RACE 1 | SEBRING | PIRELLI GT4 AMERICA 2021

[Music] [Music] [Music] for the last 71 years sebring international raceway has challenged the best road racers on the planet this weekend 29 pirelli gt4 america teams have accepted that challenge here at this 3.6 mile 17 turn road course where first and foremost you must always respect the bumps hello everyone my name is ryan marine calvin fishes alongside amanda busick is down there in the pit lane as we get set for the first race of the weekend for pirelli gt4 america just four races left in the season calvin championships up for grabs and an immense challenge awaiting these teams and drivers in just about 10 minutes time what a difference over the last couple of weeks we've come from the smoothness of watkins glenn to the bumps that we're running for here at sebring iconic venue so much history here some of the drivers in this field and teams have experience here but for others on their debut it is quite the eye opener first time for the series now known as sro america 2 sebring international raceway since 2009 and standing amongst the cars ready to go down on the pit lane is our own amanda busick well guys it's hard to imagine that there's only four races left in this pirelli gt4 season and the drivers are ready for today race car doors just shut kristen chimchak was high fiving kenny murillo prior to them leaving to get on this track but as you expect at the top of this grid it is your points leader you have kenny murillo and that team leading in the silver class and as we rotate around to row number one matt travis right there the program leader but what i really want to point out is the bmw there were some bop assessments that were changed overnight i'll let you guys dip into that but the stephen mackler team they're really making a push here late in the season they come off of that win in race number two in watkins glen i was able to talk to toby grahovic here prior to this race and he said yeah there's a battle for second in the points right now but we would really like to do is we still have hope we have hope that we could win the silver class here in gt4 so if they could at least push it to indy they'll have a shot at it maybe i will keep an eye on those points tabulations throughout the weekend that's for sure it's been a great run of form for toby and stephen mcelro in that car coming off of the win at watkins glen very nearly two wins that weekend one went away due to a technical infraction but without a doubt the bmw m4 gt4 has been a strong package calvin over the last several race weekends and it seems like the officials took note of the fact that it was another weekend that it was shaping up to be bmw dominated and there was a slight adjustment made last night yeah essentially the bmw's this morning got a 10 kilogram weight increase that's about 22 pounds so uh that should bring them back to the field a little bit in terms of the right pace but more importantly it could be a real factor on the long green flag runs there early in the day the temperature's going to ramp up this afternoon to probably around hovering around 90 degrees kind of about 80 right now so it's a beautiful morning it feels like but nonetheless the heat is a concern so many of these current breed of race cars if you start to get the engine overheating a little bit they immediately kick in with these safety nets which will kind of take power away a little bit so you may see in the draft it's better to be out in clean air versus uh picking up the advantage of the slipstream but obviously losing a little bit of engine performance when you do that so many stories to watch throughout this 60-minute race but as always at sebring the track itself is a big part of the storyline let's get a first-hand view of it with our porsche track preview hi my name is jan helen with the porsche track preview here at sebring international raceway on to the front stretch here at the bumpy sebring racetrack into turn one fifth gear high speed corner quick step on the brake fourth gear back to power using up all that track here on the exit trying not to drop a wheel in the dirt into turn three down the second gear left right left into turn five very low grip here at the start of the weekend big corner here big exit onto that back stretch and then into turn seven uh which is one of the slowest corners on the track 45 mile an hour so a great opportunity to uh to make some moves breaking deep here at the 300 down the first gear good apex there and then back to power through the asses and into turn 10. turn 10 again a hard brake zone into second gear and and a bump very bumpy braking here hard on the brakes down the second and then back to power in this long into this long left-hander really fun corner flat out third fourth and then into a tricky brake zone braking and turning at the same time into tower here using up all that exit second third and then into bishop which is one of the quickest corners on the track fifth gear flat out and then into the brake zone for 15. hard on that apex curve right using up all the track apex curve left and then back on the curve here at the apex of 16 using up all the track coming onto the back straightaway one of the most important corners on the track long straightaway following that turn 16 and then into 17 super fun corner very bumpy on entry and exit late on the brakes here close to the end of the wall very bumpy here under the bridge as you can see and then back to power trying to run up as close as you can to that exit wall and back on to the front straightaway you heard john halen talk about it several times the bumpy nature of this track is always a talking point and every once in a while you'll see someone pop up and say well if it's so bumpy why don't they repave it but calvin no racer wants to see these bumps go away no anyone worth their soul anyway you want to keep it the same and the character of the racetrack are the bumps and the multitude of surface changes that you see around this circuit as we traverse here on the second of the formation laps and i think the real key is with the bounce when you've got good grip you kind of land and the tire is going to bite but with the temperatures we're going to see here today and particularly we talked about those bmw runners with increased weight they're already talking about the fact on long green flag runs here they could come back to the pack a little bit so when you hit those bumps and then you land and the car's sliding versus gripping that'll be the fact here as we get kind of midway through this run here this morning starting grid coming up on the screen let's take you through the first five rows at least starting in the top ten positions overall and on pole stephen mcelroy for classic bmw he'll have the pro-am points leader matt travis alongside there is a chance for travis and his co-driver jason hart to clinch if they can come away with enough points here perhaps even in this race today or certainly tomorrow mackay stevens will start third for conquest racing kenny murillo in a mercedes alongside then it's chris wilson fastest of the m class drivers but he's got a new co-driver this weekend john berry more on that story as we get through the race james clay starts sixth james walker a nice qualifying effort to start seventh overall in the bimmerworld racing car ryan dexter from dexter racing and aston martin alongside and the fifth row michael miller and tim pappas for automatic racing and black swan racing respectively great to have tim pappas and jerome lee come on in the black swan team back in the field just behind them will be this car though sean quinlan starting the number one 119 for steven cameron racing here are second in those pro-am points they're 63 points back they need to stay within 75 in this race if they're going to have a chance to win that title in the final three races of the season yeah they're always potent always got potential for a win and the bmw has proven to be pretty strong here so for sean he's just got to keep it clean here he's been putting some great performances over the last couple of years but he's a little bit deep in the pack right now so this is where it can be a little bit hairy through those first few corners as well trying to survive to see how that balance and performance adjustment affects these bmws but still very strongly qualifying as we've seen that said a nice mix of machinery up at the front of this field with bmw on pull from porsche then a couple of mercedes more mercedes and bmw equipment right behind aston martin very much in the mix as they have been throughout the course of this season lamborghini urus is the safety car the lights are off as they make their way down the ulman straight towards turn 17 sunset bend as it's known here in sebring florida 60 minutes the race distance driver change right around the halfway mark no tire changes though you got to look after those pirelli p zeros whether you're the starting driver or the finishing one here comes the field of 29 cars through the final turn making that long run down the pit straight looking for tom hansing in the flag stand he's got the green flag in hand we just wait to see it displayed and it is fanning out immediately calvin this is the drag race to turn one a great start for mcleer look at that deep in the pack they're five six wide you've got a funnel now as you get down towards that concrete wall on the inside great start there by our pulsator stephen mclaren takes the lead easy but look at this matt travis under pressure now here comes kenny murillo to his flank makai stevens looking down at the inside that's crystals and corner turn three oh big slide there for morillo's somehow able to save it as it goes up and over the curve but it cost him two positions slotting inside comes stevens as well as chris wilson and we've got cars all over the place behind yeah the slowest corners on the racetrack there are the kind of that turn three through turn five but it's very tricky there to not roll too much speed particularly these tyres not up to temperature yet kai stevens looking racy early he's looking outside then inside of the points leader in pro-am jason hart stevens and colin mullin they're part of a silver class lineup their class leader is the overall leader that's stephen mcelroy who has sprinted away of the battle for second yeah stephens and mullen coming off for a pair of runner-up finishes at our last championship event at watkins glen so they have a lot of pace in that conquest racing mercedes but look at mclare but we anticipated this in terms of the poor position in the one lap pace the real key is going to be after about five laps when we see