Pumpelly Takes GT4 Sprint Points Lead With Race 2 Win

Photo: Brian Cleary/SRO

Spencer Pumpelly dominated the second GT4 America Sprint race of the weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park, taking the championship lead for TRG.

Driving the No. 66 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport, he remained out front for Sunday afternoon’s entire 50-minute contest while a tense battle unfolded behind him for the final two podium positions.

It marked Pumpelly’s second win of the season and moves him into the championship lead, leapfrogging Ian James and Gar Robinson.

Blackdog Speed Shop’s Michael Cooper ultimately came out on top in the battle for second position, finishing 1.471 seconds behind Pumpelly and ahead of third-placed James for Team Panoz Racing.

Jarett Andretti had been running in second position for most of the race’s second half but the Andretti Autosport driver dropped back on the final lap, momentarily losing pace in his McLaren 570S GT4.

He still claimed the Am class win but finished fifth on track, losing positions to Cooper, James and Nate Stacy in one corner.

Race 1 winner Nicolai Elghanayan started strong from second on the grid and managed to wrestle the lead from Pumpelly for a moment on the second lap, but that move was soon reversed.

Elghanayan’s KTM X-Bow GT4 had its pace in the corners, with the Marco Polo Motorsports driver able to make passes around the outside on several parts of the track, but was severely outmatched on straight-line pace.

This meant he lost the lead when he was overtaken by Pumpelly, James’ Panoz Avezzano GT4 and Gar Robinson’s Chevrolet Camaro GT4, dropping him back to fourth.

He soon lost a number of other positions and, despite repeated attempts to make them back up in the corners, he had to settle for seventh at the line.

The race ran under green flag conditions with no noteable incidents, apart from a collision between Elghanayan and Shane Lewis on which the stewards took no further action.

RESULTS: Race 2

Jake Kilshaw

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