With the sun setting behind the skyscrapers, race one on Saturday finally got underway around the 2.1-mile circuit with Jason Bell starting P2 with the #50 Chouest Povoledo car of Ross Chouest and the #25 Heart of Racing AMR of Gray Newell just behind with times set within Practice after Qualifying got washed out earlier in the day.

Lights ablaze from the off, Bell was forced to go defensive as Chouest pushed for position, allowing the Porsche of pole setter Rob Holland to inch away as the first forty-minute race finally got underway. Like any street circuit, trouble was never far away and that came within the first ten minutes for the #25 Aston Martin of Newell as he found himself in the way of a faster GT3 car with resulting rear contact to the GT4 forcing the car into immediate retirement.

As the light dropped even more, the gaps between the top three GT4 cars increased with over three seconds between them as the halfway stage and by the end, the dominant Holland went on to secure his third success class win around the circuit with Bell and Chouest finishing second and third respectively.

Sundays second race was under the full heat of the day where the starting order was a replica of the first with Holland again starting upon pole.

This time Chouest went for the move earlier and snatched second from Bell before the first corner with Newell dropping one to fifth as misfortunate soon came the way of the #7 Porsche ahead that struck the wall heavily immediately in front of Newell, stopping on track and bringing out the Safety Car.

Losing ten minutes to that clean up exercise, the race went back to green with still twenty minutes remaining before a further incident involving a GT3 again slowed things down. That left a minute dash to the flag at the restart but there was no stopping Holland who would go on to secure yet another class win but with Chouest and Bell again the bridesmaids on the podium with Newell finishing in fourth.

These results see Chouest retain the class championship lead over Bell but with Holland now really in contention just 23 points behind the leader and with six races still to hand.

Next stop for the series will be at Road America in the middle of August.

Photo credits – Teams / Series

Again running solo from the usual trilogy of SRO America sanctioned series, the bronze driver only series will see three Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4’s compete around the tight and twisty road circuit with each of Ross Chouest, Jason Bell and Gray Newell placed within the top four of the GT4 Driver Championship going into this round.

Decent performances also came from the #77 TR3 car of Paul Kiebler who would start from third whilst the #8 Flying Lizard and #25 Heart of Racing car of Elias Sabo and Gray Newell would start further back after (Newell) elected to run on slicks whilst the track did not quite support that choice of tyre.

Early gains from Sabo saw him take third in class as both he and Newell looked the racier of the class, pushing Chouest hard for position after he had lost the class lead to Bell going into turn 1 for the first time. Such was Bells pace in this opening stage of the race that he led the class by (at that point) four seconds.

An error from Sabo saw him spin out from behind the tail pipes of Chouest but not out of position as the race entered its final minutes. Looking good for a race win, an error from Bell on the penultimate lap saw him lose control going into turn 1 and then lose a nine second lead as Chouest whooshed passed to reassume the class lead.

At the end, race 1 would see Chouest take another class win, Bell in second and with Newell elevated to third after Rob Holland and his Porsche were penalised for tapping Sabo into a further spin that cost him a run at the podium. He would finish P5 with Kiebler coming home P6.

Race 2 grid was again set by the fastest laps form race 1 and so it would be Sabo heading the honours this time on GT4 pole position, alongside Bell in second and Chouest in third.

Overnight night rain had again returned leaving Sundays early morning race still under grey skies, wet track and repressive humidity as teams were left wondering about tyre selection again – was it going to rain again within the life span of race 2 or not was the question.

After two formation laps due to track conditions, this time it was Chouest who stole the march upon others, moving up to P2 out of turn 1 for the first time with Sabo maintaining his class lead but tyre selection would soon become evident as Chouest quickly dropped away leaving a Sabo/Bell/Newell battle for the lead in class.

Seventeen minutes to go and with rain intermittently falling around the track again, contact and heavy damage for two GT3 cars brought out the Safety Car for the first time before going back to green with just eight minutes remaining.

A chaotic restart from the GT3 leaders saw further cars struggling in the damp and wettening conditions that allowed Chouest to again catch up as the GT4 class leaders battled with lapping GT3 cars and GT4 back markers to boot.

Spinning the tyres out of a corner saw the #77 car of Kiebler spin off and hit heavily into the barriers bringing out the Safety Car for the second and final time as the race ran down the clock under caution meaning that Sabo had claimed another win with Bell and Newell joining him on the podium. Chouest would eventually finish a distant P7!!

The series now heads to VIR in three weeks’ time.

Photo credits – Teams / Series

With some of these crews having been busy at last weekends (disappointing for them) trip to Laguna Seca for the third round of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Series, most will be hoping that neither Mother Nature nor incident on track will ruin this weekend’s events in any of these series.

Next, there were issues with track communications around the circuit which forced all sessions to be delayed until such time as that was fixed meaning that the GT America crews went straight from Practice 2 into Qualifying for what would become Friday night’s opening forty-minute race.

With the five Aston Martin’s locking out the opening five places on the grid saw Todd Coleman secure class pole position within his #69 Archangel prepared car followed by Jason Bell in his #2 Flying Lizard car second and Gray Newell in his #25 Heart of Racing car in third. They were then followed by reigning GT America GT4 Champion Ross Chouest (#55) in fourth and Moisey Uretsky in fifth with his #55 API Aston Martin.

As with any street circuit it is not always the racetrack that presents the problems – rather than the hard concrete walls that surround them and during Fridays opener, it took just three to four corners before the first incident which resulted with a prolonged Safety Car period.