that in terms of the delta between these manufacturers running up front now that's a picture-perfect start though for matt travis yes he'd love to be leading overall but he's got a nice firm lead in the pro-m class the next closest in class is james clay all the way back in sixth so that is exactly what he's looking to do is he and jason hart try and clinch that title and as you mentioned 63-point lead they need 75 at the completion of this race to seal the deal they won the first five races of the championship season but haven't won in five races so let's see what sort of performance they can put in here today well this is a team and a driver pairing looking to exercise some championship demons this is the third straight year they've had such a great start to the championship the previous two instances though they've lost it in the last race of the year they've hoped now that they built a lead that's insurmountable with four races to go we'll see if that's how it plays out coming around to complete lap number one at sebring it is stephen mcelroy leading matt travis running his stout second and he's got the kai stevens right behind yeah big move there by james clay as they went down almond straight there towards sunset bend but kenny morello just defended vigorously there to the inside is the 52 karlin auto technique machine been very strong of late tom capizzi driving john capestro dubet's the co-driver and right now capizzi trying to fend off the challenge from paul terry who slips up to the left-hand side that becomes the inside here is he up alongside enough capizzi gives him some room but he was getting a little bit squirrely there as you went through turn five so let's see if he keeps it together and maintains that gap looks like we see terry able to slide through and not just terry but also the automatic racing car michael miller able to come inside and now he's on the attack yes this is a team with a lot of experience here at sebring in gt4 competition i thought capezia is going to struggle to keep the grip there he looked a little bit wide there as they went side by side through that series of slow corners keebler took this spot terry trying to get it back keyboard has to go defensive here into the braking zone able to keep terry at bay for now terry teaming up with owen trinkler at watkins blend and he'll remain as his co-driver through the end of this championship season starting the year with brandon davis alongside draco and terry were introduced when each of them was driving for reared in racing just not together but owen made a big impression on paul and has stepped in ably when called to so far this year and as you said calvin will complete the season second place in the pro-am points is that orange and blue bmw from stephen cameron racing currently sean quinlan driving and the rapid greg leaf who's waiting in the wings he'll take over at the halfway mark owen trickler about the performance of the aston martin he said it's a really solid race car it does everything well so they're looking for big things and we'll have to wait and see if they're going to be teamed up for next year as well this is the time of the year when all of those discussions are going on about what is everyone going to do for the 2022 season side by side there stevens alongside travis as they head down this front stretch travis will have the inside but you can make it outside pass work here in turn one you can but if you get a little bump right as it gets a little bit gnarly there right through the apex travis gives him plenty of room he's thinking big picture right now can't afford to get too aggressive for stevens he wants to get aggressive here because he can see the class leader running away that stephen mcelro up at the front interesting mix of cars here from the perspective of the classics pro-am as far as matt travis is concerned behind is the silver class car of makai stevens and then the m-class leader chris wilson right there in the capstone mercedes wilson's got a new teammate this weekend last minute change john berry is going to be filling in for john allen and john allen had a accident earlier this weekend nothing too serious but he said you know i he had a a a diagnosis of covet earlier this year and he said he's just not quite there mentally he decided to stand down john barry is someone who he credits for getting him into motorsports in the first place a big supporter they work together as well and and uh john comes to so many of the races that it was easy when john allen decided he wanted to to step out for the weekend he turned to his buddy and said you're in you're up and i think we got an update on that from the pit lane and an update uh directly from john allen on this driver change here this weekend we just uh updated the viewers that you decided to step out talk about the relationship with john and how you knew he was the right fit for the car so john is the guy that actually introduced me to car racing so he's to blame for all this it's uh it's awesome that i get a chance to give him an opportunity to drive at this level so i'm really excited for him you made the elected decision to pull yourself out of the car as you sit by and watch along your car race here at sebring what's going through your mind well it's a it's a new role for me this year as team principal i'm a driver but i also am the team principal so it's my job to put the best team on the field you know and i felt it was appropriate to pinch myself because i i just was struggling so yeah so uh i had a little issue in practice on thursday i got overheated got dehydrated and uh you know what these are tough conditions it's very hot very humid i'm a colorado guy so i'm used to cool and no humidity keep an eye the capstone motorsports team is currently in that number one position in the am class but keith go look at that super guys they fall in positions here you know that they're keeping an eye on that as well no down smooch racing has been strong all season had a great conversation with john allen earlier the weekend and kind of talking about that new team principle role and and he's he said you know if i can drive in the future that's great but i really want to build something and this team has been so instrumental in the university of alabama engineering school coming up with a motorsports engineering internship that's actually led to a minor being added to the curriculum at the university and i think it takes a great deal of pride in in that maybe even more so than just the driving as chris wilson we saw drop a spot there to james clay but still the leaders in the m class yeah and i think that's really the the factor right is uh trying to just uh have a good solid run here turn it over to john berry with his enough as big of a gap as he can create right now it's miller sitting there zero nine machine second in am but tenth overall that gap is around about nine seconds between the am leader and the car currently second heat loss speaking of spoons racing right on cue kevin conway driving his number 68 toyota the car supra being pressured by the art of racing aston martin and gray newell driving that car a winner for the first time ever racing at all as a matter of fact the last time out at watkins glen looking right yeah just really feeling out i really like how gray is coming on this season showed a lot of promise in terms of his pace he and james's teammate was very high on his abilities but learning racecraft was going to be the key to the season and boy he had a breakout party at watkins glen run out finish day one winning day two a little bit of help with the 15 cars suffering a uh drive-through penalty for being shy on their minimum stop time but nonetheless great performance by him they'll be very excited about getting that first win before the end of his debut season he was still on cloud nine but about to do him in the panic bumped into him at long beach last weekend and had a big smile on his face too just a really up-and-coming youngster and that was a breakthrough weekend for sure because their previous best finish on the season was seventh so to go from that to a second and then a win is big time just behind them is the random vandals racing bmw that great bmw they were in the news they announced that conor daly would be driving with them in the indianapolis eight hour in a couple of weeks so cool to have some indycar representation and i don't think that will be the only driver with some indycar routes we already know pippa mann will be involved and i've heard of one other who might be in the field not a current indycar driver but one with some recent experience so we'll keep an eye on that random vandals team they might get preferred parking for that i think they might conor daly of course the uh stepson of ims president doug balls if you're missing that joke seven car had a bit of a spin and a nudging at the tire barriers in qualifying this morning but having a decent run here with owen behind the wheel third in the am class so they're splitting that 0-9 car that we mentioned in the forecast kevin conway that we showed on screen with that smooth racing toyota supra great battles all throughout this field everywhere you look this is tim pappas mentioned black swan racing is back it's been a few weekends since we've seen them tim a veteran for sure and when he turns that car over we'll want to keep an eye on it because jerome balika mullen who is fast no matter what you put him in tim's longtime co-driver will be taking over when we get to the mandatory pit window yeah good solid run right now going for tim he has experience here at sebring at the 12-hour and he currently runs fourth in that pro-am class and the game for him is just keeping it tidy keeping it clean trying to stay within sight of those leaders to uh give his teammates you said jerome bligamol and super fast and uh they'll be on a mission you know you give those guys a sniff of a win boy they're going to try and grab it tom capizzi in the 52 we were introduced to him earlier in this race right now being pressured by tim barber that's a pro pro-am entry against a silver entry and tim taking a peek to the inside but has to fall back in line it is a slightly different paint scheme on the blue and pink tfv ccr bmw and that is an homage to the co-driver cole carlos mother and the team rolled out that special pink thanks team as a surprise to everyone this weekend when they showed up here at seaford looks cool certainly stands out you're not gonna be missed but you're not gonna hide so twofold on that one that's right tim barber as he's done all year long ringing the neck of that race car looking mighty racy taking a peek to the