Chouest snatches GT America GT4 crown at race finale of 2022 season

Fridays opening round unfortunately took out at least one of those contenders as a clear brake issue for the #8 Flying Lizard AMR of Elias Sabo ended with him unfortunately T-boning the #120 Porsche of Adam Adelson into the tight turn one for just the third time around. Luckily both drivers were otherwise OK which was more than could be said about their cars as their Championship aspirations were left strewn across the track.

With Bell then moving up to P3 in the race, a slowing Porsche was narrowly avoided by the #25 Heart of Racing AMR of Gray Newell as Moisey Uretsky was forced to pit his #55 Aston Martin for presumably a puncture.

The pole setting Chouest in his #50 Chouest Povoledo AMR was now clear of the chasing pack as he sought his first win in the series as Newell as Newell was now on the rear of Bell as those two showed some great under/over racing through the infield section of the IMS track for the final podium position.

Despite that, Chouest would achieve that race win and pile on yet more pressure on defending champion Bell ahead of Sundays final race with the dropped score now being the all-important factor as Bell would come home third with Newell in fourth and Uretsky a lowly ninth in class.

With race two’s grid positions again being taken from their fastest laps in race one, it was the #25 Heart of Racing car of Newell who would this time lead the GT4 class for the final time of 2022 with both Chouest and Bell immediately behind on the second row of the grid.

Porsche driver Adelson however, had different ideas as he did still have a very remote mathematical chance of winning, that depend upon the total failure to score for all his revival and his taking over the lead of the race on the opening lap was the only factor that he could directly affect.

That left Newell, Chouest and Bell to chase each other, the Porsche and their potential finishing positions within the GT4 Championship as Bell only needed to finish fourth so long as Chouest finished now higher than P3 but those around him make Bell work for that entitlement.

Dropping a position to first a Mercedes and then a Toyota, forced Bell to pull something out of the bag to recover his situation as Chouest was still apparently stuck behind Newell everything finally kicked off within the final three minutes.

First Newell forced the error from Adelson to take back the race lead before Chouest followed suit around the Porsche, but contact was made between the two into turn one leading to terminal radiator failure within the #120 Porsche but maybe also a puncture for the #50 Aston?

With the Porsche dropping coolant around the infield section of the track, a Mercedes spins off into the gravel but the race is at least allowed to finish without caution just as the #25 Heart car coughed, spluttered and slowed at the penultimate corner allowing Chouest to pass Newell for the race win and Championship win ahead of Bell who would come home in again in third.

Subject to the usual post-race scrutiny, Chouest has been crowed the new 2022 GT America GT4 Champion in only his first full season of GT4 racing with the Aton Martin Platform after he and Aaron Povoledo first took over the former CSJ Motorsport supplied car at the tail end of last season.

Congratulations to all concerned and see you all again in 2023.

Photo credits – Series / Teams