With two weeks remaining until the start of the SRO Motorsports America season, DSC has realised that the grid in Pirelli GT4 America isn’t short of top-quality teams and drivers throughout its classes.
Nissan has already stacked the box with four outstanding customer cars across three teams – bringing Flying Lizard Motorsports and Blackdog Racing into the fold to join TechSport Racing’s rebooted two-car line-up, all driving the redesigned Nissan Z NISMO GT4. TechSport Racing will have an all-new lineup in car #23 led by 2023 GT4 America Silver class runner-up Michai Stephens, alongside MX-5 Cup podium finisher Jonathan Neudorf, while Eric Powell and Colin Harrison return to drive the #22.
Hannah Greenemeier’s addition to the female-forward Heart of Racing Team car is also exciting, as is JMF Motorsports’ refreshed Silver class Mercedes-AMG entry with newcomers Jake Cowden and Demi Chalkias – the latter of whom adds another female talent to the grid.
So it’s only appropriate to catch up on some of the other big GT4 America announcements that have rolled in over the past few weeks, up to today.
Precision Racing LA
Precision Racing LA revealed its livery today for an exciting new GT4 effort headlined by 20-year American sportscar racing veteran/Dinner With Racers co-host Ryan Eversley – who made a big splash by joining the team in January.
Eversley will share the #07 Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO with Harry Cheung, who has raced in the SRO America system before – most recently, in the Toyota Gazoo Racing GR Cup North America series. Cheung has also driven for PRLA’s sister team, LA Honda World Racing, in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge and SRO TC America series.
Precision Racing LA will compete in the Pro-Am category which, for the last three years, has been won by Porsche customer team NOLASPORT.
Smooge Racing
Also within the Toyota Gazoo Racing customer camp, Smooge Racing has revealed its main Silver class entry, featuring two young prospects of the Toyota Driver Development (TD2) system.
John Geesbreght – who celebrates his 21st birthday next week – will join forces with 19-year-old Tyler Gonzalez aboard the #68 Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO.
Geesbreght won the 2021 GT4 America Am class title at Smooge Racing alongside Team Principal and NASCAR alumnus Kevin Conway, before the duo made the step up to the Silver and Pro-Am classes in the subsequent years.
His new co-driver Gonzalez was the inaugural Toyota Gazoo Racing GR Cup North America champion last year with seven wins in 14 races and is also a multiple race winner in the Mazda MX-5 Cup and TC America series. Gonzalez ran part-time in GT4 America last season with Copeland Motorsports.
“John and Tyler have both had a lot of success in SRO as well as anything they have raced and I am confident they will be a very strong pairing,” said Conway. “We are fully focused on competing for wins and the championship this year – anything less is not acceptable.”
Smooge Racing will announce additional line-ups for select GT4 America rounds throughout the season.
“We had a great season last year as we expanded into GR Cup and continued success with our current entries across SRO and other series,” Conway added. “We are building on that foundation as we are fielding multiple GR Supra GT4 EVOs along with GR86s in the GR Cup Series, and look forward to what’s to come in 2024. We will have some fun surprise driver line-ups throughout the year with some great drivers!”
Together with Hanley Motorsports, which has announced it will renew the Silver class partnership of Daniel Hanley and TGR rising star Parker Thompson in the #999 Toyota – it makes for three outstanding TGR entries in this year’s series.
Bimmerworld Racing
Two-time and defending GT4 America Am class champions Bimmerworld Racing are also renewing efforts with two BMW M4 GT4s in Am and Pro-Am.
BimmerWorld owner/driver James Clay and co-driver Charlie Postins are back to try for the Am class three-peat in the #36 car with primary sponsorship from Optima Batteries. Postins and Clay have won their class 14 times over the last two seasons and 28 races.
On the other side of the garage, James Walker Jnr and Tyler McQuarrie will return to drive the #82 Red Line Synthetic Oil-sponsored BMW. The pair scored three class wins and eight podiums, missing out on the Pro-Am championship by just one point.
BimmerWorld will not be returning to run the BMW M4 GT3 in GT World Challenge America, instead focusing on its GT4 efforts. As Clay explains: “Our core BimmerWorld business is supplying parts for BMW road cars. This includes learning, designing, and testing our parts and our packages in a variety of environments, and most visibly on the racetrack. We enjoyed the challenge of our GT3 program and working with a pure racecar, but it didn’t support our core racing goal.
“But overall, we’re thrilled to have the team back together for another fantastic year of GT4 racing!”
Random Vandals Racing
Random Vandals Racing has also renewed its two-car, two-class effort in GT4 America.
After a successful 2023 season that yielded three overall and Silver class victories, and third place in the championship, Kevin Boehm and Kenton Koch are back to drive the CrowdStrike-sponsored #97 BMW for a second season.
Koch has been racing alongside RVR Team Principal Paul Sparta in the Michelin Pilot Challenge series this year. Sparta will be back aboard the #98 BMW this year in the Am class, now joined by Kris Wilson as his co-driver.
“Last year was a year of ‘so close’ for both Random Vandals cars,” recalls Sparta. “As an entire team, Random Vandals has continued to level-up its game. This year, we simply need to execute, and we should be there for both championships. I’d say we can’t wait to get to Sonoma!”
RENNtech Motorsports
RENNtech Motorsports has committed to a Pro-Am, full-season entry for the #89 Mercedes-AMG GT4 driven by Michael Auriemma and former IndyCar Series driver Matheus Leist.
This race marks Leist’s return to competitive motorsport for the first time since 2020 when he ran a partial IMSA campaign at JDC-Miller MotorSports. The 25-year-old Brazilian raced in IndyCar for two seasons at AJ Foyt Racing with a career-best finish of fourth place at the Indianapolis road course. Before his brief IndyCar career, he made waves when he won the 2017 Freedom 100 – the former showcase event of the Indy NXT series.
Auriemma is in his second season driving the #89 RENNtech Mercedes, having come back from a ten-year hiatus from racing of his own – he scored an Am class podium at NOLA Motorsports Park last spring.
RENNtech will also support the #43 P1 Groupe Mercedes of Alex Vogel and Matt Bell which runs in Pro-Am.
The full entry list for the GT4 America opening round at Sonoma Raceway is expected to be released next week featuring these and many more intriguing entries.
Additional images © SRO Motorsports Group America
