Gonzalez Holds Off BMWs for Saturday Smooge Victory

Photo: Fred Hardy/SRO

Tyler Gonzalez and John Geesbreght scored top honors in Saturday’s Pirelli GT4 America season opener at Sonoma Raceway, taking Smooge Racing and Toyota to victory lane following a hard-fought late-race battle.

Gonzalez, who emerged into the overall lead following the mid-race pit stops of the 60-minute contest, edged out the No. 97 Random Vandals Racing BMW M4 GT4 of Kenton Koch by 0.792 seconds at the line.

It marked a debut win for the new-for-2024 pairing of Geesbreght and Gonzalez in the No. 68 Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO.

The No. 51 AutoTechnic Racing BMW of Zac Anderson initially finished third but was demoted to ninth after receiving a five-second post-race penalty for contact with the No. 23 TechSport Nissan Z NISMO GT4 of Michai Stephens, which resulted in Stephens getting turned around.

Stephens was therefore promoted to third in the results, completing a sweep of the top three positions by Silver class entries.

Pro-Am class honors went to the No. 82 BimmerWorld BMW of Tyler McQuarrie and James Walker Jr., thanks to a late-race pass by McQuarrie on the class and overall pole-sitting No. 22 TechSport Nissan of Colin Harrison.

Harrison faded to fourth, behind the No. 24 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT4 of Roman De Angelis and Gray Newell as well as the No. 89 RENNtech Mercedes-AMG GT4 of former NTT IndyCar Series driver Matheus Leist.

The all-female lineup of Hannah Grisham and Hannah Greenemeier picked up Heart of Racing’s first win in the Am class, following Grisham’s late-race pass on the No. 36 BimmerWorld BMW of James Clay.

Race 2 is set for Sunday at 10:55 a.m. PDT (1:55 p.m. EDT) with live coverage on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel and on Twitch.

RESULTS: Race 1

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John