inside into the hairpin one of the great passing zones around this sebring racetrack which has a few to pick from actually it does and i think particularly as we get a little bit deeper into this race and the cars start to slide a little bit more that starts routing up some other opportunities as well flat out through here this is heading down towards turn 10. as we watch mclare fastest lap with the 2 13.7 he set that a couple of laps ago but still running laps about three to four tenths clear of the chasers right now which right now is travis second overall first in pro-am and my kai stevens right there with him from there was the crowd strike fastest lap of the race and it's held subsequent to that this is a great drive though for matt travis he's the am in a pro-am lineup so not as experienced doesn't make his living driving race cars up against someone who doesn't have as much experience admittedly but he's a well thought after talent and makai stevens part of that silver class lineup a guy who was identified by jeremy shaw through the team usa scholarship and represented the united states in a number of major formula ford races in england this is going back a while though and he's not done much racing since but this program here with conquest racing and john farrow the canadian businessman who is behind this program trying to identify young talent in need of a boost well they did a shootout and stevens and mullen were two that came from that and they've been great all season long they made their debut at road america and they've only been off the podium once in class yeah and there was talk of rotating drivers through that car but i believe both drivers are now set through the end of this championship season to see travis there a little bit wide there through turn three christensen corner named after tom christensen the legendary sports car driver nine-time winner at le mans i think he's had six or seven wins here class and uh six overall is in seven class um but a lot of success here as well at sebring stevens has a run through big bend this is the run down into the hairpin travis tried to cover the inside he's gonna fight even though this is not for class position they'll have a compromised exit here calvin so can stevens get the run as they make it the the drive down to turn 10. yeah and i'm not sure if uh matt's just got a little bit out of rhythm or whether the car is going away on him but i think if the car's going away i'd give up this position just follow makai stevens for a little bit you don't want to risk any rg bhaji here and suddenly getting turned around and uh plummeting down the order effectively if they get a 12 point gain on the chases here at the end of this race the championship will be there so you know that matt is super smart and he's got to be thinking of that big picture and again this is not for class position so it would not affect points if the pass was made it's worth reiterating that the points are paid out to according to finishing order in class not by overall finishing position so really there's nothing to gain except that track position and they have a solid lead right now in pro-am with the next closest car james clay down and fourth running some good laps making some progress but i think you got to make a decision you know how much risk is it worth taking at this stage in the game well a lot of it is knowing new drivers but for makai stevens he hasn't done a ton of races in this championship so i'm not sure how well matt travis knows him and how much he's raced with him yet to identify is this guy going to be a big risk or is he going to play it clean and safe so these are all the factors you have to determine when you're racing like this saw james clay running there in the fourth spot that bmw coming through the screen did the mercedes amg gt4 of the am leader chris wilson right behind kenny murillo a couple of spots so far in this race but still a nice solid run third place in the silver class see that porsche of that northern sport car looking really solid spoke to matt's teammate yesterday jason hartney said the car is absolutely dialed in they were frustrated by the times they seen in practice but with that little bop adjustment to the bmw suddenly they qualified very well for both of the races here today that's right started on the outside of the front row for this one with matt travis and jason hart was up inside the top five and his qualifying for race two tomorrow taking a look at john allen big smile on his face not used to seeing him not in the fire suit but it does seem like he's getting used to that role as he watches his race car there i used to see any smart it normally got more of a beard that's right so if you missed it or just forgot at watkins glenn they had their first ever overall pull thanks to chris wilson and in celebration he decided he was going to shave that big old beard off which we kind of joked was like his easy top type beard yeah he told me that he actually met one of his easy top guys and that was his inspiration to grow it out really yes he did a good job he he does look like one of those guys so he looks a bit more like you now though kind of 42 minutes left in this race first of two this weekend for pirelli gt for america mcaleer leads travis by six and a half seconds and that fight for second between travis and stevens then back to james clay about three seconds behind he runs in fourth and right here you're looking at him james clay chris wilson kenny murillo fourth fifth and sixth all together and it does look like they're starting to reel in travis who i believe was passed by stevens on this lap and indeed you can see on the left-hand side of the screen that is in fact the case so stevens finally found a way by and now he needs to see if he can make any kind of inroads here on stephen mcelroy mclare putting on another clinic just a super strong driver his fastest lap um 213.6 but on not this lap that he just finished the one before he ran another high 213 so the consistency is still there he was very concerned about these tyres going off a little bit and losing pace and dropping back to the field but if he's managing pace or not certainly the lap time's gonna indicate he's just going for it now travis continues to lead in pro-am now running third overall amanda well guys that was uh that overtake was happening i was actually talking to jason hart about if he wanted jason to give up that uh get matt travis to give up that position and he said not at all he was like that's just another car that someone in our class would have to get around so that's why i think that car was trap trying to block stephen so hard but it was fun hearing the competitive spirit of jason hart of no we're not giving up that position that easy that's definitely the other side of the equation it's just how much risk are you worth are you willing to take for that track position and uh it sounds like they were willing to do so but stevens found a way by well i think the other way looking at it is they still have such a massive lead so if it does go all wrong it's not like they're suddenly in big problems but um just an approach i think if it was me i'd love to just put it away here today as you said a couple of years it's gone away from them and right at the wire so i think uh learning from that experience try and make sure you really just solidify that championship position and then go racing round two here and certainly ending for the last two rounds of the championship they talk about it coming down to the wire and las vegas two years ago it was quite literally the last lap of the last race of the season a position swapped and that made all the difference ultimately it was sean quinlan and greg leafous who are once again their closest pursuers that snagged the championship away in that instance back in 2019 also got that auto technique pairing of capezia and capastro de bets they're kind of tied with uh with kenton cook and brian put there in the second position in points there's a lot of players still in here it's not like it's just one team they got to keep their eye on there's two or three groups there who could take advantage if that 47 card did have problems less than five minutes away from the pit window and what we typically see strategy wise on the saturday race with the ams starting in the pro-am cars expect to see those pro-am cars being early callers to the pit lane the silver lineups theoretically at least the difference between the two drivers in terms of their outright performance should be much smaller so uh that can be a bit more flexible with the strategy as they work through the elizabeth and the e-car that is a lap down that's the audi you see slipping back behind a couple of those cars not a great start to the day for them unfortunately but that held up james clay and that's bringing chris wilson into the mix clay there gets immediately defensive he's just going to hug that right side of the road and make chris go the long way around there's going to be a battle down in that break zone a little bit smoother in the middle of the road there so we'll see what develops here as we go through turn seven wilson trying to hang on the flank of clay and james didn't give him a ton of room there a corner exit you saw the puff of smoke from that contact but clay is able to hold on to the spot for now so dangerous there if one of those fenders gets into that side wall of the tire so easy to cut down the tires you have to be careful even though you don't want to give it up those carbon fiber dive planes can be razor sharp on a rotating pirelli tire we've seen it plenty of times throughout the years looks like for now at least james clay was able to escape without any disaster stemming from that contact and don't sleep on kenny murillo he's keeping them honest right there breathing down their neck in the orange and black mercedes that's morillo right there this car looked like it was sliding around a little bit but maybe they just set the car up with their tire pressures and everything else for the long green flag run here because he looks a bit more solid now in terms of the balance they seem really carving these corners nicely gets that wider entry and straightening the hands a little bit sooner should get you back to power a little bit sooner coming off the elements straight one thing that teams have been telling me throughout the weekend across all the classes here is that the conditions have a major effect on performance and some have been kind of caught out by how different the track can be just a few hours after their previous run yeah it's ever evolving we've got a lot of feedback after the qualifying session