Fassnacht, Szymczak Win GT4 SprintX Race 2

Photo: Brian Cleary/SRO

Matt Fassnacht and Christian Szymczak won the second and final Pirelli GT4 America SprintX/East race of the weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park on Saturday afternoon.

The Murillo Racing duo benefitted from a quick pit stop to take the lead after dropping back from pole position at the start.

Driving the No. 34 Mercedes-AMG GT4, Fassnacht exited the pits ahead of Krugspeed’s Anthony Geraci, whose co-driver Elivan Goulart had led the entirety of the first stint from second on the grid.

Murillo was under investigation post-race for an incident with the Nolasport Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport early in the race, but no further action was taken for either car.

Jason Hart, who won Friday’s Race 1 along with co-driver Matt Travis, spun and lost several laps when he was forced to come into the pits.

It was the second incident of the weekend for the Murillo Mercedes at the final corner, after a collision with the Park Place Motorsports Porsche during Race 1.

That Park Place entry started from the back of the grid on Saturday with Trent Hindman having lost his pole position due to a chassis change necessitated by the contact with the Murillo car.

Hindman made an impressive charge through the field early in the race to put himself and Alan Brynjolfsson into contention for the win, but the team was given a drive-through penalty for a pit stop infringement.

Brynjolfsson served the penalty from second position, allowing Geraci to move up to the runner-up spot and cross the line 6.957 seconds behind Fassnacht.

Fassnacht and Szymczak claimed both the overall and GT4 East Am wins, while second-placed Geraci and Goulart won the GT4 East Pro-Am class.

Sean Quinlan took the GT4 SprintX Pro-Am victory along with his Stephen Cameron Racing co-driver Gregory Liefooghe, finishing fifth overall.

It broke Nolasport’s sweep of the GT4 SprintX Pro-Am class which lasted the first five races of the season, with Travis and Hart finishing third in class and 14th overall as a result of their damage.

Team Panoz Racing’s Preston Calvert and Matt Keegan were victorious in GT4 SprintX Am from ninth on the track, meanwhile.

The race ran behind the safety car for 13 minutes when Karl Thomson went off track with a suspension failure on his Andretti Autosport McLaren 570S GT4 which had been in the lead of GT4 SprintX Am earlier in the race.

This happened with 35 minutes remaining, thus delaying the opening of the ten-minute pit window until the field went green with 22 minutes on the clock.

RESULTS: Race 2 (GT4 SprintX)
RESULTS: Race 2 (GT4 East)

Jake Kilshaw

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.