ACI’s Dickinson, Swearingin Win Race 1 Thriller at Barber

Curt Swearingin and Riley Dickinson took their first overall Pirelli GT4 America win in a thrilling Race 1 at Barber Motorsports Park, with the race finishing under yellow, despite an unprecedented amount of green flag running on Saturday.

Dickinson extended his opening stint, going seven laps longer than most of his fellow front-runners after battling in the top three early in the race before handing the No. 7 ACI Motorsports Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport over to Swearingin for his stint.

He emerged in the overall lead and was aided by the fact that a fierce battle for the rest of the overall top five and the Silver class lead was unfolding some ten seconds behind him.

Kenton Koch muscled his way to the head of the Silver field and second overall, after a tense, multi-lap battle with Tyler Gonzalez’s No. 68 RAFA Racing Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2, Braydon Arthur’s No. 4 JMF Motorsports Aston Martin Vantage GT4 Evo and Max Hewitt’s No. 39 Van der Steur Racing Aston Martin, before setting his sights on Swearingin’s overall lead.

While Koch had reeled in the race leader in the No. 98 Random Vandals Racing BMW M4 GT4 EVO, a late yellow halted his progress, solidifying Swearingin and Dickinson’s overall victory and Pro-Am class win as the ACI driver took the checkered flag behind the safety car.

Koch’s runner-up finish overall was enough to win the Silver class alongside Kevin Boehm over JMF’s Arthur and early-leader Mike David Ortmann, who finished third overall and second in Silver.

A late charge for Mads Siljehaug saw him and Marco Polo Motorsports co-driver Nicolai Elghanayan finish fourth overall and third in Silver ahead of Hewitt’s Aston Martin in fifth.

Josh Green and Sam Craven’s sixth-place overall finish was good enough for second in Pro-Am, with Jonathan Neudorf and Jesse Webb’s Silver class No. 3 JMF Aston Martin finishing seventh after recovering from an early spin.

Gonzalez, who was on track for an overall podium finish, had his progress erased after being assessed a drive-through penalty for contact with Hewitt and would finish eighth.

Tyler McQuarrie and James Walker Jr. completed the Pro-Am podium from ninth overall.

Thunder Bunny Racing’s Laura Hayes started the race on the class pole, and despite a transponder issue, led her class just outside of the overall top ten until a left front puncture forced her to come down pit lane and relinquish the class lead to James Clay’s No. 36 BimmerWorld BMW.

Darius Trinka, however, charged his way up to the Am lead in his No. 98 Random Vandals BMW after the team’s pit stop and passed the freshly-installed Charlie Postins with under half an hour to go.

While Trinka would go on to comfortably take the checkered flag first in class and was initially declared the winner alongside co-driver Paul Sparta, post-race technical inspection revealed that the team was using an incorrect setting in their ECU, resulting in the No. 98 BMW being moved to the rear of the class and handing the Am win to RAFA’s Anthony Geraci and Kenny Schmied.

The race appeared set to run entirely green before Danny Dyszelski was pitched into the Turn 2 tire barriers after contact from the lapped Thunder Bunny Toyota of Allen Patten in the final four minutes of the race.

While the No. 606 Toyota would have finished third in Am, a 39-second post-race time penalty for causing a collision moved the entry down the order and off the class podium.

Earlier on, the No. 188 Fast Track Racing BMW of Judson Holt pulled off track and stopped temporarily with just under 45 minutes remaining, but got his BMW re-fired and to pit lane without assistance.

Race 2 of the Barber weekend for GT4 America takes the start at 11:10 a.m. CST on Sunday with live streaming coverage available on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel and on Twitch.

RESULTS: Race 1

This story was updated at 8:40 p.m. CST to reflect post-race penalties assessed to the No. 98 Random Vandals and No. 606 Thunder Bunny Racing entries.