this morning where drivers and teams were surprised of the amount of grip that the track had this morning even though it was relatively cool uh not the same balance they ended up with at the end of the day yesterday this battle heating up here between murillo and wilson again not a class battle in fact all three of these cars in different classes it's worth noting that the car spec is the same as murillo takes a look to the outside now it's wilson on the defensive this is where he was the attacker just one lap ago yeah just gotta get back into a rhythm regroup super slow through here you're really leaning on the car trying to get onto the power early but if it starts to break away on you so easy to just get that little snap and lose that so important acceleration off that corner wilson trying to go defensive marilla looks inside now coming to the outside late on the brakes but can't get up alongside those mercedes looks so strong in that bumpy brake zone it just kind of car just settles across those bumps you don't see the purposing that you see with some of the other brands out there and what does that translate to behind the wheel well it's just going to make a more consistent contact patch with the tire i mean we talk about respect the bumps but if you can get your suspension set up so you're not literally having the car jump off the ground it's maintains that nice platform under braking that's just lap time should know that makai stevens has not made any significant inroads on stephen mcelroy since making the pass on matt travis it's still an eight and a half second gap from first to second overall that's also first and second in silver see on the uh inset box there kenny morello ken's dad and uh christian shimshak they're still with his balaclava ron so i'm gonna be looking at another lap here before he can jump into pit lane pit window will open in about 40 seconds they're probably going to be by the pit entrance before that time comes up on the board some drivers like to be set and ready and uh they're very evenly matched driver pairing so it gives you the option in terms of strategy as to how you want to slice the cake here today what were you like when it came to driver changes did you want to have 5-10 minutes to prepare it collect yourself or could you go kind of at the drop of the hat well i never really ran in a series where you had this pit stop window sure uh so you always wanted to be ready in case there was a caution and you didn't want that panic where you're looking for your gloves and trying to get everything put in and you forget to put an airpla radio air plug in and stuff like that so whenever you were close to if there was a yellow and you burned off enough fuel that you could take the option strategy wise to come in you want to be ready there's nothing worse than getting that panic call he's in he's in and you're you know looking around the pit box for all your equipment problems here for the david and russell walker driven noah sport car and this is right as the pit window opens so this is interesting so right now as it stays green there are teams that can make that call to the pit lane if they want to it does not like in years past uh there's no mandate that the lead car has to have the first shot to come in so if they were if you were running a little bit further behind and the window open and you saw a car in strife there was a chance perhaps to make that dive into the pit lane and that could play out strategically and several cars have made that call here's stephen cameron racing might this be what it takes to get them back into the frame sean quinlan giving it over to greg leofouge brian putt will hand over to kenton cook ross schwest aaron povalito among others as we stay green for now that's just the luck of the draw in terms of how the clock is operating in your lap times so there's really an advantage if you think about it for some of the pro-am lineups to have you and get into the pits one lap earlier sometimes there can be a 2-3 second delta between an am and a pro driver so this could be significant in terms of how they uh roll out of the pits when all of these other cars come in so the way the pit stop works no refueling no tire change unless there is a a a problem that you can demonstrate to an official with one of your tires just the driver change and you must spend 85 seconds in the pit lane from pit in to pit out 85 seconds is the minimum pit stop time here this weekend at sebring essentially that's giving you about 45 seconds to do that driver change you can do some time tire pressure adjustments but here we see a lot of cars bailing now getting in the other factor ends i'm not sure if that car has been moved from that issue that we were looking at with the porsche a little while ago you got to be careful if you stay out and suddenly the safety car is sent out there it's going to slow you down compared to others who have got that pit stop down and the delta in terms of time loss and gain could be significant i think we dodged any bullets of a yellow flag affecting the outcome because it does show david walker as in the pit lane that's the car that had the problem so that is good news this is their team car this is the pro-am leading car as far as points are concerned matt travis climbing out the texan jason hart getting in trying to clinch a championship with three races still left to be run here we see another important pit stop here this is james walker he put in a really solid qualifying run an opening stint here bill aublen fastest man in the pro qualifying session we'll start from the poll here tomorrow auburn so much success here at the 12 hours over the years so he knows this racetrack extremely well probably more experienced than anyone else in this field here today in that first round of pit stops it should be noted that uh sean quinlan and greg leafous they were right on the money 85.1 seconds that's about as good as you can do we saw tim pappas and and uh jerome bleakable and that changeover was pretty close 85.4 seconds spotted a carter just underneath but you get that one second joker you can be one second underneath no more than that but just once per weekend so they've used that one up for the weekend and they gained a tenth of a second over those other fast stops was quite good andrew davis jason bell change over was pretty close brian putt to kitten cook they gave up about three seconds they were 88 seconds probably a little defensive after what happened to them losing a potential win at watkins len by being the second and a half off and i spoke to ken and cook about how that happened they use a motec system so there's like five lights in one second instrument increments and uh brian basically had his hand a little bit turned couldn't see the last light t car when and the team thought they were in good shape but he went basically a second early and was a second and a half under they try to use up half a second of their joker and one and a half seconds underneath some other teams used to call what's called the v box which lets you give a red or a green as you're leaving pit lane to see if you can adjust that time if you're a little bit short clean stops for conquest a little bit slow 86.3 the noah's sportstop was good 85.7 and now we see stephen mcelroy in the pit lane now that's the overall leader he'll be handing over to toby grahovic and i'm not surprised he didn't stay there out there a little bit longer not that toby's going to give up a lot of pace but steve was in the groove maybe he's coming up on some traffic they're just analyzing things playing a little bit safer as we see the shim shack tomorrow change happening right now christian jumping in of course kenny started the car and amanda just confirming what you were speculating earlier about how they elected to start the race with the tire pressures helping them in the long run after slipping back a little bit early yeah and sometimes you're just going to start them a little bit lower and they get up to optimum pressure a little bit later in the run but then they're going to be a little bit more consistent versus over-pressuring by starting higher high gives you that energy in the tires sooner gives you the lap time sooner but then you've got to hang on for the second part of the stint potentially nice safe pit stop there for classic bmw they pitted from a fairly healthy lead 85.9 seconds so plenty of wiggle room make sure they don't run afoul as toby grakovic now gets up to speed now factor in two if you feel if we get really close to that minimum stop time could it gain track position but when you have a big lead like they have why risk it or why i want to extend your lead by a couple of tenths or a second even versus being underneath and getting a penalty this has become the battle for the overall lead james clay has it chris wilson right behind that's bmw versus mercedes respectively 28 minutes left this window will close in three and a half minutes so they can do one more lap and not uh run afoul of the pit window car they're a little bit sideways james losing time there chris gets a big run off the corner he's going to try and extend this probably can only go one more lap otherwise he's going to be out of time so this should be the final lap for these guys extending the stint the requirement is simply to be in the pit lane before the window closes you can still be doing your service after it closes as long as you have tripped that timing line and entered the pit lane you are all good as far as that's concerned so yes this should be the final flying lap for these two cars and then we'll have a sense for how the pit window affected the running order yep it's all about these in and out laps do you hit any traffic are the tyres over pressured are you still still getting good performance from these pirelli p zeros versus another driver getting out they're having to get into a rhythm [Music] but with tires that may be pressured back towards their optimum let's give credit to auto technic the change from tom capizzi to john capestro dubetz 85.063 seconds that's about perfect without using the joker at least yeah that's pretty good and some of these teams get better and they kind of fine-tune their systems as we get deeper into the season certainly at the opening rounds everyone's a little bit rusty and uh haven't really got on top of uh the systems and maybe teams have switched different cars different electronic systems so takes a while to get in that groove james clay feeling the pressure here from chris wilson final lap for these two in these race cars before they'll hand it over to their respective co-drivers see the bmw there just using more of the