On the final day of the Pirelli GT4 America season, Jesse Webb and Michai Stephens avenged their bitter defeat in Race 1 on Friday by driving their #34 Conquest Racing/JMF Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT4 to the overall and Silver class victory in Race 2 on Sunday morning.
Eric Bachelart’s Indianapolis-based team got a win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway 48 hours after a mechanical failure robbed them of a win that could have won them a championship 48 hours ago.
The win was an emotional one for Stephens, in what will very likely be his last race at Conquest Racing – and likely, the last GT4 race for Conquest Racing as a whole.
Meanwhile, NOLASPORT took its third straight GT4 America Pro-Am championship as the #47 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 of Matt Travis and Jason Hart took the title over the #82 BimmerWorld BMW M4 GT4 (James Walker Jnr/Tyler McQuarrie).
Travis and Hart finished eighth overall and fifth in the Pro-Am class, one place ahead of Walker and McQuarrie, to win the championship by a single point after starting the weekend 19 points behind.
It’s Hart’s third straight title with NOLASPORT, and with two different co-drivers: Travis previously won the Pro-Am championship in 2021, and Scott Noble joined Hart in 2022 on the way to the team’s second title.
The Pro-Am class win went to the #68 Smooge Racing Toyota GR Supra GT4 of Kevin Conway and Aaron Telitz, who finished second overall. Conway used a bit of his stock car racing experience to muscle his way past Gray Newell with seven minutes to go.
Chattanooga-based ACI Motorsports put two of its Porsches in the overall top five: Francis Selldorff and Andrew Davis finished third in the red #19, and owner/driver Curt Swearingin made a late move past Newell to finish fourth in the green #7 alongside Kay van Berlo.
Newell and Roman de Angelis finished fifth overall and third in Pro-Am, after De Angelis took the lead early on by diving up the inside of turn one to put his #24 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT4 at the front on the opening lap. Race 1 winners Kevin Boehm and Indy 8 Hour super-sub Kenton Koch finished sixth in the #92 Random Vandals Racing BMW.
A late overtake from the #50 Chouest Povoledo Racing Aston Martin (Ross Chouest/Aaron Povoledo) put the two Pro-Am title contenders eighth and ninth, but Walker Jnr was too far back to catch the “fastest accountant” Travis.
Rounding out the top ten, after taking a historic Am class win in Race 1, the #26 Heart of Racing Aston Martin of Hannah Grisham and Rianna O’Meara-Hunt made a late charge to come from behind and sweep the weekend.
Grisham got past the #20 Carrus Callas Raceteam Toyota (Nicholas Shanny/Terry Borcheller) in the final minutes after the #20 Toyota led the class early on. They consolidated second in class, ahead of the #36 BimmerWorld BMW (Charlie Postins/James Clay) in third place to close out their second straight championship-winning season.
The #51 AutoTechnic Racing BMW of John Capestro-Dubets and Silver class champion Zac Anderson finished 20th after serving a drive-through penalty for starting a multi-car accident on the opening lap, which took out the #37 Skip Barber Racing School Toyota (Matt Forbush/Carter Fartuch) and #88 STR38 Motorsports BMW (Chandler Hull/Harry Gottsacker).
Polesitter Michael Cooper’s race came to an early end when his #2 Flying Lizard Aston Martin was broadsided by the #999 Hanley Motorsports Toyota of Parker Thompson.
Feature image © Brian Cleary / SRO Motorsports America
