Koch, Craven Win Lone Star Enduro Amid Late-Race Drama

Photo: Fred Hardy/SRO

The Pro-Am class pairing of Kenton Koch and Sam Craven came out on top following a dramatic conclusion to Saturday’s Lone Star Enduro Pirelli GT4 America race at Circuit of The Americas, following late-race contact between the two leading Silver entries.

Koch took his No. 94 BMW M4 GT4 EVO to a 1.923-second win over the No. 47 Nolasport Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport of Matheus Leist, following a post-race time penalty for Kevin Boehm’s Silver class No. 51 Auto Technic Racing entry that finished second on the road.

Boehm, however, had contact with the then overall-leading No. 028 RS1 Porsche of Spencer Pumpelly, who was set for victory until the two cars came together in the final ten minutes.

The incident knocked the No. 39 Dome Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT4 of Marc Miller out of the race, who sustained damage to the front and rear of his Pro-Am class entry.

Boehm emerged in the effective following the final round of pit stops with less than 50 minutes to go.

However, Pumpelly got around the defending Silver class champion after several laps of closely fought racing, and managed a narrow lead until the race’s second and final full-course caution, for the beached No. 5 OGH Motorsports McLaren Artura GT4 of Sam Owen with 31 minutes to go.

It set up a 21-minute shootout to the finish, where Boehm, while running second, was handed a three-second post-race time penalty for multiple track limits violations.

Provisionally, Boehm and Francis Selldorff finished third overall and won the Silver class, although the incident between Boehm and Pumpelly will be reviewed by race control post-race.

Pumpelly, with a damaged Porsche, dropped to a fifth place overall result but managed to hold on to second in class in the car that he shared with Luca Mars.

The No. 25 ACI Motorsports Porsche of Ryan Yardley was fourth overall and third in Pro-Am, while Josh Green, battling a fever, drove the No. 98 Random Vandals BMW to a third place class finish in Silver.

Am class honors went to the No. 36 BimmerWorld BMW of James Clay and James Walker Jr., despite Clay having picked up a 30-second penalty for a pit stop violation in the second hour while leading.

While dropping to third, Clay re-emerged as the leader when the No. 413 Flying Lizard Motorsports BMW of Kris Wilson, who was due a pit stop, stayed out in the overall lead when the final yellow was called.

Wilson and Zach Lumsden finished third in class, behind the No. 72 RAFA Toyota of Anthony Geraci and Rafael Martinez.

The three-hour enduro was dominated in the first half by the pole-sitting No. 68 RAFA Racing Team Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2 of Westin Workman and Tyler Gonzalez until Workman lost more than 30 seconds in the pits to fix a broken transponder just past the halfway mark.

The car then encountered a suspension-related issue, although Gonzalez managed to wrangle the wounded Toyota to a 11th place overall finish, fourth in class.

The No. 73 Kellymoss Porsche of Erika Hoffmann and last-minute sub Riley Dickinson finished 12th, fourth in Silver, following a remarkable come-from-behind drive with a car borrowed from Nolasport just hours before the race.

Dickinson, subbing for Jack Parriott, who crashed the team’s primary car in qualifying, drove from last on the grid to 14th in the opening laps and led the race outright at times.

RESULTS: Lone Star Enduro

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