RS1 Porsche Claims Road Atlanta Race 2 Win

Photo: Fred Hardy/SRO

Spencer Pumpelly and Luca Mars took victory in the second Pirelli GT4 America race of the weekend at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta after a storming restart.

The No. 028 RS1 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport drivers claimed a third outright win of the season by 1.661 seconds over the Pro-Am Blackdog Racing McLaren Artura GT4 of Michael Cooper and Tony Gaples, making up for their defeat to Cooper on the final lap of Race 1, to extend their lead in the Silver class standings ahead of the summer break.

Mars had run comfortably in third during the 60-minute race’s opening stint, holding off Kenton Koch’s No. 94 Random Vandals BMW M4 GT4 Evo, as polesitter Cooper gradually pulled clear of Matheus Leist in the No. 47 Nolasport Cayman.

Mars came in at the earliest opportunity to hand over to Pumpelly, who was pressuring Nolasport’s Matt Travis for second when the race was transformed by a full course yellow caused by debris.

That eradicated the lead Cooper had built up for Gaples, whose slight hesitation at the restart with 17 minutes to go allowed Pumpelly to draft by Travis and then outbrake Gaples into Turn 1.

While Pumpelly escaped to victory, Gaples swiftly settled into a rhythm and held off Travis, who then lost third to Sam Craven (in for Koch) by running wide on the exit of Turn 7.

The Nolasport driver’s bid to recover was thwarted when he was turned around by Yves Baltas in the No. 7 ACI Motorsports Porsche, dropping him to 11th in Pro-Am by the finish.

Gaples survived a last-lap attack from Craven to secure class victory and second overall, while a drive-through penalty issued to Baltas for the contact with Travis promoted Francis Selldorff and Kevin Boehm to fourth overall and second of the Silver crews in their No. 51 Auto Technic Racing BMW.

Allen Patten and Marc Miller completed the Pro-Am podium in fifth overall aboard their No. 39 Dome Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT4, seeing off the No. 68 RAFA Racing Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2 of Westin Workman and Tyler Gonzalez who also took third in Silver.

Brothers Alex and Michael Garcia took a thrilling Am class victory in eighth overall aboard their No. 21 ACI Motorsports BMW after a race-long duel with the No. 36 Bimmerworld example of James Clay and James Walker Jr., which took the lead prior to the pitstops.

RESULTS: Race

Source: Sports Car 365