James Clay in the #36 BimmerWorld M240i Racing won the first Touring Car race of the year at the SRO season opener at Circuit of the Americas in March, and ST Racing’s Harry Gottsacker and Nick Wittmer in the #28 ST Racing M4 GT4 won the silver class in the second GT4 SprintX race of the weekend.
Clay’s class win in the Saturday 40-minute Touring Car sprint came after a race-long battle with the M240iRs of Classic Motorsport’s Toby Grahovec, who finished second, and Hard Motorsport’s Johan Schwartz, the 2019 TC class champion, who finished third. BimmerWorld’s Chandler Hull, the series’ 2019 rookie of the year, finished fourth overall in another M240iR. The series’ race two on Sunday featured another race-long battle for the win. Joseph Federl in a Nissan 370Z came out on top, with Grahovec and Clay rounding out the podium.
In the TCA class, running in the same 40-minute sprint races as the TC cars, Tomas Meija in a Mini JCW won race two. In race one the Mini JCWs of Mark Pombo and Meija came in third and fourth in a race won by Tyler Gonzales in a Hyundai Veloster.
In SRO’s GT4 SprintX series, which runs two 60-minute races per weekend, ST Racing’s Harry Gottsacker and Nick Wittmer won the silver class and finished fifth overall in race two. In race one Gottsacker and Wittmer were third in the silver class, and their teammates Jon Miller and Samantha Tan were fourth. The class win in race one went to Colin Mullan and Jarett Andretti in a McLaren 570s GT4. M4 GT4s also ran in the Pro-Am class in SprintX. Greg Liefooghe and Sean Quinlan, the 2019 champions in the class, finished twelfth in class in race one and seventh in class in race two in the #19 Stephen Cameron Racing M4.
In the SRO World Challenge America series’ 90-minute races, Henry Schmitt and Greg Liefooghe in the Stephen Cameron Racing M6 GT3 finished ninth in the Pro-Am class in race one and did not finish race two. The overall win in both races went to Shelby Blackstock and Trent Hindman in an Acura NSX GT3.
Detailed race reports, complete race results, and videos are available on the SRO Americas site under the headings for the Touring Car America, GT4 America, and GT World Challenge America.—Brian Morgan
[Photos courtesy BMW Motorsport.]
