- BMW Claims Wins in Silver and Am Classes
- Porsche Victorious Overall and in Pro-Am
- Provisional Race 2 Results
The UAB Medicine GT World Alabama benefiting Teal Wings of Hope opened its Pirelli GT4 America weekend with a dramatic Race 1 at Barber Motorsports Park. The 60-minute contest featured high drama from start to finish, with battles raging across all three classes before ending under full-course yellow conditions. Random Vandals Racing and ACI Motorsports each came away with class victories in Silver, Pro-Am, and Am competition.
* Post-race technical inspection brought a further shakeup to the Am category results. The No. 98 Random Vandals Racing BMW M4 GT4, which had initially taken the class win, was found to have an incorrect setting in the ECU. As a result, the car was moved to the last finishing position in Am and declared ineligible to score any championship points, promoting the No. 72 RAFA Racing Team Toyota Supra GT4 of Kenny Schmied to the top step of the podium.
Silver Class
The Silver category delivered one of the most action-packed races of the season. Trouble struck immediately when Jesse Webb had an off-course excursion in the No. 3 JMF Motorsports Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4, sending the Canadian into the grass on the opening lap. Teammate Mike David Ortmann held the overall and class lead through the opening stint in the sister No. 4 machine.
The race soon turned into a wheel-to-wheel chess match featuring the No. 97 Random Vandals Racing BMW M4 GT4 of Kenton Koch and the No. 68 RAFA Racing Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2 of Tyler Gonzalez. The two traded blows in a fierce scrap for third before catching Brayden Arthur in the No. 4 JMF Aston Martin. Contact and constant position swaps allowed the field to bunch up, with Max Hewitt in the No. 39 van der Steur Racing Aston Martin briefly leading the train.
With 17 minutes left, Koch muscled his way to the front. Gonzalez was later handed a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility after running Hewitt wide. The final laps were halted by a late-race full-course yellow following contact involving the No. 77 VPX Motorsports Porsche Cayman 718 GT4 RS Clubsport of Danny Dyszelski.
At the checkered flag, Koch and Kevin Boehm delivered victory for Random Vandals Racing, crossing the line second overall. Braydon Arthur salvaged second for JMF Motorsports, while Nicolai Elghanayan and Mads Siljehaug completed the podium in the No. 71 Marco Polo Motorsports Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2.
“I’m very thankful and glad to be a part of this team,” expressed Kenton Koch. “Kevin did a really good job at the beginning and kept us in contention the whole time. This car thing was just a rocketship in the end. All year we've had a really good car, and now we're this much closer to the championship.”
“I've learned so much from Kenton in the last three years,” added Kevin Boehm. “It's been an absolute pleasure to see how he approaches everything behind the wheel, and try to emulate the things that I really like that he does. It's made me such a better driver and I think we just like the same car, we like the same stuff, we approach racing the same way. It works really well and when you get us together, along with the whole team and everybody behind the scenes that it takes to operate a race team, we get these kinds of results. It's pretty surreal, to be honest.”
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Pro-Am Class
The Pro-Am fight was no less intense. From pole position, Matt Bell launched into the overall lead in the No. 43 P1 Groupe McLaren Artura GT4 but was quickly challenged by Silver competitors. Still, Bell retained the class advantage in the early laps over Riley Dickinson in the No. 7 ACI Motorsports Porsche.
Meanwhile, Loek Hartog delivered a storming drive in the No. 9 ACI Motorsports Porsche Cayman 718 GT4 RS Clubsport, charging from the back of the grid to ninth overall and fourth in class after just seven laps.
Strategy played a major role, with Bell staying out longer than his rivals before handing over the McLaren to Alex Vogel. That opened the door for the No. 7 ACI Motorsports Porsche of Riley Dickinson and Curt Swearingin, who powered into the overall and class lead in the final stint. From there, the Porsche duo never looked back, scoring an emphatic win.
Josh Green and Sam Craven brought the No. 94 Random Vandals Racing BMW home in second, while Tyler McQuarrie and James Walker Jr. claimed third for BimmerWorld Racing in the No. 82 BMW M4 GT4.
“We were eyeing an overall win last year, and we got it this year,” exclaimed Curt Swearingin. “This is extra, extra special. Thankfully the caution at the end saved us a bit, because Kenton Koch was coming in fast. But we got it done, it was fun!”
“I can't say enough about Curt Swearingin and the whole ACI crew,” said Riley Dickinson. “They've done an unbelievable job. Thank you to everyone who came out here today, I can't say enough for everyone involved in Racing for Children. This is obviously close for them, this is their hometown in Birmingham, and I’m glad we could do this for them.”
Am Class
The Am category also saw its share of twists. Early leader Laura Hayes in the No. 606 Thunder Bunny Racing BMW M4 GT4 suffered misfortune with a puncture just before the halfway mark, forcing an untimely pit stop outside the designated window. That handed the class lead to James Clay in the No. 36 BimmerWorld Racing BMW, with Paul Sparta moving up to second in the No. 98 Random Vandals BMW.
The order shifted again following the mandatory stops, with Darius Trinka emerging in control for Random Vandals Racing. Behind him, Kenny Schmied climbed into second in the No. 72 RAFA Racing Toyota Supra GT4, while Charlie Postins in the No. 36 BimmerWorld BMW held third.
Trinka kept his cool under pressure to take the Am victory, securing the win for Random Vandals Racing. Schmied and RAFA Racing celebrated second, while BimmerWorld locked in another podium finish in third with James Clay and Charlie Postins.
Let’s Get Racing
The Pirelli GT4 America field will return to the track for Race 2 on Sunday morning, September 7th at 11:10 AM CT.
If you can’t make it to Barber Motorsports Park, be sure to tune-in to SRO’s free live streams all weekend long on YouTube (GTWorld) and Twitch (SROMotorsports) and follow all the action through our social media channels and the event hashtag #GTBHM.