Typically for the series, a few laps in and the first signs of trouble came as one BMW ended heavily into the tyre wall bringing out the Safety Car for the first time over the weekend but with actual barrier damage too – that made for lengthy repairs.

Losing nearly a quarter of the race distance to that incident, Chouest was soon battling side by side with Newell for position just as the pit lane opened a lap later with most of the Am driver Pro-Am entries electing to pit at the first opportunity.

Seemingly beating the #24 Heart of Racing AMR out of the pit lane, the #50 car of (then) Aaron Povoledo would get pinged for a pit lane speed violation at their stop and that would cast the red Aston back down to the rear of the pack as the #24 car of Ian James understeered wide, allowing the #8 car of Lee passed for position to take the lead of the class for the first time.

The Safety Car came out again with a quarter distance to go as another car became beached in the gravel, losing another five of those remaining minutes. Getting back to green worked for some as Lee capitalised on some pre-occupation by the then leaders to overtake all for the race lead but not for others as the #55 AP Aston Martin of Justin Piscitell dropped four places in that lap alone.

That allowed Lee to bring home their #8 car for their first win of the season and placed them exactly where they needed to be ahead of the championship deciding race on Sunday with the #24 Heart car claiming the final step of the Pro-Am podium.

Sundays finale would this time be started by the Pro drivers and there was all to race for, and the top three Pro-Am crews still had the chance to rob one another to the top.

Unfortunately for the #8 car, a near repeat of Sabo’s earlier GT America race one demise into turn one had Lee contact the championship leading Nolasport Porsche which in turn contacted the second placed Premier Racing Porsche which all in turn, knocked all three down to towards the rear of the pack.

That left both James and Povoledo to lead the Aston Martin Pro-Am charge, but James was also to be contacted by a recovering Mercedes AMG GT4 coming out of turn one to be spun around to face the oncoming field. The same was to befall Povoledo just a few laps later after apparent contact with the Dexter Toyota but at least for him, not too much time was lost as he hunted down the relief road from the grassy infield section of the circuit.

With another car stopped on track with steering damage, Race Control this time allowed the pitstop window to cycle through uninterrupted before calling upon the services of the Safety Car again with just fifteen minutes to go.

Losing time for damage repairs and a suspected puncture ultimately cost the #8 their final attempt at Championship glory before returning to the track laps down to the leaders, their 2022 season would unfortunately end with a much battle scared Aston Martin and a trip through the gravel in avoidance of a spinning Mustang but for the #50 car of Povoledo and Chouest – they would round off an already great weekend with a class win at the end of the final round of the GT4 America Series to go with their GT America Championship win earlier in the weekend.

The #47 Nolasport Porsche of Scott Noble and Jason Hart would also cement their Championship win in Pro-Am at the end as well.

Congratulations and thanks to all for another great season of GT4 racing.

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

That means that the GT World Challenge America, GT4 America and GT America Series all wrap up their season of racing with multiple Aston Martin Racing powered crews in contention within the two GT4 based/split series but this time with a much-reduced AMR presence than usual.

Starting with the GT World Challenge America Series, the #12 Ian Lacey prepared AMR Vantage GT3 of Drew Staveley and Frank Gannett have called it a day on their second season within the series with their Aston Martin are not running in the last event which joins together again with running of (this time) the penultimate round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge.

After a winter rebuild following an incident for Gannett at the tail end of last season, the challenges of 2023 have still been there for the Pro-Am line up and some consistent finishes will see them finish twelfth in the Championship.

Then we get to the GT America Series for Bronze rated drivers compete amongst a split grid of GT3 and GT4 race cars for the final time this season.

The #2 GMG Racing AMR Vantage GT4 of reigning champion Jason Bell arrives with a slender two-point lead after the previous round from Sebring two weeks ago but with another four drivers with a mathematical chance of winning by the end of Sunday.

Three recent podium finishes for Moisey Uretsky in his #55 API prepared Aston Martin brings him back into contention, just seventeen points behind Bell and with the #50 Chouest Povoledo Racing AMR of Ross Chouest just one point behind him as well.

Recent performances seem to suggest that second placed Adam Adelson (Porsche) and Uretsky (third) are the ‘men of the hour’ after two DNF’s for Bell before he recovered with a P2 finish in the second race at Sebring to recover the Championship lead with just fifty more points being available.

Whilst Gray Newell returns with his #25 Heart of Racing AMR after sitting out Sebring because of his accident at Road America but we will not be seeing the #15 Bsport Racing AMR of Bryan Putt nor the #888 Zelus Motorsport AMR of Sean Whalen race again this season.

Finally, we have a similar circumstance within the GT4 America Series but with a sole Aston Martin of Elias Sabo and Andy Lee chasing down a thirty-one points deficit to the leading Nolasport Porsche crew of Scott Noble and Jason Hart with their 8# Flying Lizard prepared car.

Joining them in another reduced AMR present grid will be the #24 Heart of Racing car of Gray and Ian James, the #50 car of Chouest and Aaron Povoledo and the #55 API car of Uretsky and Justin Piscitell.

Similarly to the GT America Series, we will again not see the #2 GMG car of Bell and Andrew Davis as they concentrate solely on their GT America title defence, nor the #15 Bsport car of Putt and Kenton Koch nor the #888 car of Whalen and Matt Guiver.

Photo credits – Series / Teams