RAFA Wins Race 1; Koch, Boehm Clinch Silver Title

Photo: Fred Hardy/SRO

RAFA Racing Team’s Tyler Gonzalez and Gresham Wagner claimed victory in the first Pirelli GT4 America race of the weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, while Random Vandals Racing’s Kenton Koch and Kevin Boehm clinched the Silver class title by just starting the race.

Gonzalez, who overcame a five-second post-race penalty, took his No. 68 Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2 to a 2.418-second win over the No. 4 JMF Motorsports Aston Martin Vantage GT4 Evo of Braydon Arthur after Gonzalez passed the sister No. 3 car of Jonathan Neudorf for the eventual class lead with 23 minutes to go.

The pole-sitting No. 33 Blackdog Racing McLaren Artura GT4 of Tony Gaples emerged as the overall leader following the pit stop sequence but was handed a 9.97-second post-race penalty for having too short of a pit stop.

Gaples’ co-driver Michael Cooper led the opening stages of the 60-minute contest, which was run under full-course caution for the first 23 minutes due to a multi-car accident in Turn 1 at the start that collected Pro-Am championship contender James Walker Jr.

Arthur ended up second after teammate Neudorf was handed a five-second post-race penalty for passing off track, dropping the No. 3 JMF Aston to a third place overall result.

An incident between Gonzalez and Gaples while battling for the overall lead with 11 minutes to go, however, also resulted in the No. 68 Toyota getting the time penalty as well, leading to a chaotic run to the checkered flag.

The No. 12 Riley Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport of Spencer Pumpelly came home fourth, with the No. 39 Van der Steur Racing Aston Martin completing the overall in top-five, all in the Silver class.

Gaples, meanwhile, held on to claim Pro-Am class honors despite his time penalty, over class championship leader Sam Craven in the No. 94 Random Vandals BMW M4 GT4 EVO, which finished eighth and ninth overall, respectively.

Koch, meanwhile, brought the No. 97 Random Vandals BMW home in tenth overall and eighth in class, enough to clinch his and Boehm’s Silver class title with one race to spare.

It came despite Boehm dropping to the rear of the field early on after his car sustained a puncture following the opening-lap accident that led to a field of debris in Turn 1.

A fourth place class finish for the No. 7 ACI Motorsports Porsche of Curt Swearingin was enough to keep the team owner/driver within a chance of the Pro-Am title, as he provisionally now trails leaders Craven and Josh Green, of Random Vandals, by ten minutes heading into Sunday’s season finale.

Fast Track Racing’s Denny Stripling and Judson Holt also overcame a time penalty to take the Am class win in their BMW, marking their first career series victories.

Fifth-place class finishers Charlie Postins and James Clay, of BimmerWorld, provisionally hold a seven-point lead over RAFA’s Kenny Schmied and Anthony Geraci, who came home one position above thanks to a last-lap pass by Schmied.

Race 2, which will close out the GT4 America season, is set for Sunday at 9:45 a.m. EST 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