RAFA Racing Team’s Westin Workman and Tyler Gonzalez won Pirelli GT4 America Race 1 at Indianapolis to keep their championship aspirations alive for another day.
The #68 RAFA Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2 controlled the race from start to finish; Workman retained his lead after the first lap despite an ambitious lunge from the #007 CSM Aston Martin of Ismaeel Ellahi to try and grab the lead from fourth.
Workman wouldn’t get much time to build the gap though; Matt Travis in the #47 NOLASPORT Porsche crashed exiting turn six and brought out a Safety Car. The damage to the tyre barrier took 18 minutes to repair, and the race resumed just before the pit window opened.
Gonzalez took over the #68 Toyota and retained the lead over the #77 McCumbee McAleer Racing Ford Mustang GT4 of Michael Tosi and Nolan Allaer, which moved up to second after pit stops – but they would take a 14.18 second post-race time penalty for a short pit stop, dropping them from fourth overall to 14th.
In the end, the #68 Toyota won by 3.518 seconds over the #131 Advance Motorsports McLaren Artura GT4 of Austin Jurs and Parker DeLong in second.
Third place overall and victory in Pro-Am went to the #33 Blackdog Racing McLaren of Tony Gaples and Michael Cooper, which recovered from a 33rd place start, gaining 30 places thanks to an undercut strategy and swift driving from Cooper in the second half.
But by finishing one position behind the #33 Blackdog McLaren, the #94 Random Vandals Racing BMW M4 GT4 EVO of Sam Craven and Kenton Koch did just enough for Craven to clinch the Pro-Am Drivers’ championship ahead of Sunday’s final race. It’s the second consecutive GT4 America Pro-Am title for Craven and Random Vandals Racing.
The #7 ACI Motorsports Porsche 718 GT4 RS Clubsport (Yves Baltas/Trenton Estep) finished fifth overall and rounded off the Silver class podium, one spot ahead of the #98 Random Vandals BMW (Bruno Colombo/Josh Green).
Completing the overall top ten were the #40 Off Leash Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT4 (Kevin Clifford/Harry Gottsacker), third in Pro-Am, followed by the #39 Dome Motorsport Mercedes-AMG (Allen Patten/Marc Miller), the #51 AutoTechnic Racing BMW (Kevin Boehm/Francis Selldorff), and the #028 RS1 Porsche (Spencer Pumpelly/Luca Mars), finishing tenth overall and sixth in the Silver class.
With that result, Gonzalez and Workman still have a chance to win the GT4 America Silver class title in tomorrow’s season finale, as they’ve cut the lead of Pumpelly and Mars down to 18 points. The #68 RAFA Toyota would have to win the race no matter what, but the #028 RS1 Porsche would also need to finish seventh or lower in class.
Meanwhile, in Am, the #21 ACI Motorsports BMW of Michael and Alex Garcia recovered from dropping back in the opening laps to finish 16th overall and win the class, closing in on the championship-leading #30 TechSport Racing Ford of Frankie Muniz and Tyler Stone in the standings heading into tomorrow’s finale.
Muniz and Stone finished 19th overall, second in class, and one position ahead of the #17 Rigid Speed Company BMW (Joseph Catania/Lucas Catania). The gap between the #30 and #21 is now just seven points, while the #36 BimmerWorld Racing BMW (James Clay/James Walker Jnr) falls to 11 points behind after being spun out during the race and finishing seventh in class.
Images © SRO Motorsports America
