Estep, Baltas Wins Race 2 After Late-Race Pro-Am Contact
Photo: Fred Hardy/SRO
Trenton Estep broke through to claim top honors in Saturday’s Pirelli GT4 America race at Barber Motorsports Park after Allen Patten spun around Tony Gaples while battling for the overall lead in an incident-filled race.
Estep, in the No. 7 ACI Motorsports Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport that he shared with Yves Baltas, finished two seconds clear of the No. 131 Advance Motorsports McLaren Artura GT4 of Austin Jurs after Patten’s No. 39 Dome Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT4 was penalized for incident responsibility.
Patten made contact with Gaples’ overall race-leading No. 33 Blackdog Racing McLaren on the second-to-last lap, resulting in a time penalty equivalent to a drive-through.
It handed the Pro-Am class win to the No. 94 Random Vandals Racing BMW M4 GT4 EVO of Sam Craven and Kenton Koch, which was classified in third overall and by virtue of the late-race incident, have nearly wrapped up the championship due to Blackdog’s misfortunes.
Up front, it marked both Estep and Baltas’ first career GT4 America wins, coming in Estep’s first-ever weekend in a GT4-spec Porsche.
The Silver class title remains up for grabs, despite the No. 028 RS1 Porsche of Luca Mars and Spencer Pumpelly having initially been in position to lock it up in the race.
A drive-through penalty for the No. 68 RAFA Racing Team Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2 of Westin Workman for a pit lane speeding infraction by co-driver Tyler Gonzalez initially dropped Workman to fifth, when Pumpelly was second at the time.
However, a yellow for a multi-car incident with 20 minutes to go set up a 15-minute shootout that saw Pumpelly briefly stop on track with a suspected electrical issue.
Pumpelly limped home to finish 20th overall, seventh in class, while Workman charged to a third place class result to close the gap to 35 points with two races to go.
The No. 77 McCumbee McAleer Racing Ford Mustang GT4 of Michael Tosi and Nolan Aleer benefitted from the Patten and Gaples collision to finish a season-best second in class.
Gaples and Michael Cooper, who led the opening stint of the race overall, were relegated to a seventh place class result in Pro-Am after Gaples was additionally handed a five-second post-race time penalty for an improper pit exit procedure.
It has now put the Blackdog duo at a 41-point deficit to Random Vandals’ Craven, with a maximum of 50 points still to play for.
Frankie Muniz muscled his way to the Am class win and points lead following late-race issues for the No. 36 BimmerWorld BMW of James Walker Jr., who suffered a power loss with just six minutes to go, in shades of Friday’s race.
Muniz and co-driver Tyler Stone picked up their third class win in the last four races, rebounding from a collision in Friday’s race that essentially took them out of the race.
The TechSport Racing Ford Mustang GT4 duo have take over the championship lead, but just one point ahead of Walker Jr. and James Clay entering next weekend’s season finale at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Friday’s class-winning ACI pairing of brothers Michael and Alex Garcia, who finished second in class in Race 2, sit third in the class standings, just 14 points back.
RESULTS: Race 2
Source: Sports Car 365