The SRO GT4 America series competed at Road America in Wisconsin on the last weekend of August, after a nearly two-month break. Overall, it wasn’t a great weekend for BMW teams who lost ground in the championship battles going on among the various classes.
There were 11 BMW M4 GT4 EVO entries among the 33 cars entered at Road America. Coming into the race weekend, BMW teams were leading the championship in two of the classes, with Random Vandals Racing drivers Kenton Koch and Sam Craven leading the Pro-Am points, and BimmerWorld drivers James Clay and James Walker, Jr. leading the Am class.
Stevan McAleer and Roland Krainz finished second in Pro-Am in race one. and fifth in race two.
One of the biggest developments over the race weekend was the absence of Kenton Koch, who flew home to be with his wife as she went into labor. Thomas Merrill filled in for Koch, but it effectively made Sam Craven the lone contender in the championship if the #94 Random Vandals BMW were to score any points in the two races. Craven got off to a good start in qualifying, putting the BMW in second on the grid, and James Walker, Jr. put the #36 BimmerWorld car on the Am class pole. Kevin Boehm qualified sixth in the top Silver class in the #51 Random Vandals M4 GT4 EVO and was the fastest of all the BMWs.
There was no lack of drama in the race. The #94 duo of Craven and Merrill put in strong stints to finish second in Pro-Am, but the result was thrown out after the race when it was found that the car was using a part that wasn’t homologated. Unfortunately for the team, the #33 McLaren that won is their primary rival in the championship. The #19 Auto Technic Racing M4 GT4 EVO of Stevan McAleer and Roland Krainz ended up with a second-place Pro-Am finish after the #94 was disqualified.
Zach Lumsden and Kris Wilson finished second in the Am class in both races.
In the Am class, the BimmerWorld crew had poor timing with a pit stop and effectively lost a lap in the race, and then the leading #21 ACI Motorsport BMW of brothers Michael and Alex Garcia broke a toe link with 13 minutes left and had to retire. That retirement gave the win to the #30 Ford Mustang GT4, with the #413 Colorado Motorsport with Flying Lizard M4 GT4 EVO of Zach Lumsden and Kris Wilson in second. The best finish in the Silver class for a BMW was a third place for the #98 Random Vandals car of Josh Green and Bruno Columbo (shown in top photo). The Silver win went to the RS1 Motorsport Porsche of Spencer Pumpelly and Luca Mars.
Race two was a wet race and started under caution, with Josh Green the fastest qualifier of the BMW entries, starting fifth. Alex Garcia started on the pole in the Am class in the #21 BMW, after fixing the damage from race one. Unfortunately, it was another bad race for the Garcia brothers, as they were taken out in dramatic fashion by a Mercedes-AMG that apparently lost his brakes, broadsiding the BMW and nearly putting the car on its roof. The #413 BMW of Wilson and Lumsden finished second in Am, with the #30 Mustang getting another class win.
Tyler McQuarrie and Michael Petramalo finished fourth in Pro-Am in race two.
The #94 Random Vandals car of Craven and Merril also had another really bad day, with Craven crashing out, with the Pro-Am class win once again going to the #33 McLaren. There were two BMWs in the top five in the Pro-Am class, with the #38 BimmerWorld car of Tyler McQuarrie and Michael Petramolo in fourth the #19 Auto Technic car of McAleer and Krainz in fifth. There were also two BMWs in the top five in the Silver class, with the #98 Random Vandals car of Green and Columbo in fourth and the #51 Auto Technic Racing car of Boehm and Francis Selldorff in fifth. The Silver win went once again to the #028 Porsche of Mars and Pumpelly.
The championship picture has changed dramatically for the BMW contenders after the Road America race. Sam Craven managed to score four points at Road America so is still in the lead in the Pro-Am class, with Kenton Koch in second. However, the gap between Craven and the Blackdog Racing McLaren duo of Michael Cooper and Tony Gaples has closed to just 17 points.
Kevin Boehm and Francis Selldorff finished sixth and fifth in the Silver class.
With the DNF’s for the #21 BMW of the Garcia brothers, the Am class lead is still held by BimmerWorld drivers James Clay and James Walker, Jr., but they lost ground to #30 Ford Mustang drivers Frankie Muniz and Tyler Stone, who now trail them by just 12 points, with Random Vandals BMW drivers Denny Stripling and Judson Holt in third, just nine points behind the Mustang drivers. Francis Selldorff and Kevin Boehm are in third place in the Silver class, but well back of Porsche drivers Mars and Pumpelly.
There are two race weekends left in GT4 America, at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama on September 25th-27th, followed by the final races at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on October 8th-11th.
—David Haueter
[Photos courtesy SRO]