Rennsport One’s John Capestro-Dubets was able to pass Smooge Racing’s Tyler Gonzalez on the inside entering Turn 5 on the final lap. After numerous collisions, Capestro-Dubets took the lead and held on to win the second race of the Pirelli GT4 America SprintX at Road America on Sunday (August 18).
“It was an amazing time out there,” Capestro-Dubets told DJ Clark of SRO America on victory lane. “It got a little physical, but we persevered.”
Capestro-Dubets and Filguerias won by 0.539 seconds ahead of Gonzalez and Corey Lewis. Roman deAngelis and Gray Newell of The Heart of Racing were third, followed by Jonathan Neudorf and Johan Schwartz of TechSport Racing. Austin and Roland Krainz in the second Rennsport One Porsche were fifth.
Capestro-Dubets and Filguerias also took silver ahead of Gonzalez and Lewis. Hannah Greenemeier and Hannah Grisham of The Heart of Racing were third, followed by Demi Chalkias and Jake Cowden of JMF Motorsport. Zac Anderson and Colin Garrett of AutoTechnic Racing finished a distant fifth.
AutoTechnic Racing’s Zac Anderson started from pole position in his BMW and was pursued by Saturday’s winner Kenton Koch. Much like Saturday, Koch was quite aggressive in his quest to get to the front.
Three laps into the race, Koch overtook Anderson coming out of turn three and was able to pass Anderson on the way to turn five to take the overall lead. Filguerias tried to follow him but was forced to the outside.
Pro-Am leader Kay van Berlo, who started the race in seventh place, got involved in the discussion with a maneuver in turn 6 and moved up to second place. Later, van Berlo was able to overtake Koch and take the overall lead.
Just as the pit window opened, Rigid Speed’s Lucas Catania cut his left front tire. Instead of slowly reversing back to the pits, Catania drove back quite quickly. This caused the tire to rip and the track to be littered with debris.
All the leaders came in for their stops to change drivers. Almost immediately after the stops, the Safety Car came out to clean up all the debris.
Curt Swearingin won the race in the ACI Motorsports Porsche from the pit lane, but Kevin Boehm was able to overtake him on the outside in Turn 1. The yellow phase came before the teams left Turn 1. Swearingin was initially awarded the overall lead. However, after a review, Boehm was allowed to take the top spot.
When the yellow flag came, six cars led by Blackdog Speed Shop’s Michael Cooper had not yet pitted. They made their mandatory stops under yellow and fell far behind.
When racing resumed, Boehm was in front, but Swearingin attempted to retake the lead from the outside. The maneuver was unsuccessful, but opened the door for AutoTechnic Racing’s Colin Garrett. A collision occurred and Swearingin spun into the gravel at Turn 1.
Taking advantage of the rain over the past three days, Swearingin broke free of the trap and continued racing, but he fell to the back of the field. Garrett received a drive-through penalty for causing the incident and ended up finishing 19th overall.
Less than a lap later, LA Precision Racing’s Alexandra Hainer spun and hit the wall while braking for Turn 14 after being touched by BimmerWorld Racing’s James Clay. This accident resulted in another safety car. Hainer was uninjured and escaped unscathed, but her Supra was not.
Shortly before Hainer’s accident, SRO America officials issued a drive-through penalty to Boehm for speeding in the pit lane. That’s something you can’t serve under yellow.
The race resumed with just under five minutes to go. Capestro-Dubets tried to take the lead, but Boehm was able to fend him off. This gave Gonzalez the chance to pass Capestro-Dubets. This pass was successful in turn 8.
On the final lap, Capestro-Dubets made a big charge for the position at Turn 5. There was a lot of contact, but Capestro-Dubets was able to take the lead. From then on, Capestro-Dubets held the lead.
Boehm did not stop to serve the penalty and received a time penalty after the race, which dropped him to 20th place in the overall standings.
In the Pro-Am class, BimmerWorld’s Tyler McQuarrie took pole position in this class on Saturday, but had to start at the end because an accident on the first lap on Saturday required extensive repairs. This meant that pole position in this class went to van Berlo.
Van Berlo was able to move into the lead of the overall standings before the mandatory stops. His teammate Swearingin was beaten in turn 1 and lost the lead before the first caution. He was then dropped at the restart.
This incident saw deAngelis take the lead in his class in his Aston Martin. From then on, he was able to keep the field at bay and secure the first class win of the year for himself and Gray Newell.
DeAngelis and Newell had a 3.479 second lead over Neudorf and Schwartz. The Krainz’ were third, followed by Damir Hot and Andy Lee of Flying Lizard Motorsports in their Nissan. Michael Auriemma and Matheus Leist of RENNtech Motorsports were fifth.
In the Am class, BimmerWorld Racing’s Charlie Postins started from pole position in 15th and quickly moved up to 12th. These early maneuvers increased his gap to the rest of the Am class.
Postins’ time at the front was short-lived as NOLAsport’s Lee Carpentier was able to take the lead and pull away from the field. However, Carpentier stayed on the track too long and was injured by the debris warning.
After Carpentier stopped, Rotek Racing’s Robb Holland took the lead. While chaos reigned over the final restarts, Holland was able to work his way forward and secure the weekend win for himself and Jaden Lander.
Holland and Lander finished ninth overall, with a lead of 9.631 seconds over Nick Shanny and Chris Walsh of the Carrus Callus Raceteam. Lance Bergstein and Anthony Geraci of KRUGSPEED finished third, while Carpentier and David Peterman made up for their bad luck with the first safety car period to finish fourth. Marc and Tyler Sharinn finished fifth in their Aston Martin.
Pirelli GT4 America’s SprintX teams have the next two weeks off. The 11th race of 2024 will take place on September 7 at Barber Motorsports Park. Coverage will be streamed live on the GT World YouTube channel and on SpeedSport1 at 6 p.m. ET.
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