The 2021 GT4 America Sprint X Series ended yesterday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with the seven Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4 crews going out with a bang.

Sadly, there was no title defence of Michael Dalton’s and Robbie Foley’s crown from last year as the multi-classed American GT4 series had stepped up another notch this year with a more competitive and bigger grid than that of last year. Despite not being in a position to win a Class outright, the seven Aston’s made it their most productive meeting of the season so far to go home with a collective nine trophy haul between them.

Quickly becoming one of the premier events on the GT World Challenge America calendar, the Indianapolis 8-Hour will take place this coming weekend at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Competing with the GMG Racing Aston Martin outfit will be 2021 Pirelli GT4 America three-time race winner Jason Bell, GT front-runner Trent Hindman and the always fast and competitive Andrew Davis, who has been Jason Bell’s co-driver throughout the 2020 and 2021 SprintX programs.

“After racing this event in 2020, it was one that I circled on my calendar when the schedule was announced earlier this year,” explained Jason Bell. “I would trade all the wins during my career to kiss the bricks at Indy, and I think we have the opportunity to do that this weekend. We have the team and the car behind us, and we have one of the best driver lineups. We just need to have the speed and luck to see if we can win at the iconic Speedway.”

 

Just one lap was the difference between reality and a possible dream class podium position for the Rennsport 1 with Notlad Racing Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4 by the end of the Intercontinental GT Challenge’s 8 Hours of Indianapolis at the weekend.

Having already competed in a full race weekend with the SRO sanctioned GT4 America Series where team regular drivers Matt Dalton and Pat Gallagher enjoyed the success of an overall Pole Position and class podium by the end of the final Sprint X Pro-Am race of that season, the red, white and black Aston was soon out again in the IGTC event alongside ten other GT4 cars which made up for nearly half of the grid with the other, larger GT3 entries.

 

Having started way back at the beginning of March, the SRO GT4 America Series reaches its concluding round from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway this weekend after a gruelling five round season so far where the Series has played catch up with the global situation.

 

 

Flying Lizard Motorsports driver Michael Dinan unofficially secured the GT4 America Sprint Am championship in the No. 210 Aston Martin Vantage GT4, earning the team its seventh championship to date. Dinan, together with co-driver Robby Foley, celebrated another SprintX Pro/AM win in the No. 21 Aston Martin Vantage GT4.

“This has really been an amazing season for us,” said Program Manager Darren Law. “Focusing on not only good results every weekend but also keeping the big picture of the Championships in mind has been a priority for us and to have already clinched the Drivers Championship with Michael Dinan in the Sprint class with one weekend to go is a testament to the entire effort.

The opening salvo's into this weekends fourth round of the GT4 America Series from Road America has already produced some incredible sights and sounds as the seven Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4's from the Flying Lizard, Rearden Racing, BSport Racing And Rennsport One teams got back to business on Thursday with some private testing before the timed sessions of yesterday.

Going from the sunshine and the warmth of Thursday into the cooler and certainly wetter sessions of Friday even meant that some of the Qualifying had to be abandoned by the race organisers leaving the starting grid for the first Sprint race of yesterday being determined by the early Free Practice times.


Riding high on commitment and confidence after their near whitewashing with the race results at the last round at Sonoma a couple of weeks ago, the two Rearden cars of Paul Terry (#59), Jeff Burton (#191) and the highest placed AMR runner in the Championship, Michael Dinan in his now yellow accented #210 car looked 'racey' from the off at the start of Fridays first 50 minute Sprint race.

Terry found himself starting from P2 on the grid and amongst the Pro cars whilst Dinan was uncharacteristically down in P12 (Free Practice times remember) with Burton just behind him in P13.


With visibility being an obvious issue, the race started behind the Safety Car so that the drivers could pick out the standing water on track as the race then got off to a 'controlled' start by all after being waved off. During the opening two race laps, Dinan piled in the speed into the soaking wet circuit, full of confidence as he elevated himself from P12 to P4 - taking Terry for position in the process.

Just before the halfway mark, the Sin R1 car spun itself off on the exit of a corner and into (fortunately) an extensive tyre wall meaning that a Full Course Caution then Safety Car was needed for its extraction. With the Am class drivers now watching where each was going to catch and maintain their speed, Terry was learning from watching Dinan ahead whilst Burton was doing the same as he had risen up to P8 overall.


On the restart, Burton was a little too eager on the exit of turn 1 and spun off dropping himself down to P12 as Dinan initially let the top three Pro class cars go and race his own Class battle with Terry before circumstance and the errors of others had lifted the #210 car up to P2 overall.

With ten minutes remaining, Burton put in couple of fastest laps in the race as he looked to improve upon his then P8 position after taking confidence in passing two cars in two corners earlier but with just five minutes remaining, the #191 ran out of track (literally). Having passed one McLaren, he tried it with another but that driver appeared unsighted to Burton's position on track - the two cars touched and both became passengers into two very expensive looking race accidents.


As a result of that incident the race would ultimately finish under caution with Dinan eventually finishing P3 overall and P1 in Am Class with the #59 Paul Terry car finishing just behind in P4 overall and P2 in Class for another AMR 1-2 on the podium.


For the #191 car - the damage was apparently significant and the team will have their work cut out to repair it in time for any of the weekends remaining Sprint races.


