from frontstretch.com – AutoTechnic Racing’s Colin Garrett snatched the overall lead away from RENNtech Motorsports’ Michael Auriemma with just under 20 minutes to go. From there, he held on to win Pirelli GT4 America SprintX Race No. 2 from Sonoma Raceway Sunday (April 7) along with Zac Anderson. For Garrett, it is his first career Pirelli GT4 America SprintX victory.
“[That race] was awesome,” Garrett told SRO America’s Amanda Busick after the race. “Zac Anderson put us in excellent position. AutoTechnic Racing is an amazing group and I’m honored to be able to work with these guys.
The race ended under yellow due to a late incident. Behind Anderson and Garrett was Random Vandals Racing’s Kevin Boehm and Kenton Koch in second. Auriemma and former INDYCAR racer Matheus Leist were third, then Hanley Motorsports’ Daniel Hanley and Parker Thompson. Smooge Racing’s John Geesbreght and Tyler Gonzalez, who won Race No. 1 Saturday, finished fifth.
Thompson started from the overall and Silver class poles in his Supra. Unfortunately, it was not a good start for the VasserSullivan regular. Thompson went too fast into turn 2 and went wide, stacking up the field.
Exiting turn 3a, Anderson took the class lead away from Thompson as the No. 999 dropped all the way back to fourth in class, sixth overall. Eventually, Thompson was able to move back up to fourth before giving way to Hanley.
Anderson eventually took the overall lead away from Leist less than 10 minutes into the race. He was unable to pull away very far from the pack, though.
Behind Anderson, TechSport Racing’s Michai Stephens was able to hold onto second in class. Stephens was extremely quick despite not really being comfortable in the Nissan Z GT4.
After the stops, Garrett ended up with the class lead, but Neudorf was right on his tail. The next player in the race was Boehm in the CrowdStrike BMW, but he was 18 seconds back.
The two Silver leaders were behind Auriemma, who won the race off pit road, but was a couple of a seconds a lap slower. Garrett worked on Auriemma for a number of laps before making the move for the overall lead in turn 11 with just under 20 minutes to go.
Neudorf attempted to give chase, but mechanical troubles struck. With 12 minutes to go, smoke coming out of the Nissan forced Neudorf to pull into the pits and retire.
The race ultimately ended under caution after Rotek Racing’s Jaden Lander and Carrus Callus Raceteam’s Nick Shanny collided in turn 9. Replays indicated that Lander had some kind of a mechanical issue that led him to blast into Shanny.