A dream start for Bsport Racing at GT4 America opener from Sonoma
Tuesday, April 19, 2022
Like the parallel GT America Series came new recruits to the AMR marque as the Flying Lizard team returned to the brand with their pairing of Elias Sabo and Andy Lee as well as Zelus Motorsport’s Sean Whalen pairing up this time around with Matt Guiver aboard their #888 car.
This year also saw the return of the Bsport Racing team for both Bryan Putt and Kenton Koch, the Heart of Racing team with Gray Newell and Ian James, Jason Bell and Andrew Davis aboard their #2 GMG Racing car and Aaron Povoledo and Ross Chouest committing to further involvement together in the two SRO series but a notable hole within the paddock came of course with the untimely loss of Paul Terry over the winter.
Two – one hour races this time around and straight into a FCY in Saturday afternoons first race as car tangled cars were left stranded on track before a brief period of racing before a sizable impact for Chouest in his #50 car with a BMW left parts of the wheel and suspension left strewn across the start straight – red flag!!!
After the restart and driver change however, we began to see some quality racing that this series is renowned for again as Koch, James and Lee all battled it out for a time for top honours in their Pro-Am class. Side by side, round the outside and all to be reversed again by the next corner meant for some terrific racing.
Unfortunately for James, an off-road excursion before the final lap dropped them out of contention by the #15 Bsport Racing car of Putt/Koch came home third overall to take the Pro-Am race win just ahead of the debuting Flying Lizard AMR of Sabo/Lee in P5 overall and P3 in class with Bell/Davis having to make do in P8 in class.
Sundays second race and again fastest laps during race 1 counted for the starting order as the #15 lead the AMR field from P3 and the Chouest/Povoledo #50 car from P4. The Heart of Racing AMR would however be missing after sizeable damage caused to it after Newell’s last GT America race was too much to complete in the time available.
Another brief few laps before another FCY after contact between cars lost a further ten minutes as the car’s Pro drivers lead the charge around an otherwise now dry track after Saturday’s rain.
With then Putt and Povoledo leading the Pro-Am chase behind the then Silver Cup leaders following the compulsory pit stops, that was quickly a race that needn’t be won by either crew as they then battled it out together for their own class honours.
Thankfully finishing the series visit to Sonoma on a better note that which it started with the opening GT America race, the second GT4 America race finished with the #15 Bsport car claiming a second straight class win over that P2 place for the #50 Chouest/Povoledo combo by less than one second. Again, the #2 GMG crew of Bell/Davis would have to put up with a P6 in class finish at the end.
New for the 2022 season, the GT4 America Series moves onto the Ozarks International Raceway for their second round of the season in a month’s time.
Photo credits – Team / GT4 America
