Pumpelly, Mars Close In on Silver Title With Seventh Win

Photo: Fred Hardy/SRO

RS1’s Spencer Pumpelly and Luca Mars closed in on the Silver class championship title with their seventh consecutive Pirelli GT4 America win in a rain-soaked race that saw a 33-minute safety car period for a heavy crash and barrier repairs at Canada Corner as well as a late-race accident.

Pumpelly drove the No. 028 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport, a borrowed chassis from Nolasport following Pumpelly’s accident on Thursday, to the win over Yves Baltas in the No. 7 ACI Motorsports Porsche.

The race ended under yellow for an accident by the Pro-Am championship leading No. 94 Random Vandals Racing BMW M4 GT4 EVO of Sam Craven, who made heavy contact with the wall.

Pumpelly and Mars provisionally expanded their lead to 63 points, with only 100 points available in the final four races of the season.

Pro-Am race honors went to Blackdog Racing’s Tony Gaples and Michael Cooper, who extended their win streak as well with a third place overall, with Austin Jurs and Parker Delong finishing fourth overall and third in Silver in their Advance Motorsports McLaren Artura GT4.

The No. 98 Random Vandals BMW of Bruno Colombo finished fifth.

Cooper, who became the winningest driver in SRO America history with Saturday’s overall win, enjoyed a hard-fought battle with Tyler Gonzalez in the No. 68 RAFA Racing Team Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO, which saw the two exchange the lead.

The race’s first full-course caution came out at the 15-minute mark when Marc Miller careened into the Am class-leading No. 21 ACI BMW of Alex Garcia at Canada Corner.

Garcia’s BMW nearly overturned in the gravel, while Werner Neugebauer’s No. 812 RAFA Toyota nosed into the barriers several moments after high-speed crash.

Both Miller and Garcia were reported to have gotten out of their cars, having escaped serious injury.

Nearly all of the cars came in for the mandatory driver changes with 33 minutes to go, which saw Pumpelly jump Gaples in the pit lane and the No. 68 RAFA Toyota drop from second to 13th overall due to a puncture.

The race restarted with 12 minutes to go but Craven’s shunt in the final five minutes ended the race.

TechSport Racing swept the weekend in the Am class, with Frankie Muniz and Tyler Stone doubling up in their Ford Mustang GT4, which finished 12th overall.

Muniz benefitted from contact between the No. 413 Colorado Motorsport with Flying Lizard BMW of Kris Wilson and Anthony Geraci’s No. 72 RAFA Toyota that paved the way for Muniz to emerge as the class leader just moments before the race-ending yellow.

That incident is set to be reviewed post-race by race control.

RESULTS: Race 2

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