road it's having to work harder whereas that mercedes is still carving the corners really nicely that just means you're overworking the tires a little bit more with the bmw how is how challenging is this pit entry at seavery well it's it is challenging because you got to get back over to the right and if you try and squeeze a little bit more speed rolling through the apex here and underneath the bridge you don't want to hit a bump just as you're pinching your hands to turn the car right so better to be a little bit safer there and it's nice when you're the guy behind you can kind of gauge off the person in front of you what they're doing and how hard they're hitting those bumps all right here they come the last two of the front runners to make their pit lane call james clay and chris wilson bimmer world racing and capstone motorsports respectively now it's nick gallante getting in taking over for james and john berry making his series debut professional racing debut we'll get in the capstone mercedes here momentarily let's go down to pit lane in amanda well as he gets in the car right here he's actually wearing john allen's fire soon as he kicks off his debut here in pirelli gt4 his team just did the motion with their hands of like calmed down and reminded him to breathe but cal as a driver you get the call in on thursday that you're going to be racing in a race with the team here not only at a racetrack but of sebring of all places what's going through your mind well a lot of anticipation obviously you're excited but when it's go time you're going to be standing there just ditching to go and a heartbeat will be raised a lot of adrenaline going right now so i think the team are doing the right thing in terms of trying to talk him through this and this will be critical this out lap how he uh filters back out with traffic ideally you'd like to have no one on your tail um you want to be in the mix but you don't want someone hounding you and that's putting the pressure on to not make that critical error oh here's some side by side racing going on a little bit further back but here we go these two leaving the pits just as they came in here comes the murillo car at speed that will be christian shim shack i think he should be able to get in front of nick galante and he does so a nice gap there for john berry so we can see those cars up ahead of him just trying to find his rhythm right now they're in a great position he can just run really good clean laps maybe they can grab a win here for his debut and a nice solid lead in the m class coming into the pit window thanks to that great stint from chris wilson so now his job is to hold on to that let's see what galante can do trying to get up to speed his first lap out of the pitch shacks had one to get warmed up get those tires up to operating temperature of course it is the same set they started on so it should be pretty close it's not like it's a brand new set or something like that but having that one extra lap of data to fall back on if you're shim shack relative to galante that's a huge boost when you're battling on on an out loud yeah i mean it can depending on the driver it could be a few tenths or it could be a second to two seconds in terms of how a driver settles back down some people are just able to hit that switch and be right on it other people like to uh gradually work up to the threshold up to the limit feel their way back into this race but this is what's so cool about this form of racing with the mandatory pit stop you're gonna be starting one race but the other race you're going to be thrown right in the middle of the action it's shaping up to be a great race for morillo racing also they came in as the points leaders in the silver class by 32 tallies over cole carollo and tim barber and that car is a ways down the order so with shim shack right now fourth in silver the potential to improve on that here in his stint that should go a long way to helping them get closer to that magic number before this weekend is over they need to keep pushing though because uh this number 11 car they're coming out the woods a little bit didn't compete at the opening rounds of the championship had a couple of baubles along the way but when they don't have issues boy they always seem to be right there with a threat for the win look for their third win on the championship season let's keep an eye on this colin mullins pace relative to toby grahovic on that last lap and i don't know if traffic had something to do with it but we're talking about two seconds faster favoring this car colin mullin conquest racing west the team eric bachelard long time indycar and sports car team owner putting this program together we saw makai stevens giving them a great run early and now colin mullin the silver class champion in this series one year ago with andretti autosport giving this car a nice ride yeah coming off two runner-up finishes at the glen been a factor ever since they showed up in our paddock and he has got the pace right now with a lot of time left on the board to chase down toby grojovic and put the pressure on him for their first win and certainly you'd have to feel that murillo and shimshack will kind of be cheering them on a little bit because they'd love for grahovic and macklin not to score the big points here today also cheering this car on a big race fan recovering from some surgery a third grader david lean we wish you the best i know you're a big fan of of collins watching this broadcast we wish you a speedy recovery and i'm sure a big smile on your face right now colin mullin kai stevens and conquest racing west gives his mercedes a great ride great tails away you can hear them crack the throttle down a gear to get through that sector there it's really quick through there 140 miles an hour with these gt4 cars even here's some aston martin on aston martin violence going on we've got aaron povolito leading ian james i think this 3r povolito racing team that aaron is managing and driving for along with rosh west was the story of the weekend in a lot of respects and watkins glen a team that was thrown together in about a week and a half a car that the team never saw until they got on site they had some help from dexter racing to get it prepped and they had a couple of podiums very nearly had more than that uh with some really strong runs pavolito's not waiting around does he does excuse me that's the 15 car that's ken cook yep getting around now switch to a different aston then we got the two astons at the back of that picture with aaron povalito leading ian james but that was a great move from kenton cook who is on a march forward not a great starting position for this race calvin but brian putt did what he needed to do and now they're running on the fringe of the top 10 overall in 12th and 7th quick chat with kenton yesterday about brian's uh progress won the tcr cup back in 2019 then made that transition up to gt4 he said he's doing very very well just really uh working hard on his diet taking things very seriously and uh certainly he's been doing some carting as well they're just trying to get him to slow down his hands a little bit he's actually getting blisters with a power assisted uh steering on a on a race car and he said he's just gripping things too tight just getting him to relax a little bit and it's really showing in the results just should note that the auto technic car john castro dubetz has dropped massively down the order was running near the top 10 and is now back in 18th and 12th in class i also saw hillary drop a couple of positions from a similar place on the road so not sure you could put two and two together but perhaps you can as we see a issue for the automatic racing aston this is the fight for the lead which is going to be on well and truly here very very soon as mullen took another two seconds out of the gap on the last lap and he is there toby grovik has his hands full he does he's got a big problem because that mercedes is really hooked up just running really consistent to 13.7 about half a second off the fastest lap of this race which was just taken by greg leafous aboard that stephen cameron racing bmw at 213.2 [Applause] now for mullin he's got a factor in you can't afford to buy too much time if there's an incident you could certainly find yourself with the racers finishing up the corner portion so he's got a pants relatively quickly out of sunset ben gracova goes defensive forcing mullen to try and go the long way around mullen not close enough to do it on this slap slots in line headed into this sweeping turn one very fast blinded corner entry takes a great deal of commitment bouncing over those bumps here comes mullen now late on the brakes charging in and then into this tight twisty portion of the lap you're right about orbiting both he and kapestro de bets ran lap times there about 11 12 seconds off the leaders you'd have to think they either had spins independently or together i think it was a drive-through penalty both of them perhaps running a foul of the pit stop time is the information i just received not a mistake you often see from either of those teams that has them further down [Music] here comes colin mullin though right there on the rear wing of toby grohovick toby the veteran outstanding hockey player in his youth he's used to throwing elbows he may need to to keep mowing at bay and that's actually letting jason hart close in as well not too far behind this picture you can see the noah's port porsche closing in here we go down to the inside it's going to be tight squeezes through there toby has to give it up awesome pass from colin mullin reigning silver champion in pirelli gt4 america just getting back to this pit stop time the uh world overland uh warner stop was not underneath so maybe there was another type of infraction during that pit stop see a yellow waving for the zero nine aston martin there that's through turn 14. maybe it was the auto technic drive-through was for the pit stop but it was a it was a drive-through evidently issued to auburn it might have been for something different we'll try and get that information if at all possible but conquest racing in just its third race weekend in this new reconstituted form is at the front of the field let's head to the pit lane and hear more from amanda and you can imagine the excitement you can hear here from the team at conquest and mackay it was the tale of the dragon for you at watkins glenn how do you slay the beast that is known as sebring well i mean here at sebring yet another beast to conquer but this organization uh the guys and gals in the of conquest racing west jmf motorsports we owe everything that we're able to do on