RS1 Converts Pole into Dominant Sebring Race 1 Victory

Luca Mars and Spencer Pumpelly converted their pole position into victory in the opening race of the Pirelli GT4 America weekend at Sebring.

Mars drove the No. 28 RS1 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS across the line in first overall, 5.843 seconds ahead of the No. 51 Auto Technic Racing BMW M4 GT4 EVO of Kevin Boehm and Francis Selldorff.

The Silver class cars were joined on the podium by the No. 94 Random Vandals Racing BMW, which took third place overall and a Pro-Am class victory.

Josh Green in the No. 98 Random Vandals car had snatched third position on the final lap from Tyler Gonzalez in the No. 68 RAFA Racing Team Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2 after a controversial move.

However, a post-race ruling dropped the No. 98 BMW to 15th overall, promoting the sister car on to the podium.

Pumpelly led from the green, maintaining his pole position. Meanwhile, Boehm jumped Workman in the RAFA Toyota on the second lap.

Boehm, who won both GT4 America races at Sebring last year, took second place in a gutsy maneuver into the final corner.

The 60-minute race was marred by an early full-course yellow after the No. 812 RAFA Toyota was stranded on circuit with a mechanical issue.

The top three bunched up significantly under the yellow, but Pumpelly was able to fend off lunges from both Workman and Boehm on the restart.

Pumpelly began to pull away from the field, creating a strong enough buffer to the cars behind that the team decided to pit early in the pitstop window.

Auto Technic Racing attempted to over-cut the RS1 squad by staying out on track for two more laps. Despite a speedy pit stop, the BMW squad narrowly surrendered the lead to the RS1 Porsche as it left pit lane.

From that point onwards, Mars in the RS1 car commanded the field, consistently pulling away from Selldorff to create a gap of more than five seconds.

The Nos. 98 and 94 Random Vandals BMWs were engaged in a race-long battle with the No. 39 Dome Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT4 of Allen Patten and Marc Miller.

Sam Craven in the No. 94 entry held an early advantage when he surged past the No. 98 machine after a brief off-track excursion for driver Bruno Colombo.

The No. 94 car maintained the lead in the group through the pit stop period, but succumbed to the pressure of its fellow Random Vandals BMW in the final third of the race.

Green was then gaining on Gonzalez in the Toyota, overtaking him on the final lap before the post-race penalty handed the podium to the No. 94 car.

The Dome Mercedes-AMG came home in fourth place ahead of RAFA’s Toyota.

The No. 36 BimmerWorld BMW took Am class victory when the class-leading No. 21 ACI Motorsports entry received a penalty for contact with the No. 47 Nolasport Porsche as it made its way into the pits.

It was not the end of Nolasport’s dramas, however, as Matheu Leist was spun once again by the McCumbee McAleer Racing Ford Mustang GT4. These setbacks mean that Nolasport now trails Random Vandals by 29 points in the Pro-Am standings.

The second race of the weekend commences at 12:45 p.m. EST on Saturday. It will be streamed live on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel and will feature in FS1’s highlights package which airs Sun. May 17 at 6:30 a.m. EST.

RESULTS: Race 1