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.

News from the circuit was that the #2 GMG Racing AMR of Jason Bell and Andrew Davis would not be running in GT4 America as they would be concentrating on the defence of their GT America GT4 title. This news was on top of the known absences from both the Heart of Racing and Zelus Motorsport with their two Vantage GT4’s.

During Saturdays one hour opener, the #55 API prepared AMR of Moisey Uretsky and Justin Piscitell however had obviously failed to notice the ‘gameplan’ as they again dominated the race – the same as Uretsky had done during the opening GT America round to claim their first season P1 double with their partially rebuilt car.

Completing a good day for the Aston Martin family was the Pro-Am podium lockout as the #8 Flying Lizard car of Sabo and Lee finished second, the #50 Chouest Povoledo Racing car of Ross Chouest and Aaron Povoledo in third with the #15 Bsport Racing AMR in fourth to help reinforce their Championship credentials particularly after the earlier demise of the #120 Porsche with technical issues.

With two drivers came obviously two Qualifying sessions and Sundays finale would be the turn again of the Pro drivers to runs their races first with Lee pipping all to the post with a second row start in fourth overall, with Koch just another row behind in sixth. The Chouest Povoledo and API cars however, would not fare so well in race 2 with Piscitell and Povoledo never featuring beyond their starting positions of P9 and P10 respectively.

Race 2 would start five abreast down the start straight before the leaders funnelled out into a more coherent approach to the twisty section of the course whilst others behind came into contact. Fortunately staying green, the #15 had jumped the #8 car for position and would run out the course of their Pro’s race in that order to the end of their stint.

Pit stops over and Putt and Sabo continued the inter AMR battle that had been started for them earlier but neither had enough speed to trouble the #47 Nolasport Porsche ahead of them although both were importantly ahead of the #120 Premier Racing Porsche.

As the faster silver class cars ran their battles ahead, it was fairly stalemate within Pro-Am right until the final lap of the race when the #15 car of Putt evidently slowed and allowed Sabo to pass easily to steal away the #15 cars (up until then) rightful P2 in class position at the death. Only just managing the finishing line itself, the #15 car would drop down to fourth in class but massively for them, behind the #120 Porsche.

Without seeing these results confirmed by the series, it would appear that the #15 cars technical glitch at the races death may become costly enough to remove them from any further Pro-Am Class championship contention as the series reconvenes at Indianapolis for the final two races of the season in two weeks’ time.

For the #8 Flying Lizard car, their pair of P2 class finishes may well be enough to keep them into a three-way battle to the prize at IMS.

Photo credits – Teams / GT4 America

Their last round of the Series at VIR back in late August saw the team having to conduct an amazing exercise in damage limitation after having their engine cut out just as Brynjolfsson’s minimum drive time was coming to an end. Although the car was recovered back to the paddock and returned to the circuit, they did finish four laps down to the winner BUT their Championship rival also suffered with incident during the race to finish only a few places ahead.

As the teams congregate at the circuit for next Fridays final two-hour race of the season, it will be a straightforward two car shoot-out between the #7 Aston Martin and the #56 Murillo Racing Mercedes AMG GT4 of Eric Foss to battle it out to determine the eventual class victor as just 160 points separate the two crews.

Joining the #7 car amongst the thirty-nine-car grid (of which twenty-five will be GS (GT4) class cars) will be the #09 Automatic Racing prepared Stoner Car Care AMR as well as a debut IMSA for the API prepared Aston Martin of Moisey Uretsky

The #09 will also be featuring a revised driver line up as Rob Ecklin stands aside (for business reasons again) to allow youngster Casey Carden to take the wheel alongside long-standing Bronze Cup entrant Ramin Abdolvahabi. Having skipped rounds of the series through personal preferences and been involved in other cars accidents and incidents at others, the #09 car still searches for their first Bronze Cup win of the season with high hopes being placed upon these two individuals.

That leaves a car and crew more recently known to be participating within the SRO’s GT America and GT4 America Series as Accelerating Performance Team bring their bright yellow liveried #39 AMR Vantage GT4 of Uretsky and Justin Piscitell into the fray for a racing introduction into the IMSA series after their SRO commitments this weekend at Sebring.

It will be exciting, and it will also be all decided by the fall of the chequered flag next Friday!

Photo credits - Teams