track to these guys and we're just exceptionally grateful to be here going up against stout competition in a wonderful series it's only your third event i kicked off at road america how have you guys got up to speed so quickly really trusting each other and that's really it trusting each other trusting the process taking in one corner at a time it's been a great story watched them get up to speed so quickly and now poised perhaps not just for their first winning class but possibly an overall win although i think jason hart's got other ideas these two cars in front of him though calvin as we talked about these are out of class cars now again the difference in the classes is all fia driver ranking the cars themselves have the same performance window there's no difference there but if you're jason hart leading your class trying to clinch that championship how much do you want to battle with two out of class cars for first and second overall if it was me i'd say based on having had that heartbreak for a couple of years just bring home where he is but the race's instinct kicks in and we saw matt travis in the opening stint to this race for the 47 nola sport porsche he was one to give it a go and it seems like jason out is very much on the charge i mean you're always looking back as to whether you can be caught blinker molin's got a really strong car underneath him he currently runs second in the pro-am class but he's like 14 seconds behind jason with 14 minutes to go so you'd think he could just settle in sit here follow toby home but maybe he's thinking just get by toby and then settle in behind the leader and bring it home there and that might almost be enough looking at the order right now to bring the championship home tonight again just needs to have a 75 point lead leaving this race to make that points lead insurmountable and what a celebration it would be that's a fun loving bunch to begin with besides except the demons of seasons past where championships have slipped through their fingers but from start to finish even though there's been a bit of a swoon in the midpoint of the season haven't won in quite a while this has been a consistent team and it's hard to find too many down weekends oh toby's wide yep just sliding that bmw a little bit has given up on him some this is what mclaren anticipated happening in this race today and that extra 10 kilos if it's going to have an effect that would be kicking in right now towards the uh last 25 of this race toby grijalva series veteran one of just a handful of drivers that was here the last time this series raced at sebring back in 2009 different nomenclature at the time but same dna as hart looks up the inside trying to find a way passed into the hairpin has to back out of it though yep he's not gonna take a a silly risk here he's just gonna look for something legitimate and try and make it happen there's 12 minutes left in the race leaders in their respective classes colin mullis needs in silver and overall jason hart the porsche you're looking at here third overall first in class and the leader in am still john berry but he's running a little bit off the pace relative to some of those around him the good news though is that it's a long way back to al carter and random vandals racing who runs second right now in the am class so i can't be enough for a win-on debut we'll keep an eye on that oh jason peek to the inside there i'd be super risky making a move through there such high speed and if you touch the other car you're going to send them for a ride and probably draw a penalty right now looking at the points as they run i believe this 47 card could be in position here just sealing the deal in the championship which would be a wonderful accomplishment for that group that's come so close as we now see the draft here down to the inside and just takes it in a little bit deeper so we made it easy on him i think he felt he's uh just gotta try and get this car home to the finish here and solidify that second position mullins way down the road right now so i think toby's probably looking back and uh thinking about what does he need to do a hang on with shim shack there in his rear view mirror that's right so shim shack the orange mercedes at the back end of the shot currently third in silver so that's what gracovic needs to keep in mind as he tries to hold on to second in that class having just lost second overall to jason hart this is at the back of this train is barry we were talking about earlier making his series debut pro racing debut he was handed the car in the lead thanks to chris wilson's great stint and right now doing enough to hang on to the lead in the m class really nice job exactly they want it from just good clean laps no mistakes handy lead over the second place in am right now but it is closing he dropped a bunch of spots overall on that last lap six of them in fact and he's running he ran a 221 on that lap most of the other cars are in the 215 216 range yeah that's not good i'll make you sweat a little bit and i talked about the thoughts of a driver coming in on debut or suddenly you got the leads that's a different type of pressure and how comfortable are you if the team is saying you need a bit more pace how comfortable are you with this last minute call to push that mercedes a little bit more than you're doing at the moment it doesn't have much track time in the car certainly not here not this weekend because it was john allen we expected to see and john did the test day and some of the practicing until making the decision to sit this one out tough situation to get called in off the bench like that is not that far behind so he's got to keep pushing that would be a big deal for random vandals racing al carter driving now paul sparta started that car he had a little spin and some contact in testing on thursday they were chasing an intercooler issue with some wiring it was just one pesky little wire and that's all it takes they basically had to climb down into the engine bay to try and resolve that issue and they did it just before uh one of the sessions or else they were going to lose some serious track time as we see the 619 go around todd behind the wheel it's damaged the right rear so looks like it's torn out to me quick glance at the right side of the car so i may have got punched there on the entry to the corner yep yep thanks john capestro dubetz in the auto technic car probably a little bit of desperation going on there very much in the championship picture coming in coming off some really solid weekends at road america and at watkins glen that drive through penalty and just trying to cut through the the field as quickly as he can on a streak of four consecutive podiums which included an overall win in race one of the weekend but it's not been their day the drive-through penalty announced some contact as we saw a moment ago okay this is the am class battle about to shape up capstone motorsports coming through this is an out of class car and then the bmw following the green bmw for random vandals racing currently runs second in the class and al carter he can smell it now he sees that mercedes up the road and knows exactly what he needs to do he's got eight minutes to get it done yeah barry's lap there he's down with 219. carter's running two 16s on that lap anyway so plenty of time but again there's an incident late in the race you're not necessarily going to have all the time that you see on the clock right now to work with so you got to keep pushing as hard as you can and they're just in it for wins they they're not in the championship picture they just want to win this race best finish on the season paul sparta and a different co-driver in vir but they finished second and third al couldn't make that race his best finish was a third in race one at circuit of the americas within the am class looking for their first win together first season for the team in pro racing after doing a lot of endurance racing at the amateur level having conor daley as their co-driver for some of it and that's where the connection comes he's driving for the team as mentioned earlier at the indianapolis eight hour coming up in two weeks time this is where the experience of al-qaeda comes into play like how hard do you push to get around sorello or do you allow both of you to close in on that am leader berry aboard this number 16 capstone racing mercedes hal has been there before he's won the 24 hours of daytona in class back in 2015 in a viper so he's been in some high pressure situations he knows exactly what he needs to do but he's got an out of class car in front of him that's cole carollo running a decent pace in the ccr team tfb bmw now al's going to try and clear him in the run down the goldman straight into sunset bend and he can't get by boy that's music to the ears of the capstone team yeah but they're getting closer both of them are getting closer so then he's gotta really allow corrallo to go to work and then go on the attack for the class lead while this is going on mullen has pulled out to a 3.8 second lead toby grahovic runs third overall but second in silver and is starting to be caught by christian shimshack that's down to under three seconds this though is the fight for the class lead with one car in between cole carlo splitting the top two in am this is shim shack who's making some progress running down grahovic and jerome blickamon is flying he might be the fastest car on the track here over the last few laps in this porsche cayman right behind the one that tim pappas started and had a great stint running in the top ten until handing it over to the rapid dutchman drone here we go so this is carlo out of class but that now removes the out-of-class traffic and brings al carter to the back door [Music] he's gotta look backwards as well andy lee's having a good run there here he comes carter down to the outside that's for the lead yep random vandals racing to the point al carter makes the pass on john berry who has to settle in in second in his debut race in sro america that's okay though he'll knock the rust off here today and uh come back tomorrow a little bit stronger he'll be starting the race tomorrow of course as you switch the uh starting lineups throughout the whole field a huge effort from random vandals racing as mentioned dealing with that electrical issue that had them flummoxed for quite a while but they found the fix great stint from paul sparta now al carter has that beautiful green bmw m4 gt4 in the lead yeah they're going to be excited al loves his racing isn't running on as a consistent base as he was a handful of years ago but fierce competitor 54 year old from claymont delaware he's been in a