Next out for the GT4's was the opening round of the longer, one hour race with driver change Sprint X Series with four AMR Vantage's destined to race within it - although that wasn't quite the case.

A 'technical issue' for Jeff Burtons second car meant that he and Vesko Kosarov were absent from the grid so that left Dinan/Michael Foley starting from P2, the #15 BSport Racing car of Bryan Putt/Kenton Koch P10 and a revitalised #33 Rennsport One car of Matt Dalton/Pat Gallagher in P17 - 22 cars from the original 29 cars that 'entered' the event!. One such car that would be missing from the event following an earlier incident would be the Panoz that Roman de Angelis (Heart of Racing Vantage GTD driver) although his team mate Ian James would still be running in his Panoz GT4.


At least the rain had stopped and the track dried ready for the start of the race as everyone strived to survive the opening corners of the tight and undulating circuit.

The race appeared to be settling down nicely into its own little battles as the #21 Flying Lizard car of Dinan suddenly tumbled down the timing screen from their then P3 position. Circuit cameras eventually picked them out on the grass going into the kink with what looked like no power to the wheel and that incident brought out the Safety Car as the corner workers looked to quickly retrieve it back to a place of safety. The team would later confirm that track debris had been lifted upon by the car infant of Dinan and that had hit the emergency kill switch for the engine, leaving Dinan with no power and no method of resetting it himself!!


Ten minutes later the track went back to green as the AMR Am starting driver looked to capitalise on any track position before they pitted and handed over to their respective Pro driver. The best that Putt and Dalton could do however was to retain their starting position relative to the field astray handed over to Kenton Koch and Pat Gallagher respectively.

By the time the available pit stop window was at an end, the decent in laps of their Am's and the out laps of their Pro's had lifted the #15 car up to P7 and the #33 up to P14 but the body language of each AMR car on track said that neither would be settling for these positions with still 20 minutes of racing ahead of them.


Making the most of their new V8 power plant at the front Gallagher was on a mission to avenge the nightmare that they had at Sonoma where an earlier accident in testing went on to affect the whole racing meeting with two DNF's as well as not even making the start of race 3 that weekend.

AMR Drivers Academy driver Kenton Koch also had the race carrot dangling in front of him as he had an overall race podium beaconing. Ath the chequered flag, the #15 BSport Racing car finished P3 overall and P2 in Pro-Am whilst the #33 Rennsport One car literally snatched P10 overall at the flag but more importantly for them - claiming P3 in Pro-Am as well.


Great opening race and we couldn't be happier for either of them - but tomorrow is always another day!

Photo credits - Flying Lizards / GT4 America

Another triple header from the SRO sanctioned GT4 America Series comes our way this weekend with the Sprint and Sprint X classes having made their way over most of the width of the USA from Sonoma in California two weeks ago to Road Atlanta in Georgia for another race programme that starts this Friday.

Sonoma saw an almost Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4 domination in the Sprint races Am Class with spoils shared between the Flying Lizard car of Michael Dinan, the Rearden Racing cars of Jeff Burton and Paul Terry as well as the Flying Lizard car of Dinan and Robbie Foley and the BSport Racing Vantage of Bryan Putt and Kenton Koch in the Sprint X races.


The only AMR racing team that didn't fair so well two weeks ago was the #33 RS1 Notland Racing pairing of Matt Dalton and Pat Gallagher after Dalton suffered a sizeable accident during Free Practice that, despite its overnight rebuild, suffered from cooling issues during the two races it managed to enter followed by a DNS for the final race.

Since then, we understand that the team have replaced the V8 power plant within the #33 car as a quicker process than trying to identify the cause of their overheating issues with the old engine still in location as well as re-covering the bare carbon front end bodywork with their distinctive red, white and black colour scheme. A subsequent shake down test has also been conducted by the team before they shipped out for Braselton.


Fifteen cars are due to feature within the weekends three - fifty minute single driver Sprint races including again the #59 Paul Terry and #191 Jeff Burton cars from the Rearden Racing stable together with the #210 Flying Lizard car for Michael Burton as the Series still plays catch up with events missed due to the lockdown in the USA in early summer.


Then for the three - hour long compulsory stop with driver change Sprint X races we expected the #15 BSport Racing car for Bryan Putt/Kenton Koch, #21 Flying Lizard for Michael Dinan/Robbie Foley, #33 RS1 Notland Racing car for Matt Dalton/Pat Gallagher and the #91 Rearden car for Jeff Burton.Vesko Kozarov. Amongst the full twenty four car entry you will also scan over the names of Ian James and Roman de Angelis taking part in the GT4 Series for the first time this season but this time swapping their IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship AMR Vantage GTD for that of a Panoz Esperante Avezzano that each will race in the Pro-Am with another co-driver each.


With a track diary that starts as early as tomorrow morning for the Sprint and Sprint X runners, we have already seen that Rearden Racing have been at the circuit getting in some vital test and set up mileage over the weekend before Wednesday makes three private testing sessions available to the teams before they move onto officially times sessions on Thursday with Qualifying and Race 1 of each on Friday. Fastest laps per race then denote each cars starting position in the next.


In the Championship standings to date, the Flying Lizard and Rearden Racing teams hold a commanding one-two position respectively in the Sprint Am Class whilst Flying Lizards look to chase down a 16 point deficit in to the Sprint X Pro-Am table going into this event.

Photo credits - GT4 America