirelli GT4 America Race No. 2 at Barber Motorsports Park with Yves Baltas. It is the first victory for both drivers in the series.
Patten and Marc Miller finished second on the road, but were given a time penalty equal to a drive-through penalty for Patten’s contact with Gaples. As a result, Estep and Baltas’ margin of victory was 2.119 seconds over Advance Motorsports’ Parker DeJong and Austin Jurs.
Random Vandals Racing’s Sam Craven and Kenton Koch finished third in their BMW, followed by RAFA Racing Team’s Tyler Gonzalez and Westin Workman. McCumbee-McAleer Racing’s Nolan Allaer and Michael Tosi were fifth.
In Silver, Estep and Baltas defeated DeJong and Jurs. Gonzalez and Workman were third, then AutoTechnic Racing’s Kevin Boehm and Francis Selldorff. Kellymoss’ Ashley Freiberg and Loni Unser.
Blackdog Speed Shop’s Michael Cooper started from the overall and Pro-Am pole. In the early laps of the race, he was able to pull away from the pack. He was able to maintain a four-second lead in class over Koch without issue.
Advance Motorsports’ Parker DeJong started from the Silver pole in second overall. He was able to stick with Cooper in the opening laps, but he had Gonzalez right on his tail.
As the race continued on, DeJong was able to distance himself from Gonzalez and run Cooper down. The two battled for the lead for multiple laps, but Cooper was able to hold on.
Once the mid-race pit stops came along, both leaders chose to stay out as long as they could. Meanwhile, Koch pitted fairly early in the window to hand over to Craven.
In Silver, Workman was seemingly eliminated from contention as soon as he got in the car. A pit road speeding penalty on pit entry by Gonzalez resulted in a drive-through penalty that dropped them way down the order.
With 20 minutes to go, Estep, Precision Racing LA’s Karl Forman and AutoTechnic Racing’s Roland Krainz went three-wide into turn 13. That typically does not work at Barber Motorsports Park.
Krainz and Forman collided and spun off the track. Forman was able to resume without issue, but Krainz’s BMW ended up with significant right front damage. He was unable to limp back to the pits quickly enough, resulting in the race’s only full course caution. The yellow wiped out a big time deficit for Workman and put him back in the hunt.
Gaples was able to maintain the overall lead after the mid-race stops over Jurs. However, on the restart, Patten, who ended his day in the gravel Friday, moved up to second and began to put the pressure on Cooper for the lead.
Further back, Rennsport One’s Spencer Pumpelly brought his Porsche to a stop right after the restart. The car reportedly lost drive. After a reset, Pumpelly was able to resume, but dropped back to seventh in Silver, 23rd overall. Pumpelly and Luca Mars would eventually finish 20th overall.
Late in the race, SRO America officials levied a five-second post-race penalty on the No. 33 McLaren due to an improper pit exit procedure. This effectively gave the lead to Patten on the road. It is unclear whether Patten was aware of this.
In Silver, Jurs got held up by a lapped car. That allowed Estep to sweep past to take the class lead with nine minutes to go.
Coming to the white flag, Patten made a move for the lead in turn 14a. Contact was made, resulting in Cooper spinning out. Estep was able to sneak past on the inside and take the overall lead.
From there, Estep was able to hold on to take the overall victory with Baltas, their first win of the year.
In Pro-Am, Patten was able to take the victory on the road in second overall. However, SRO America officials judged Patten responsible for the spin and gave him a drive-through converted to a time penalty. That dropped Patten and Miller to 10th in Pro-Am, 22nd overall.
As a result, Craven and Koch inherited the class win in third overall. They won by 1.904 seconds over Allaer and Tosi. Cooper and Gaples would have been third, but the post-race time penalty dropped them to sixth. NOLAsport’s Matheus Leist and Matt Travis ended up third, then Off Leash Motorsports’ Mercedes for Kevin Clifford and Harry Gottsacker. Forman and Ryan Eversley recovered from their spin to finish fifth.
Random Vandals Racing’s Denny Stripling led the Am field to green in 17th. Early on, Stripling lost some spots to Pro-Am drivers. Meanwhile, Friday’s winner Alex Garcia and BimmerWorld Racing’s James Clay were gaining on him.
Issues for others allowed Stripling to get back up to 17th overall prior to the mid-race stops. Here, the stops decided the race.
Clay had a decent stop where he handed over to James Walker Jr. Meanwhile, Stripling’s stop to hand over to Judson Holt was a disaster, 15 full seconds over the 85-second minimum pit stop delta. Shortly after the stop, mechanical issues ended Holt’s day.
That put Walker into the class lead. Michael Garcia appeared to be close by, but timing and scoring issues indicated that he was three laps down.
Walker Jr. was leading until the BMW suffered a power cut in the final few laps. That allowed TechSport Racing’s Frankie Muniz to snatch the lead away.
Muniz still had to do battle over the closing laps with Michael Garcia, who was looking for the weekend sweep. Ultimately, Muniz was able to put the Pro-Am entry of RAFA Racing Club’s Chris Spada between himself and Michael Garcia’s Porsche.
That move was all Muniz needed in order to hold on for his and Tyler Stone‘s third Am win of the year in 12th overall. The margin of victory was 1.2 seconds over the Garcia brothers. Colorado Motorsport with Flying Lizard’s Zach Lumsden and Kris Wilson were third, then Dome Motorsport’s Laura Hayes and Eddie Killeen. Rigid Speed’s Joseph and Lucas Catania were fifth in their BMW.
Pirelli GT4 America: Barber Park Race No. 2 Results
We’re down to just two races remaining in the Pirelli GT4 America season. The season will conclude in a couple of weeks at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Race No. 1 is scheduled for Oct. 10 at 11 a.m. ET with live coverage on the GT World YouTube channel.
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the Frontstretch email 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 Frontstretch 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.
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