- Same Three Cars Win Across Silver, Pro-Am and Am
- Clay Defeats Hayes in Thrilling Am Photo Finish
- Provisional Race 2 Results
The winners were the same in Pirelli GT4 America’s Race 2 at Sebring, but the paths to victory were anything but identical. Random Vandals Racing swept Silver and Pro-Am again with the No. 97 BMW of Kenton Koch and Kevin Boehm, and the No. 94 BMW of Josh Green and Sam Craven. BimmerWorld’s James Clay and Charlie Postins pulled off a dramatic last-lap pass to win Am in the No. 36 BMW.
Silver Class
A strong start moving through the field by Kenton Koch and a stronger restart by teammate Kevin Boehm netted the pair their second Silver class and overall win of the weekend in their No. 97 Random Vandals Racing BMW M4 GT4 (G82) EVO. With 28 minutes to go, a flurry of activity happened in pit lane as most teams pitted to switched drivers and anticipated a potential full-course caution. The Random Vandals team jumped the No. 39 van der Steur Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 EVO of Luca Mars before switching to Max Hewitt. The No. 97 BMW moved into the lead on the pit stop sequence and into third place overall for a restart, as the race did fall under full-course conditions.
Boehm restarted third behind the top two Pro-Am class runners but quickly moved into second overall, following teammate Josh Green in his No. 94 Random Vandals BMW through into Turn 3 past restart leader Tony Gaples in the No. 33 Blackdog Racing McLaren Artura GT4. With just over 10 minutes remaining and with another potential full-course caution looming, but not called, for another car stopped on track, Boehm moved to the outside of Green at Turn 14, driver’s right to take the overall lead.
Boehm brought the No. 97 BMW home to the win by 4.882 seconds over Gresham Wagner in the No. 68 RAFA Racing Team Toyota Gazoo Racing GR Supra GT4 EVO2 he shared with Tyler Gonzalez. The No. 52 Auto Technic Racing BMW M4 GT4 (G82) EVO of Zac Anderson and Colin Garrett finished third. Unofficially, the Boehm/Koch pairing has moved into the Pirelli GT4 America point lead after the weekend.
“The Random Vandals team was just spot on,” said Kevin Boehm. “ We had a great race car this weekend, but more importantly, we’ve got a fantastic team. Kenton and I really gel behind the wheel, we love driving together. And when everything clicks, we deliver results like this. Massive thanks to the entire Random Vandals crew. They work incredibly hard and put so much effort into this. It’s really special to celebrate these moments with them.”
“I can’t say enough about this team and what they pulled off,” added Kenton. “ At COTA, we struggled for pace, found some anomalies in the car, and ended up doing a full drivetrain swap from one of the spare cars into this one. And it showed, this weekend we had the pace. The team did a fantastic job preparing the car so we could go out and fight hard. We just did our job behind the wheel and made the most of it. I’m also really thankful to have Kevin as my co-driver, he made my life easy yesterday! I did my best during the first stint to set him up well for the second, and he finished it off perfectly. Super proud of what we accomplished.”
Pro-Am Class
Sam Craven delivered one of the passes of the day on a restart in his 94 Random Vandals Racing BMW M4 GT4 (G82) EVO he shared with Josh Green, which erased what looked to be a potential victory for Blackdog Racing. Blackdog had a tale of two starts: a strong initial start from Michael Cooper on the inside of Turn 1 just after the green flag, and a hectic-but-unfulfilling restart from Tony Gaples in their No. 33 McLaren Artura GT4.
Craven, Boehm and Hewitt made it past Gaples into Turns 1 through 3 on the restart. Boehm later passed Craven for the overall lead at Turn 14, but it didn’t matter to the No. 94 Random Vandals BMW’s Pro-Am place. Gaples held on for second in Pro-Am, sixth overall at the flag, with Anthony McIntosh securing the final podium spot in his No. 69 JTR Motorsports Engineering Toyota Gazoo Racing GR Supra GT4 EVO2 started by Parker Thompson.
“I mean, it’s awesome leading a Pro race like this!” said Sam Craven. “The team told us they saw a yellow coming and wanted us to swap positions, I think that was the right call. From there, Kevin and I were able to control the pace for the rest of the race. It was incredible. Huge thanks to everyone. This was just amazing.”
“It was fantastic,” echoed Josh Green. “ Random Vandals gave us a great car,it was absolutely on rails all weekend. Today wasn’t as warm as yesterday, so our straight-line pace wasn’t quite there, and overtaking became a bit tougher. Mark Miller in that Mercedes caught up, passed whoever was behind me, and started chasing me down. I knew I had to pull something a little wild to get by Dickinson in the Porsche, so I made a bit of a bold move into Turn 17, but it worked!
From there, we built a gap, set the pace, and drove away for a bit. Kevin got right up behind me, we pitted, handed the car over to Sam, and… well, you all saw what happened. That pass through Turn 1? Come on, that was beautiful stuff!”
Am Class
Traffic determined most of the day in Am after several cars appeared to have a great shot at the win. Paul Sparta was first in contention in his No. 98 Random Vandals Racing BMW M4 GT4 (G82) EVO he shared with Michael Kanisczak, but dropped out after both his car and the No. 72 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR Supra GT4 EVO2 fell off course at Turn 13. That opened the door for James Clay, having taken over from Charlie Postins in the No. 36 BimmerWorld BMW M4 GT4 (G82) EVO, to lead before he ran aground of traffic. Clay then lost the lead to a charging Laura Hayes in her No. 606 Thunder Bunny Racing Toyota Gazoo Racing GR Supra GT4 EVO2 she shared with Allen Patten.
But as the saying goes, traffic giveth and traffic taketh away. With two other Silver class cars ahead, Hayes lost the momentum out of the final corner, Turn 17, and had to defend against one final lunge from Clay, who darted driver’s right to the inside. The BMW powered past to take the win by just 0.051 of a second in a thrilling photo finish, denying Hayes the victory after an amazing day of racing in the Am class.
Quietly, the No. 188 Fast Track Racing BMW M4 GT4 (G82) EVO of Denny Stripling and Judson Holt avoided any of the drama that seemed to take most of the Am class’ attention to score third place and complete the podium.
“It was hot out there today, and the car was a real challenge,” explained James Clay. “ The rear end started getting a bit soft and loose, so driving it in that condition was tough. Then, as soon as we hit traffic, I was pacing the cars behind and knew it was going to mess us up, and sure enough, it did. We got balked, and Laura did a great job making the pass. But on that last lap, with traffic still up ahead, I just said, ‘Forget it,’ turned the traction control off, and fired it into the final corner. Let it rip. It came out nice and clean, surprising, but that’s how you win. I’m proud of it.”
“I’ve got to be honest, I have complete faith in my teammate,” confesses Charlie Postins. “ We’ve been doing this for a few years now, and if anyone could pull that off, it was James and BimmerWorld. And they did it! I’m not surprised, I’m just stoked we got to sweep this weekend. It’s awesome to be back in the championship hunt.”
Up Next
The Pirelli GT4 America field will return for the seventh and eighth rounds of the season at Sebring International Raceway from July 18th to 20th, 2025.