number of big races over the years very capable behind the wheel and he and paul sparta they've been working together for several years now quite a team they have proven to be hovic has responded a little bit ship has taken three seconds out of that gap on the previous tour but now settled down a little bit but there's enough time on the board here for shack to go on the attack but he's looking behind at someone who's out of class blinkermolin's a little bit quicker but you're exactly right luka mullen and pappas are pro-am the two cars in front are silver it's a big gap to jason hart who runs in second but is the leader in pro-am with just three and a half minutes to go i'm not sure that's in reach for blika mullen the murillo racing brain trust looks on camarillo and kenny father and son next to each other looking at the laptop this is important too because uh essentially eleven car one of the closest uh challenges in the championship table even though they're in pretty strong shape just from where they're running right now and if they can finish even in that third position it'll be solid points today but they'd love to get the twofer you're taking points away and gaining points in a championship contender big run down this back stretch this is the almond straight tucked into the draft here with the bmw peaks to the inside but watch bleeca molin christian has to be aware of that it's gonna be a couple of laps to go has still so still some time on the board and maybe there's the chance to follow jerome now that he's made the pass [Music] colin mullen out in front by nearly five seconds now over jason hart he got a drop back 13 seconds to find this battle second place in silver tobik rehovic second place in pro-am jerome blakemolen third place in silver christian shimshack all running together a little twitch there through term one as blakemole and hit that compression he's really trying to roll speed i think he has thought about setting up rehovik for a move down into turn three into that brake zone wasn't quite close enough grover there up not jerome available sweeps around to move into third overall and now has a minute and a half one and a half laps basically to try and catch jason hart for second that's probably too tall a task so the fight becomes this one toby grihovic holding second in silver christian shimshack trying to take it away championship leader shimshack in the silver class we said get this position you're not only gaining three points you're gaining six taking three away and gaining three with this one position if he can make it stick looks to the outside that's the danger zone you get wiped out there you gotta be careful but toby super courteous there and giving a little bit of racing room toby made that possible didn't he krimshack is through he takes over second while all of this has been going on by the way we should note somewhat unheralded greg leofouge has put on a drive and suddenly stephen cameron racing finds themselves sixth overall and third in pro am and that's important in terms of trying to stay in the hunt for the championship would it be enough to make the fight go one day longer cal uh i don't think so but we'll analyze the points here in a little bit but um i think that the uh i think jason hart and travis are in pretty good shape here we'll take a look coming by to take the white flag it's already been shown to colin bowen who leads this race overall jason hart has come through like a mullen takes it now and shimshak the head of gracovic hit the back of the top five and there is the car we were talking about greg leafous doing everything in his power trying to keep this championship alive yeah he needs another position i think he's 77 points behind 75 point lead would seal it over this car anyway i've got look at other competitors in the field so nola sport looking good even though greg leaf has been on the charge here here is the leader colin mullin ran down toby grahovic made the pass and has not looked back this brand new team in just its fifth race in pirelli gt4 america although conquest does have some previous experience this is really a different crew still headed up though by eric bachelard we saw one of those picture-in-picture shots a few moments ago when interviewing makai stevens he knows how to put a winning program together and i think they've hit on something with this silver cup lineup colin mullen proved it last year stevens was maybe more of the question mark because he'd not been in a race car at the high level for a number of years but he's been on pace colin's been on pace and they're in line for their first win yeah huge when you put quality people together and that's a great thing about this former competition the gt4 cars from these manufacturers pretty much turnkey race cars and yeah you've got to tune on them a little bit and get them into their sweet spot but nonetheless if you put the right ingredients together you can pick bake the perfect cake it seems second overall but leading in pro-am on their way potentially to clinching a championship it's been long awaited nola sport right now runs in that position to the leader though through turn 17 for the final time colin mullin round sunset bend looking for the checkered flag just up the road and it waves conquest racing picks up their first win of the 2021 season matt travis looks on as jason hart crosses the line that is another pro am win and provisionally a championship quenched for nola sport with three rounds yet to go it's tight but i think they might have sealed it by a couple of points over two of their nearest competitors i bet matt travis knows he's an accountant after all yes indeed this is stephen cameron racing doing everything they could want to drive through the field for greg leafous to bring that car home sixth overall on the podium in pro-am but it looks like it's not going to be enough to keep them in the title fight nick galante holding on to fourth in pro-am in the car that james clay started warren dexter in the dexter racing asked it a nice run to eighth and fourth in silver how about it let's hear from the world's fastest accountant that travis is with amanda well you call them that accountant they had the calculators out here trying to do the points here in the last five minutes and we're calling it a provisional championship but from your math i think you know that you are now a champion we saw you pacing those last five minutes describe the moment of learning that you are now a champion uh yeah i don't even know we we didn't think this was even within the realm of possibility today what a freaking fairy tale race this was um i i can't believe it this one's been three years coming usually we we find a way to uh bring it down to the wire but man i i to be standing here i i can't freaking believe it when you see matt what are you gonna say to him you know jason and i uh we've been racing together a long time and um it's been a hell of a partnership we we go together like uh like chinese food and chocolate pudding or um cocaine and waffles or uh peanut butter and ladies peanut butter and ladies anyway so i'm gonna give him a big ass hug i'm thrilled unbelievable congratulations matt thank you apologies for the language and subject matter for those who don't know matt likes his movie quotes and all of that comes from a movie we'll leave it there um you can't blame him though after the heartbreak of the last two seasons calvin it you kind of have to feel for him i i tell him every time you know you don't have to make it that interesting for us and he pledged he wasn't going to this year and i'd say he uh he served on that promise you can see there jason doing everything that you need to do he's running off road trying to get some marbles on those tires there's some minimum requirements that you need to meet in post-race tech one of them is ride height so he kind of snowball those tires a little bit add a bit of weight to the car as well but it's all legit and um this will be sweet yes it will we should also note by the way random vandals racing with their maiden win and pirelli gt4 america competition al carter did hold off john berry by about five seconds to pick up the victory in the am class john jesbray and kevin conway on the podium once again they come home third so another strong run for them as they look to try and clinch that title and that might be some some math to do here before it's all said and done also with another podium run for smooch racing but what a season it's been for nola sport and to clinch it with three races to go and speaks to the level of consistency they've had i was starting to say it earlier in the broadcast calvin it's it's difficult to find a bad weekend for them they might not have had as many wins in recent races but other than the fact that they had to skip race one at watkins glen for matt's sister's wedding there's really not been been too many poor point scoring outings for that pairing all season long as we look at the provisional results and i think the key for them we've seen it in the previous season when they didn't quite capture the championship was coming out the box strong i mean the cars are always impeccably maintained but from a performance factor too they put out really fast race cars and all the sport does with the engineering group that they have there so they get off to these fast starts they haven't been able to hang on but this year too much for everyone else so i don't believe we've got anything quenched yet in the am class because chris wilson was second in those points coming in and he along with john berry finished ahead of smooth racing so that leaves them in a position to fight again for that title tomorrow look uh at the top 15 here in the race results just behind that is where you find the top three in am there they are 18th 19th and 20th it's all basically running there together i think it is a clinch oh all right is it playing hold on when jasper they came in with you know almost a hundred point lead so they only needed 75 coming out of here so i think they're good all right i trust calvin's math over my own so we might have two titles already decided here this weekend here's the bottom half of the finishing order a few teams of cars that had some issues over the course of the day today but at the front we've got a first-time winning team in colin mullin mckay stevens and conquest racing we've got jason hart yet to speak to him after quenching a title and a first-time winner in am so i think we're gonna have several happy teams of drivers to interview down there at victory lane here at sebring crowdstrike fastest lap of the race by the way and it went to greg leofooge that