RAFA Racing Team, NOLASPORT and Random Vandals Racing Open Sonoma with Race 1 Victories

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RAFA Racing Team, NOLASPORT and Random Vandals Racing Open Sonoma with Race 1 Victories

The 2026 Pirelli GT4 America season roared to life at Sonoma Raceway, where a 31-car field took the green flag for the opening race weekend of the year. What began as a promising start quickly turned chaotic, with multiple incidents, strategy calls and two full-course yellows shaping the outcome of Race 1.

After originally clinching pole position, Jonathan Neudorf was relegated to 22nd on the grid following a technical infraction, promoting Westin Workman and the No. 68 RAFA Racing Team Toyota Gazoo Racing GR Supra GT4 EVO2 to the top starting spot. From there, the season opener became a battle of survival and execution, with RAFA Racing Team claiming the Silver Class win, NOLASPORT emerging on top in Pro-Am and Random Vandals Racing taking victory in Am. 

Silver Class

From the drop of the green flag, Westin Workman controlled the early stages in the No. 68 RAFA Racing Team Toyota Gazoo Racing GR Supra GT4 EVO2, fending off pressure from Kevin Boehm in the No. 51 Auto Technic Racing BMW M4 GT4 after a chaotic opening phase.

Behind them, Jonathan Neudorf wasted little time making up ground in the No. 131 Advanced Motorsports McLaren Artura GT4. After being sent to the back half of the grid, the Canadian charged through the field and climbed to third overall as the race settled in.

Once the pit window opened with 35 minutes remaining, teams began cycling through their mandatory stops. Neudorf stretched his stint slightly longer, coming to pit lane with 30 minutes left, while Yves Baltas in the No. 7 ACI Motorsports Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport and Josh Green in the No. 98 Random Vandals Racing BMW M4 GT4 also gambled on a later stop.

That strategy shuffle ultimately left Tyler Gonzalez out front in the No. 68 Toyota, but the race was neutralized once again when the No. 131 stopped on track and had to be towed back to pit lane, ending a strong recovery drive and setting up a dash to the finish that benefitted the winners. 

Gonzalez remained composed through the restart and never put a wheel wrong, securing the first Silver Class win of the season for himself and Workman. The No. 51 machine and The No. 028 RS1 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport completed the class podium.

“As soon as Tyler got in the car, I knew we had a chance to win,” said Workman. “ I just have to thank RAFA Racing, Toyota Gazoo Racing and everybody who supports me. There are a lot of people behind this. Kevin, my car chief Mike, crew chief Jeff, so many people. This Supra was on rails today.”

“For sure, this RAFA Toyota Supra was on rails,” added Gonzalez. “I can’t thank RAFA Racing enough for hooking us up with a great setup in that car. That late-race yellow really kind of worked out in our favor. I think right at that point it was starting to come to us.”

Pro-Am Class

The Pro-Am battle began with immediate drama as Allen Patten in the No. 39 Dome Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT4 was involved in contact with Sam Craven in the No. 94 Random Vandals Racing BMW M4 GT4 at the start. Tony Gaples in the No. 33 Blackdog Racing McLaren Artura GT4 also found trouble early after sustaining contact and suffering a puncture.

Craven initially led the class, but a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility handed the advantage to Matt Travis in the No. 47 NOLASPORT Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport. Travis capitalized on the opportunity and delivered the car to Matheus Leist in class-leading position.

From there, Leist took over and managed the race from the front, running an impressive third overall while Gregory Liefooghe in the No. 90 Stephen Cameron Racing BMW M4 GT4 kept the pressure on from behind. Leist ultimately held firm to bring home the opening Pro-Am victory of the season.

“It was tough because I felt like we didn’t have a lot of pace at the end,” said Leist. “I was struggling a little bit with understeer. Honestly, Matt did a great job. He gave me the car in first place. It was just up to me to maintain that pace and bring our first win here for the season. Very thankful for the NOLASPORT guys that gave us a great car.”

“Excited to be back,” said Travis. “ What a joy to be back in the series. Incredible result. It exceeded our expectations, especially with the hot weather.”

Am Class

Alex Garcia, the class pole sitter, encountered trouble at the start and was forced out of contention, opening the door for others to capitalize. James Walker Jr. in the No. 36 BimmerWorld BMW M4 GT4 briefly moved into the picture, but his race unraveled after he was forced down pit lane with a missing door.

That handed the advantage to Judson Holt in the No. 188 Random Vandals Racing BMW M4 GT4, who took over the class lead with 36 minutes remaining.

Elsewhere, Laura Hayes in the No. 37 Dome Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT4 found herself not only leading the Am class but also running overall at one stage before handing the car over to Ed Killeen with 25 minutes left. Once Denny Stripling climbed aboard the No. 188, however, Random Vandals Racing never looked back.

With the No. 17 Rigid Speed Company BMW M4 GT4 of Lucas Catania and the No. 413 Flying Lizard Motorsports BMW M4 GT4 battling over the remaining podium positions, Stripling maintained a healthy advantage to secure the Am win. Actor Frankie Muniz finished second in the No. 30 TechSport Racing Ford Mustang GT4, while the Hayes/Killeen duo rounded off the podium. 

“We had it in our hearts,” said Holt. “We wanted to win this race really bad. It’s great to come out first place in the season and start a season off right. So yeah, we certainly are excited.”

“You never like to see those incidents happen, but we were the beneficiaries of it,” said Stripling. “I’d rather be the beneficiary than be caught up in it. Judd brought it home nice and clean. I got in the car and it was chaos around me, but we were solid. We knew where we were positionally, and we were good to go. We just wanted to bring it home and let the podium guys around me fight it out. That’s what we did. The car was really good. Random Vandals gave us a solid car today. I think we might be a little better tomorrow. So if we’re winning races while still improving, I like our chances.”

Let’s Get Racing

The Pirelli GT4 America field will return to the track for Race 2 on Saturday afternoon, March 28th at 1:00 PM PT. 

If you can’t make it to Sonoma Raceway, be sure to tune-in to SRO’s free live streams all weekend long on SRO RaceControl, YouTube (GTWorld) and Twitch (SROMotorsports) and follow all the action through our social media channels and the event hashtag #GTSonoma.