Grenier, Stephens Win Sonoma Season Opener for JMF

Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO

JMF Motorsports’ Mikael Grenier and Michai Stephens claimed victory in Sunday’s GT World Challenge America powered by AWS season-opener at Sonoma Raceway, in the first round of the series’ new three-hour race era.

Grenier took the pole-sitting No. 34 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo to a 0.922-second win over Frederik Schandorff’s No. 12 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo that he shared with Matias Perez Companc.

Both Pro class entries opted for different strategies, which saw an early stint reset for Companc and the Italian squad stretch the fuel mileage to the 75-minute mark, the minimum drive time for each driver in the new-look format.

It put the AF Corse Ferrari out front at the end of the opening hour, although Stephens passed the Argentinean driver prior to his first full service stop.

The two cars then ran tooth-to-nail entering the final hour, although a quicker final stop for the JMF squad got the Mercedes-AMG factory driver out slightly ahead of Schandorff.

Pro-Am class honors went to GMG Racing’s Tom Sargent and Kyle Washington, who finished third overall in their Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo after Sargent gained more than 20 seconds on the overall leaders in a storming closing stint.

The Porsche Motorsport North America Selected Driver, who set the race’s fastest lap, took over the class lead when the No. 28 RS1 Porsche of Jan Heylen was handed a 30-second hold penalty during his final stop due to refueling with the engine on.

It dropped Heylen and co-driver JP Martinez to third in class, behind the No. 31 Wright Motorsports Porsche of reigning Porsche Carrera Cup North America champion Ryan Yardley, who along with Dave Musial Jr., scored a runner-up class result and fourth place overall finish.

A late-race scrap between Cameron Lawrence and Robby Foley went the way of the No. 6 Dollahite Racing Ford Mustang GT3 EVO of Lawrence and co-driver Alex Sedgwick, who claimed the upgraded car’s first podium finish in global GT3 competition.

Foley and Justin Rothberg ended up fourth in class and sixth overall in their No. 29 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO.

Porsches took the top six positions in Pro-Am, with the No. 13 Kellymoss entry of Riley Dickinson holding off a hard-charging Hampus Ericsson in a recovering No. 99 Random Vandals Racing BMW.

Diffuser damage was sustained to the Vandals BMW on Lap 6 when Slade Stewart made contact with Derek DeBoer entering the final corner, resulting in the race’s only full course caution and incident responsibility for the No. 14 Riley BMW.

The No. 242 Wright Porsche of Thomas Merrill and Therese Lahlouh finished sixth in Pro-Am, while Kellymoss driver Colin Braun got around Hampus Ericsson in the final 15 minutes after contact with the BMW, which faded to 11th overall and seventh in class.

Chicago Performance and Tuning Co.’s Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, which led the class early on, lost significant time during at least two of the team’s pit stops and finished eighth in Pro-Am as a result.

The class pole-sitting No. 27 JMF Mercedes-AMG led early on until Jason Daskalos was forced to serve a drive-through penalty for having too short of a pit stop, which was compounded by a second penalty for a pit speed violation, which resulted in a separate 30-second stop-and-hold penalty.

Daskalos’ co-driver, Lorcan Hanafin, finished ninth in class and 14th overall, ahead of the No. 69 Archangel Motorsports McLarnen 720S GT3 Evo, which had an impressive early stint by FIA Bronze-rated driver Todd Coleman util having an off-course excursion and a subsequent drive-through for too short of a pit stop.

AF Corse’s No. 163 Ferrari, co-driven by Jay Schreibman and Ozz Negri, the lone Am class entrant, finished 16th overall after being delayed with a brake-related issue.

Seventeen of the 18 cars took the finish, with the Riley BMW ending up as the race’s only retirement after Stewart’s early race accident.

RESULTS: Race

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