happened in the second stint on the same set of tires so that's remarkable stuff it goes to show just how good that stephen cameron racing car was in the race here today 213 260 the fastest lap of the race and they come home in the sixth position overall or sorry in class or overall yes and third in class so they will stand on the podium yet again and calvin we do it again tomorrow but it's going to look a lot different just based on the qualifying results because the drivers that started race one today they go second tomorrow and vice versa and it's a mixed upgrade as we're used to seeing it is and a couple of teams that really didn't have solid days the auto technique number 52 came in at this race with a slim chance at the championship they had a bad day the bimmerworld car of auburn and walker qualified well james had a good run but oberlin a trouble stint there so he'll start from the poll tomorrow looking for better things i think we saw a pretty good equality between manufacturers in this too a number of different brands were up there mixing it up porsche bmw asked martin was in the mix for a time among others so mercedes for sure as well let's hear from some of our race winners with amanda well in the just their fifth race here in gt4 colin you pick up the win describe coming around sunset ben and seeing that checkered flag that's just unbelievable you know this team has done such an amazing job and and just our few races here i mean the progress we've made since our starting race at road america is just exponential um you know the guys the team makes makes our job look easy behind the wheel by having guys like ian willis mitch davis and you know all of our crew on the team they've they really put the effort in to give us a good car here and we're able to win today on some uh some good tire management and had some great pace at the end and you know it's just a testament to the team and the work that we put in and uh mercedes amg for giving us an amazing car here uh to do that with so it's just overall it feels amazing to be back on the overall podium in sro here makai colin you guys won this driving ability on a shootout when you look at the you're going to stand at the top step at that podium what does this win symbolize for you um i think it symbolizes that uh belief within yourself is critical to your forward progress and both colin and i just nearly you know brings you to tears because you have so many people to thank outside of who we are for this very moment um so i think it's testament to the beautiful people in this world enjoy the celebration thank you and we absolutely wouldn't be here without uh john farrow as well who makes this whole program happen so we're totally grateful to john for really putting this together thank you so much now for makai stevens i don't know the last time he stood on top of a podium he's not braced in a pro or something close to pro environment since he ran usf 2000 in 2016 and he gets that done colin mullin won four times last year paired with jared andretti so he knows his way to the top step but what a pairing those two have turned into in a short amount of time super impressive effort all the way around and i think makai put it into perspective there in terms of you got to keep believing even when the opportunity is not right there you suddenly get that call but the key is then showing up and getting the job done they certainly have done that well their finish is in the silver class through this part of the season they've done five races they finished fourth third second second and now a win yeah that's pretty stout impressive stuff to get this program underway and you got to wonder what the future holds john farrow by all accounts is in it for the long haul he's got big time plans for this team and again to try and help elevate young talent that have the talent but don't have the the resources behind them so much of racing is built on the benevolence of motorsports enthusiasts who have the wherewithal to do exactly that and you know he's not unique in that aspect but it's always great to see some fresh blood with that kind of passion entering into the sport and i think the series entices that because as we said before if you pull the right pieces in place you can't have success let's hear for more of our race winners in victory lane with amanda all right well i am holding on for this one of the movie quote that's going to be coming my way guys but jason we talked to matt they were by the by the guard rail cheering you on you guys have been close to this moment you get it done a whole event ahead of time describe this season for yourself i mean i just got to be right now in the moment the only way to explain it is i'm happier than a tornado trailer park i mean i'm just tearing it up out there and the car was perfect the team does a great job i'm looking at the ground because i just can't believe it right i'm just we've worked so hard for this and should have where we came close two years in a row and john sharrick the owner of the team scott best james the the head mechanic on the 47 and literally every single member if we if we lost a single member of our team we would feel it every single person is that important and that's like that's near and dear and then matt for always hanging out with me at the racetrack for all this time i mean lucky guy lucky guy oops you guys make us laugh at each race weekend what makes this pairing so successful uh i like chemistry right i mean it's just we have a good time together we're friends off the track we cut up off the track not even talking about racing so i think we just see eye to eye and we just have a good time and he's a very focused individual i'm a very focused individual my father was a marine that's always raised so i'm pretty regimented on my like driver training and coaching but uh but it works for folks that enjoy just the absolute reality all the time well you guys earned this championship congratulations thank you thank you matt appreciate it again apologies for the language but three years in the making a lot of emotion and a pairing that likes to cut it up as we heard jason say they are about as fun loving a group as you can find a lot of passion there and uh just excellence i mean they've been performing at a very high level now for three consecutive seasons and uh the title is well deserved certainly so let's look back at how this race unfolded highlights of race one of the weekend from sebring coming your way this was the start stephen mcelroy got a nice jump matt travis though an impressive qualifying effort to start second overall and he held on to that spot he did here we see a nice move by gray newell down to the inside there not easy to make it happen just uh displayed a lot of patience and poise and finishing that off a great fight here between kevin conway and gray newell vastly different levels of experience between those two kitten cook up the inside of tim barber right there and this was the fight for the overall lead toby graham after the pit stop taking over for mcaleer dueling with colin mullin and colin set him up beautifully yeah nice clean move there over into tower corner not an easy place to make a move and here's your own blinkermolin on the charge through the field nice runner-up finish in pro-am here today and on the overall podium as well that's a bold move up the inside of christian shim shack now around the outside of tobig rehoboth as well black swan racing announcing their return to the series in style yeah really impressive tim pappas has an excellent opening stint here to really set up this drive for giron and then finally christian chimchar gets the run around the outside which is unusual there at tower corner but gets inside and takes away that second position in the silver class up front though winners in silver winners overall for the first time this season conquest racing west colin mullen and makai stevens then the pro-am winners jason hart and matt travis not only the class win but the clash championship clinched with three rounds still to go and let's head down to the pit lane we've got one more interview to go amanda's standing by and ryan that is with your am class winners and paul we stopped by and visited you yesterday and you were just talking about the challenges and the difficulties your team has faced one of your team members was actually sitting on the engine trying to chase down a problem yesterday getting this win for your team how momentous is that for you guys it's huge it's huge i mean we were so behind the eight ball yesterday we didn't practice at all we missed both first set two sessions and you know didn't get that many laps and then but you know we had pace the car was good and i mean it's just it's just awesome that we were able to put it together today and just have a nice clean race and it was competitive from out of the gate so it was just it just feels so great you talk about the competitiveness of this race al i have to ask you what was going through your mind when you saw that capstone mercedes in front of you well i knew that he uh chris had put in a great stint and you know i knew getting in the car that they were going to be way down the road and you know sebring you know just trying to turn laps and i'm just keeping my head down and uh and trying to go for him then when i did see him i was like hello yeah so uh you know a big shout out to the crew they've been going through a lot here for the last couple races the team our progression has been great we just haven't had the results to show for it so i'm really proud to uh you know put the whole random vandals up on p1 and uh big shout out to sro and uh torelli and aws i mean what a field that we have and you know just the cars that are out there and the racing is it's pretty badass so i'm proud to be here congratulations now great show in probably gt4 america today that's no exception if you've been with us all season long that's the way it's been from the drop of the green flag back at sonoma well that is race one of the weekend race two comes your way tomorrow still a busy day of racing yet to come at sebring thanks so much for joining us we'll talk to you soon [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: GTWorld

Views: 21,092

Keywords: BlancpainGT, Blancpain, GT, GT3, Endurance, Sprint, Series, Cup, Motorsports, watch, FIA, driver, sportscar, racecar, car, events, Spa, 24h, team, europe, pro-am, pro, racetrack, sebring, sebring international, sebring international raceway, gt4, gt4 america, sebring gt4, sebring international raceway 2021

Id: -DOFD3wxLi0

Length: 88min 15sec (5295 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 02 2021