RAFA’s Gonzalez, Workman Win Sonoma GT4 Season Opener

Photo: Fred Hardy/RAFA Racing Team

Tyler Gonzalez and Westin Workman, in his Pirelli GT4 America debut, claimed victory in Friday’s season opener at Sonoma Raceway.

Gonzalez took the No. 68 RAFA Racing Team Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2 to a 2.497-second margin over the second-placed No. 51 Auto Technic Racing BMW M4 GT4 EVO of Francis Selldorf and Kevin Boehm in the 60-minute contest.

While reigning Toyota GR Cup North America champion Workman led entering the pit sequence, it was Selldorff that got out marginally ahead of Gonzalez, who managed to retake the Silver class and effective overall lead with 32 minutes to go.

It marked Workman’s first career GT4 America win and keeps his undefeated record at the wheel of the GR Supra GT4 EVO2, after winning all four IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge GSX races so far this season.

The No. 47 Nolasport Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport of Matheus Leist and Matt Travis picked up Pro-Am class honors with a third place overall result, ahead of the No. 90 Stephen Cameron Racing BMW in fourth and Spencer Pumpelly’s RS1 Porsche, which completed the overall top-five.

The 60-minute race got off to an interrupted start when debris led to an extra formation lap, which was then followed by a multi-car accident on the first green flag lap.

It was triggered by the No. 94 Random Vandals Racing BMW of Sam Craven, who got into the No. 39 Dome Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT4 of Allen Patten, which also collected the Am class pole-sitting No. 21 ACI Motorsports BMW of Alex Garcia.

Craven was served a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility, which was followed by a 30-second post-race time penalty for failure to maintain the minimum pit speed when Kenton Koch was at the wheel.

Other cars that ran into trouble at the time was the No. 33 Blackdog Racing McLaren Artura GT4 of Tony Gaples, who was hit and affected the car’s alignment according to co-driver Michael Cooper.

The No. 36 BimmerWorld BMW’s right-side door fell off and was collected by the No. 188 Radom Vandals BMW of Judson Holt, who with co-driver Denny Stripling, managed to recover to take the Am class win.

A second safety car was deployed when the No. 131 Advance Motorsports McLaren, which was stripped of its overall pole by Jonathan Neudorf due to a data logger issue, stopped on track in the hands of co-driver Austin Jurs.

Neudorf drove the car from 24th to 6th overall in an impressive comeback drive.

Josh Green, who inherited the pole from the McLaren’s penalty, was forced to pit during the formation lap after running over debris, which cut down his Random Vandal BMW’s right-rear tire.

The No. 98 BMW ended up finishing seventh overall, fourth in Silver, in the hands of co-driver Bruno Colombo.

Tyler McQuarrie took the No. 38 BimmerWorld BMW to the final step of the Pro-Am class podium with a sixth place result.

Race 2 is scheduled for Saturday at 1 p.m. PST (4 p.m. EST) with live coverage on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel and on Twitch.

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