A special triple-header weekend for the Pirelli GT4 America series at Sebring produced three different overall winners, three different Pro-Am and Am class winners – as well as the coronation of the first set of champions for the 2023 season.
Sebring weekend began on Friday with the make-up race from the NOLA Motorsports Park weekend, trading one circuit in the swamps of the coastal American south for another.
The grid was set based on the results from Qualifying 2 in NOLA, which gave Kenton Koch and the #92 Random Vandals Racing BMW M4 GT4 the pole position alongside the #999 Hanley Motorsports Toyota GR Supra GT4 of Parker Thompson on the front row.
Koch and Thompson battled in the opening laps with Koch holding the early advantage. Then, Thompson took the lead after ten minutes of racing and built up a healthy lead over the rest of the field. Enough for Daniel Hanley to take over the #999 Toyota and lead by over seven seconds from Kevin Boehm in the #92 BMW.
Boehm closed down the gap but Hanley held on to take the family team’s first overall win of the season, and their second Silver class win. Boehm slid wide out of Sunset Bend to give the #51 Auto Technic Racing BMW (Zac Anderson/John Capestro-Dubets) second place, but he held off the #34 Conquest Racing/JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 (Jesse Webb/Michai Stephens) by just eight milliseconds to finish third in the end.
Elias Sabo and Andy Lee finished fifth overall in the #8 Flying Lizard Motorsports Aston Martin Vantage GT4, to take their first Pro-Am class win of the season, holding off the #47 NOLASPORT Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 (Matt Travis/Jason Hart) by less than a second.
The #82 BimmerWorld BMW (James Walker Jnr/Tyler McQuarrie) rounded out the Pro-Am podium, finishing eighth overall behind the Silver class #88 STR38 Motorsports BMW (Harry Gottsacker/Chandler Hull) and ahead of the Pro-Am class #7 ACI Motorsports Porsche (Curt Swearingin/Kay van Berlo) and the #24 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin (Gray Newell/Roman de Angelis).
11th overall gave the #36 BimmerWorld BMW of James Clay and Charlie Postins its seventh win Am class of the season, and sixth in a row, chronologically. The #18 RS1 Porsche (Roland Krainz/Austin Krainz) and #98 Random Vandals BMW (Paul Sparta/Al Carter) came home second and third in class.
With the make-up race done, normal service resumed with Saturday qualifying and what was officially “Race 1” at Sebring. It was Webb, the Canadian rookie for Conquest/JMF, that won the pole for Race 1.
Saturday’s race was littered with carnage. On the opening lap, Sabo and Newell collided at Big Bend (turn six) and sent both cars spearing into the barriers, with Sabo hitting head-on into the concrete barriers. Both drivers, thankfully, were uninjured.
With 25 minutes elapsed, Nicholas Shanny went wide out of turn one and his #20 Carrus Callas Raceteam Toyota spun off and bounced off the armco, to bring out the second Safety Car intervention. This delayed the compulsory ten-minute pit window but all driver changes were able to be made successfully.
And just as that pit window closed, the Safety Car came out again with 15 minutes to go when the #80 Crucial Motorsports McLaren Artura GT4 of Kaia Teo slid off and into the barriers at turn three.
Anderson in the #51 BMW led the field back to green with just under seven minutes left, followed by Stephens, Thompson, and Koch – who was back up to fourth after his co-driver Boehm got turned around at turn one by Anderson’s co-driver Dubets.
In the space of four corners, the #68 Smooge Racing Toyota of John Geesbreght slid off at turn one and smashed the tyre barriers, and Koch went from fourth to first including a double-overtake around Thompson and Anderson into turn three, all before the Safety Car came back out for the fourth and final time!
Boehm and Koch took their second overall and Silver class wins of the year, with Anderson and Dubets second, Hanley and Thompson third, and Webb and Stephens fourth.
NOLASPORT’s Travis and Hart picked up the Pro-Am win in fifth, beating the remaining Flying Lizard Aston Martin, the #2 of Jason Bell and Michael Cooper – with Walker and McQuarrie third in its class.
In an upset, the Am win went to the #58 ACI Motorsports Porsche of Richard Edge and Matt Halcome, who’d only finished as high as fifth in class all season. The #438 STR38 Motorsports BMW (Robert Mau/Chris Allen) finished second.
But a 12th place overall finish, third in Pro-Am, was enough for BimmerWorld founder James Clay and co-driver Charlie Postins to clinch back-to-back GT4 America Am titles. A programme that came together at the 11th hour before last season has now produced consecutive championships in what has been another dominant campaign for the #36 BMW team – this time, using the newest G82-generation model.
Thompson started on pole for “Race 2”, the final leg of the Sebring weekend on Sunday morning, with Koch alongside as they were on Friday afternoon. Just like the Friday race, Koch took the early lead with Thompson staying with him, and just like the Friday race, Thompson overtook Koch to take the lead going into the pit stop cycle.
Meanwhile, Stephens and the Conquest/JMF team were running a distant third overall but opted to undercut the two leaders. That strategy allowed Webb to emerge right behind the #999 Toyota of Hanley and the #92 BMW of Boehm. With 20 minutes to go, Webb quickly marched past Boehm for second, and then Hanley for the lead.
Webb wouldn’t have it easy in the final minutes but the Canadian teenager held his nerve and took the win by 1.6 seconds. It was the fourth Silver class win for Stephens and Webb on the year and their second overall win in GT4 America.
Hanley finished third on the road, but he and Thompson were given a post-race time penalty for going under the minimum pit stop time – this promoted the #51 Auto Technic BMW of Anderson and Dubets to third and dropped the #999 Toyota down to sixth in class and eighth overall. The #88 STR38 BMW of Gottsacker and Hull, and the #19 ACI Motorsports Porsche (Francis Selldorff/Andrew Davis) rounded out the overall top five.
Flying Lizard’s Bell and Cooper won the Pro-Am class in sixth overall, giving them two wins in just four races this year. Swearingin and Van Berlo finished second in Pro-Am, followed by the #22 TechSport Racing Nissan Z GT4 (Colin Harrison/Eric Powell), back on the podium for the first time since Sonoma.
The #72 KRUGSPEED Toyota (Anthony Geraci/Jaden Lander) finished ninth overall and took its first Am class win of 2023. Postins and Clay put the finishing touches on their championship weekend with a second-place finish ahead of the #18 RS1 Porsche of Krainz and Krainz.
The Silver and Pro-Am championships are still up for grabs as GT4 America moves on to its final double-header weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Zac Anderson and Auto Technic Racing lead the Silver championships by 27 points over Webb, Stephens, and Conquest/JMF. A healthy, race-fit Capestro-Dubets will aim to help give Connecticut-based Auto Technic its first set of GT4 America titles.
BimmerWorld will go for the double in Pro-Am and Am as Walker and McQuarrie lead by 19 points over two-time and defending class champions NOLASPORT, Hart, and Travis. The #47 NOLASPORT Porsche retired from Race 2 with a mechanical issue that prevented them from scoring points.
Images © Brian Cleary / SRO Motorsports America
