- Silver Class championship closer than ever
- PRO-AM field ready to raise the stakes
- BMW tops the AM Class
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Virginia International Raceway (VIR) is set to welcome the ever-competitive Pirelli GT4 America field for two more action-packed races in this championship. As the season reaches the halfway mark, 36 cars across the Silver, PRO-AM and AM Classes will prepare to put it all on the line in an effort to secure any additional leverage in the championship fight.
Silver Class
The last round at Circuit of the Americas served up a great deal of variety in the Pirelli GT4 America field, with new faces stepping onto the podium for the first time, including the likes of Parker Thompson and Daniel Hanley in the No. 999 Hanley Motorsports Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO. The second Toyota entry also had some success of its own in Texas, as Tyler Maxson and Tyler Gonzalez picked up a third-place result in Race Two on board the No. 74 Copeland Motorsports Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO.
The No. 51 Auto Technic Racing BMW M4 GT4 of Zac Anderson and JCD Dubets was as competitive as ever, as the duo picked up a win and a second-place finish in Austin, which has promoted them to first in the Silver Class championship, a mere 2 points separating them from Jesse Webb and Michai Stephens in the No. 34 Conquest Racing / JMF Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT4.
The battle for third in the championship continues to heat up, with the position currently occupied by the No. 88 STR38 Motorsports BMW M4 GT4 of Chandler Hull and Jon Miller, who stepped onto the podium in Race One in the previous round but lost out on some valuable points in Race Two following a collision. Meanwhile, the No. 19 ACI Motorsports Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport of Francis Selldorff and Andrew Davis and the No. 92 Random Vandals Racing BMW M4 GT4 of Kevin Boehm and Kenton Koch follow closely behind, trailing by a small gap of eight and nine points, respectively.
VIR will also be welcoming a new Silver Class entry, with Rory van der Steur and Jamie Day rising to the challenge with their No. 119 van der Steur Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4.
PRO-AM Class
Flying Lizard Motorsports walked away from Austin with the largest haul of points and have now found themselves sitting first in the Team Championship. The No. 8 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 will see Elias Sabo and Andy Lee loko to retain that lead. While some unlucky race outcomes for the No. 50 Chouest Povoledo Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 of Ross Chouest and Aaron Povoledo allowed Jason Hart and Matt Travis to capitalize on a pair of third-place finishes in their No. 47 Nolasport Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport. The two teams are now tied for second in the team standings, with 67 points apiece.
Smooge Racing also secured a victory last time out, with John Geesbreght and Kevin Conway taking the win in Race One in their No. 68 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR Supra GT4. With 55 points under their belts so far this season, the pair are still within range of the teams ahead on the leaderboard. The second Toyota entry will feature the No. 37 Skip Barber Racing School Toyota Gazoo Racing GR Supra GT4 of Matt Forbush and Carter Fartuch.
Colin Garrett and Johan Schwartz also picked up some hardware of their own with a second-place finish in the No. 44 Rooster Hall Racing BMW M4 GT4 in the first race in the Lone Star State but missed out on points in the following race. However, BMW continued to prove their competitiveness, as No. 82 BimmerWorld BMW M4 GT4, co-driven by Tyler McQuarrie and James Walker Jr., picked up where Garrett and Schwartz left off, securing second in Race 2. With both teams returning for the upcoming round in Virginia, they will have their sights set on more similar results, but BimmerWorld is overly eager to secure the win as VIR is the team’s home track.
The Heart of Racing Team had a difficult weekend but will be looking for redemption as Gray Newell will be welcoming back Canadian driver Roman De Angelis once again as his co-driver of the No. 24 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4.
The No. 7 ACI Motorsports Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport of Curt Swearingin and Kay van Berlo scooped up a fourth and fifth place finish but has yet to stand on the podium so far this season, a goal they will be eager to accomplish at VIR.
Nissan will be represented by the No. 22 and No. 23 TechSport Racing Nissan Z GT4 cars, driven by Eric Powell and Colin Harrison, and Bryan Heitkotter and Tyler Stone.
AM Class
With 19 entries in the AM Class, this round will feature one of the largest fields of the season, making up half of the total positions on the grid.
BMW were simply untouchable at COTA, performing a clean sweep of the podium in Race One, with Chris Allen and Robert Mau taking their maiden win in the No. 438 STR38 Motorsports BMW G82 M4 GT4, followed by James Clay and Charlie Postins in the No. 36 BimmerWorld BMW M4 GT4, and Rob Walker and Satakal Khalsa in the No. 253 Auto Technic Racing Random Vandals Racing BMW M4 GT4. As for Race Two, BMW was dominant again, this time with Clay and Postins taking the top spot while Allen and Mau exchanged with them for second.
BMW will also be fielding an additional two entries, with the likes of the No. 98 Random Vandals Racing car co-driven by Paul Sparta and Al Carter, and newcomers Jason Griscavage and Michael Dayton in the No. 12 Rooster Hall Racing BMW G82 M4 GT4.
The No. 77 TR3 Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 of Paul Kiebler and Jon Branam also saw some success at COTA as they completed the top three in Race Two, boosting themselves up to fourth in the championship. They will be joined by another two Aston Martin entries in class, with the No. 26 of Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 of Hannah Grisham and Rianna O’Meara-Hunt and the No. 428 van der Steur Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 of Brady Behrman and Coby Shield.
The No. 20 Carrus Callas Raceteam Toyota Gazoo Racing GR Supra GT4 of Terry Borcheller and Nicholas Shanny was a podium hopeful in the previous race weekend, but the unpredictability of the AM Class did not see luck go their way. Currently third in the championship with one win and one second-place finish, the pairing will be aiming to collect another podium for Toyota. The manufacturer will also once again be represented by the No. 67 Smooge Racing machine of Isabella Robusto and Joey DaSilva and the No. 72 KRUGSPEED car of Jaden Lander and Anthony Geraci.
Porsche will be accounting for six entries once again, consisting of the No. 09 Zotz Racing/ CCDP Racing Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport of Chris Ruppel and Eric Zitza, the No. 52 car of David Peterman and Lee Carpentier, the No. 58 ACI Motorsports machine of Richard Edge and Matt Halcome, the No. 83 Nolasport of Nelson Calle and Juan Pablo Martinez, and the No. 97 OGH/ Valkyrie Velocity of Sean Gibbons and Sam Owen. The final Porsche entry on the grid belongs to Matt Joffe and Grant Maiman, who previously competed at NOLA in the No. 99 Extreme Velocity Motorsports car.
Last but not least, the No. 89 RENNtech Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT4 of Michael Auriemma and Tommy Johnson will be the one and only Mercedes on track in this class.
Let’s Go
The three-day event hosted at VIRginia International Raceway takes place Friday, June 16, through Sunday, June 18. Fans can purchase single-day tickets or three-day ticket packages. Nissan owners can join the Nissan exclusive car corral. At the same time, the Patriot Car Corral is open to vehicles of all kinds, with proceeds going to helping veterans of the United States and Canadian military. Tickets are on sale here.
For fans unable to attend the event in person, the GT World YouTube page may do just the trick. The live stream covers all series races over the weekend, including Fanatec GT World Challenge America qualifying rounds. For those wanting to get to know the community a little better, join DJ Clark, Kyle Heyer and Daniel Gilligan on the SROMotorsports Twitch stream, where the trio interacts with fans and interviews drivers while covering on-track activity.