The #92 Random Vandals Racing BMW M4 GT4 of Kevin Boehm and Kenton Koch won Pirelli GT4 America Race 1 from Indianapolis following a devastating retirement from Conquest Racing/JMF Motorsport’s Jesse Webb and Michai Stephens.
Stephens was leading with five minutes to go after co-driver Webb controlled the race from pole position, but appeared to run out of fuel coming onto the backstretch.
The #34 Conquest/JMF Mercedes-AMG GT4 needed that victory to keep their hopes of contending for the Silver class championship alive, but that opportunity slipped away in heartbreaking fashion.
Koch drove on to take the overall and Silver class win, the third of the year for himself and Boehm, while fifth place for the #51 Auto Technic Racing BMW of John Capestro-Dubets and Zac Anderson – and third in Silver – was enough for Anderson and AutoTechnic to clinch the 2023 Silver class championship over Stephens and Webb.
It’s Anderson’s second GT4 America championship. He won the 2020 Am class title when he was driving for NOLASPORT. For the Connecticut-based AutoTechnic Racing team, it’s their first.
In the Pro-Am class, the #24 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT4 of Gray Newell and Roman de Angelis took a come-from-behind class win in second overall. It’s their third Pro-Am win of the year – but the #47 NOLASPORT Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 of Matt Travis and Jason Hart that finished behind them took as big of a runner-up finish in class that one could imagine.
Just five minutes into the race, with Travis leading the class from pole position, championship leaders Rob Walker Jnr and Tyler McQuarrie were knocked out of the race. Walker and the #82 BimmerWorld BMW got hit in turn ten by the #8 Flying Lizard Motorsports Aston Martin of Elias Sabo, inflicting terminal damage to the BMW.
Travis handed the #47 Porsche off to Hart, but De Angelis went on a charge during his closing stint and grabbed the class lead with 20 minutes to go.
But the 18 points gained by Travis and Hart were enough for them to close to within just one point of Walker and McQuarrie with just one race remaining, which will be held Sunday morning, the day after the Indianapolis 8 Hour.
The #19 ACI Motorsports Porsche (Francis Selldorff/Andrew Davis) was fourth overall and second in the Silver class. Fifth on the road was the #8 Flying Lizard Aston Martin of Sabo and Andy Lee, but Lee earned a post-race time penalty for hitting the #7 ACI Motorsports Porsche (Curt Swearingin/Kay van Berlo) late in the race that dropped the Aston to 19th.
The #88 STR38 Motorsports BMW (Chandler Hull/Harry Gottsacker) finished sixth behind Anderson and Capestro-Dubets, while the #68 Smooge Racing Toyota GR Supra GT4 (Kevin Conway/Aaron Telitz) recovered from a spin to finish seventh overall.
Telitz was substituting for John Geesbreght who was ruled out for this weekend after a heavy crash at Sebring last round. Ironically, Telitz was spun out by his Vasser Sullivan Lexus team-mate in IMSA, Parker Thompson. Thompson received a drive-through penalty for the collision that dropped him and Daniel Hanley to 14th overall in the #999 Hanley Motorsports Toyota.
Heart of Racing Team took a double victory, and the significance of the Am class win was great: Hannah Grisham and Rianna O’Meara-Hunt became the first all-female driver combination to win a race in any class of GT4 America in the young history of the series.
Grisham won the pole in her class and qualified an impressive sixth out of 32 cars, then held the lead throughout her opening stint, giving O’Meara-Hunt enough of a margin to hold off the competition and take the Am class victory with an eighth-place overall result.
It’s the culmination of a journey that began with a search for just one woman to drive for Heart of Racing Team, but when the team couldn’t decide on one winner between the two of them, both of them received the opportunity to drive together.
The #44 Rooster Hall Racing BMW (Johan Schwartz/Colin Garrett) and #23 TechSport Racing Nissan Z GT4 (Bryan Heitkotter/Tyler Stone) rounded out the overall top ten.
Sharing the Am class podium with Grisham and O’Meara-Hunt were the #20 Carrus Callas Raceteam Toyota (Nicholas Shanny/Terry Borcheller) in second and the #438 STR38 Motorsports BMW (Robert Mau/Chris Allen) in third.
The #36 BMW of newly-crowned, two-time Am class champions Charlie Postins and James Clay was taken out of the race in a first-lap crash – on what proved to be a tough day for BimmerWorld’s GT4 efforts.
Images © Brian Cleary / SRO Motorsports America
