Gonzalez, Workman Break RS1’s Seven-Race Win Streak at Barber

Photo: Trevor Travis/Toyota Gazoo Racing

RAFA Racing Team’s Tyler Gonzalez and Westin Workman broke RS1’s seven-race Silver class win streak by returning to victory lane in Pirelli GT4 America competition in the first race of the weekend at Barber Motorsports Park.

Gonzalez drove the No. 68 Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2 to a 9.336-second win over the Pro-Am class-winning No. 94 Random Vandals Racing BMW M4 GT4 EVO of Kenton Koch, keeping his and Workman’s title chances alive after a fifth place class result for the No. 28 RS1 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport of Luca Mars and Spencer Pumpelly.

Pumpelly, who started the 60-minute contest in fourth overall, made some headway following the race’s first and only full-course caution, passing the No. 51 AutoTechnic BMW of Francis Selldorff for third.

However, Mars lost the position to Kevin Boehm following the pit stop sequence, although benefitted from the No. 7 ACI Motorsports Porsche of Yves Baltas dropping down the order after a storming opening stint by new co-driver Trenton Estep.

Mars then lost two further positions, to the No. 98 Random Vandals BMW of Josh Green and Parker DeLong’s No. 131 Advance Motorsports McLaren Artura GT4, in the closing laps, to end up sixth overall.

Up front, it marked Gonzalez and Workman’s first win since a sweep of the opening weekend of the season at Sonoma Raceway, although the RS1 duo still maintain the championship lead, to the tune of 44 points over the RAFA duo.

Koch and Sam Craven claimed Pro-Am class honors, extending Craven’s championship lead in the process.

Koch, who missed the last event at Road America, passed the No. 77 McCumbee McAleer Racing Ford Mustang GT4 of Nolan Allaer for the class lead with 27 minutes to go, and charged through the field to second overall.

The No. 33 Blackdog Racing McLaren Artura GT4 of Michael Cooper and Tony Gaples finished second in class, ending their four-race class win streak, while the No. 47 Nolasport Porsche of Matheus Leist and Matt Travis completed the Pro-Am podium, with Allaer dropping to fourth at the checkered flag.

Cooper and Gaples are now 24 points behind Craven with three races to go.

Alex and Michael Garcia, meanwhile, claimed top class honors in Am, aboard the No. 21 ACI Porsche, instead of its typical BMW.

Alex Garcia emerged the class leader following the pit stops after both the No. 413 Colorado Motorsport with Flying Lizard BMW and Laura Hayes-driven No. 37 Dome Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT4 ran long into their opening stints.

It came after Hayes was turned around by the No. 30 TechSport Racing Mustang GT4 of Frankie Muniz, while battling for the class lead.

Muniz, who swept the weekend at Road America with co-driver Tyler Stone to have put them in title contention, was handed incident responsibility but the car spent significant time in the pits due to a broken right-front tie-rod due to the contact.

However, a power-related issue for the class points-leading No. 36 BimmerWorld BMW of James Clay in the final ten minutes erased any significant points haul for Clay and co-driver James Walker Jr., who were classified seventh in class compared to Muniz and Stone in ninth.

The BimmerWorld pairing hold a 16-point lead over Muniz and Stone, who are now tied with the No. 188 Random Vandals BMW duo of Judson Holt and Denny Stripling for second in the standings.

The race’s only yellow came out on Lap 7 when Allen Patten’s No. 39 Dome Mercedes-AMG was sent into the gravel by the No. 11 MMR Mustang GT4 of Carlton MacFarlane, who was given a drive-through for incident responsibility.

Race 2 is scheduled for Saturday at 1:35 p.m. CST with live coverage on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel.

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