The super team of Eric Filgueiras and Stevan McAleer dominated proceedings in GT4 America Race 1 at Road America, cruising to their eighth overall and Silver Cup class win of the season.
The green and white #18 RS1 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport of McAleer and Filgueiras led from the outset of the 60-minute race, held under cloudy skies late in the afternoon.
McAleer had built up a gap of over eight seconds by the time the compulsory pit window opened. He handed off to his co-driver Filgueiras, who had a clear path to victory in front of him over the second half of the race. Filgueiras crossed the line with a margin of victory of over 15 seconds as they move ever closer to the Silver championships.
“We have a mechanism in the car that tells us the pit time, and it wasn’t working,” Filgueiras said at the end of the race. “So in the pit box we gave up roughly nine seconds, as we found out afterwards. We didn’t know how long our stop was going to be, we ended up losing time and then I was by myself and not really sure what was going on out on track.”
“It’s a testament to Stevan McAleer’s driving ability. His job today was to give me a car in a position to win, and that will be my job tomorrow. We’re very proud, the RS1 guys work so hard.”
They extended their lead in the Silver class standings to 65 points over the #34 Conquest Racing/JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT4 of Gavin Sanders and Michai Stephens. Sanders spent the first half of the race battling with the #68 Smooge Racing Toyota GR Supra of Kevin Conway, but their battle came to an abrupt end when, entering the pits together, Conway locked the brakes at pit entry and rammed into the back of Sanders.
Sanders and Stephens finished third in class, and Conway and John Geesbreght finished fourth in class. But they were a lowly 26th and 29th overall, respectively, after the incident.
Meanwhile, the fight for second overall and Pro-Am victory came down to a dramatic final lap. Early on, the #24 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 of Gray Newell and Ian James held the advantage in their class, ahead of the #120 Premier Racing Cayman RS (Adam Adelson/Elliott Skeer), and the #47 NOLASPORT Cayman Clubsport MR (Scott Noble/Jason Hart).
Newell fought off the charges of Adelson and Noble, as well as the two leading Am Cup entries. After pit stops and driver changes, James resumed with the lead, ahead of Skeer and Hart.
It looked as if the veteran James would be able to cruise to victory as Skeer was battling to keep Hart behind him. But with less than ten minutes to go, Hart made his pass for second in class at turn 14, then made a charge to grab the class win – in an older-specification backup car prepared less than 24 hours ago!
The Aston Martin and the Porsche battled tail-to-nose all the way until the final lap of the race. Hart outbraked James into turn one to draw along the inside and pull ahead.
But James struck back out of turn two and tried the same move at the inside of turn three. However, James made contact with Hart, sending the forest green and white Porsche off into the grass!
James took the chequered flag in second overall on the road, but after the race, he was given a two-place penalty for avoidable contact.
And the #120 Premier Racing Porsche of Adelson and Skeer, who originally finished second in class by less than a second, was awarded the Pro-Am Cup victory after the penalty!
It’s their third Pro-Am class win of the season. In the amended results, Noble and Hart finished second in class, ahead of Newell and James in third.
The #112 Dexter Racing GR Supra (Ryan Dexter/Dominic Starkweather) finished fifth overall and second in the Silver class.
The rest of the overall top ten was made up of Pro-Am cars, headed by the #8 Flying Lizard Motorsports Vantage GT4 (Elias Sabo/Andy Lee) in sixth, the #52 AutoTechnic Racing BMW M4 GT4 (Tom Capizzi/John Capestro-Dubets), the #69 Smooge Racing GR Supra (Todd Coleman/Aaron Telitz), and then the debuting #4 Lone Star Racing AMG GT4 (Zane Hodgen/Cameron Lawrence) in ninth, ahead of the #50 Chouest Povoledo Racing Vantage GT4 (Ross Chouest/Aaron Povoledo).
With these results, Adelson and Skeer now lead the Pro-Am Drivers’ Championship, three points ahead of Noble and Hart, who fall to second. Capizzi and ‘JCD’ are still third, now 21 points out of first place but still well within reach of the top of the table. Newell and James are 39 points back, and Sabo and Lee are 47 points behind.
Unfortunately, the other debuting entry of the weekend, the Silver class #59 G2 Racing/GSpeed M4 GT4 (Mike Skeen/Grayson Farischon), had a catastrophic end to their race when 16-year-old Farischon crashed out in the final minutes. Farischon was unhurt, but their car is a write-off and will not start Race 2 on Sunday.
Am Cup saw a first-time class winner in 2022. The #72 KRUGSPEED GR Supra of Anthony Geraci and Jaden Lander took the victory, after a 46-second post race time penalty for the #98 Random Vandals Racing M4 GT4 (Paul Sparta/Al Carter) for overtaking under a Full Course Yellow.
The penalty dropped Sparta and Carter to eighth in class and 22nd overall.
Geraci and Lander finished 11th overall, just ahead of the championship-leading #36 BimmerWorld Racing M4 GT4 of Charlie Postins and James Clay.
Postins had a great battle within the overall top five, versus the #80 Rooster Hall Racing M4 GT4 of Jaden Schwartz, in the first half of the race. But shortly into Todd Brown’s stint aboard the #80 car, he went off at turn five, and picked up a drive-through penalty afterwards for a pit work violation.
Rounding out the Am podium was the #19 NOLASPORT Cayman RS (Alain Stad/Matt Travis) in 13th overall. Postins and Clay now lead the Am championship by 71 points over Stad.
Race 2 begins at 11:10 AM local time.
Images © Brian Cleary, Regis Lefebure / SRO Motorsports Group America
