ELKHART LAKE, Wis. – Bill Auberlen and James Walker Jr. took their No. 82 BimmerWorld BMW M4 GT4 to the overall Pirelli GT4 America SprintX victory after starting 18th in the field Friday afternoon at Road America.
“Starting way in the back was not how we planned it, but BimmerWorld gave us a great car and we knew it was fast. It was pure fun, a fantastic race,” said Walker.
“It’s been a great week. I gave my crew a lot of work and headache from a practice accident, but they got it back together and gave us an even better car, maybe should I do that again,” said Auberlen.
The race went green under sunny and warm skies, the exact opposite of what qualifying brought in the early morning. The No. 71 Marco Polo Motorsports KTM X-Bow GT4 of Mads Siljehaug led the field to the green flag with Michael Dinan following just behind, with Matt Travis in third.
At the start Travis got held up going into turn one and fell to the seventh position overall, second in the Pro-Am class. Jon Miller took control of third, second in Silver, with Colin Mullan in fourth.
On the second lap, Miller would move past Dinan for second overall going into turn one, but would go wide at turn six, falling to seventh overall, fifth in Silver, as Mullan would inherit second overall, second in Silver.
Dinan would settle into third overall, first in the Pro-Am division, with Tim Barber fourth overall, third in the Silver class.
Sean Gibbons would control the Am division, running 12th overall with Derrick Walker second in class.
Nine minutes into the 60 minute event, the first safety car would be called as Dinan would stop on track at the Kink while running third overall, first in the Pro-Am class, due to a mechanical failure. Barber would slot into third overall with Travis taking over the Pro-Am lead.
Matt Keegan would run seventh overall, second in Pro-Am with Walker eighth overall, third in Pro-Am.
The race would get back to green with 41 minutes left on the clock.
As the field went into turn three, Barber would slip past Mullan for second overall. Siljehaug would then go wide at turn five, giving the lead the Barber as the KTM Would fall to fourth overall, giving Miller the third position.
In Pro-Am Travis would get balked at the restart and fall from first in class to fourth, as the power of the BMW M4 GT4 would see Walker run from third to first in just a matter of corners. Keegan would sit in second position as Sean Quinlan would find himself third in class.
Back in Am, Derek Walker would slip past his teammate Gibbons for the class lead with John Allen getting into third.
As the pit window opened for the required driver changes, Bryan Putt would pass Travis for fourth in Pro-Am as the majority of the field would dive into the pit lane to make their stops.
With 26 minutes left on the clock Bill Auberlen, now driving the No. 82 BimmerWorld BMW M4 GT4, would pass the No. 28 ST Racing BMW M4 GT4 for the Pro-Am lead, fifth overall and stalk Jarret Andretti, now behind the wheel of the No. 36. Auberlen would quickly get past Andretti for fourth overall and take off for the three leading Silver entries.
When the pit window closed Cole Ciraulo, now driving the No. 25 BMW, would maintain the lead with Nicolai Elgahanayan, now driving the No. 71 KTM, in second. Samantha Tan, piloting the No. 38 BMW, would run third overall.
Auberlen would not waste any time getting past Tan for third overall and begin to hunt down the leaders, who were three seconds up the track.
With just less than 20 minutes left on the clock Kenton Koch, now behind the wheel of the No. 15 Bsport Aston Martin, would get past Andretti on the inside of the Carousel for fifth overall, sitting second in the Pro-Am class.
Less than a minute later Auberlen would catch and pass Elghananyan for second overall and pressure Ciraulo for the overall lead. Auberlen would take the inside line going into Canada Corner and pass Ciraulo, immediately pulling away from his rivals.
With 14 minutes on the clock, Nick Wittmer would overtake Elghananyan for third overall, second in the Silver class, on the front stretch and would then out-drag Ciraulo for second overall, first in Silver.
Three minutes later, Pro-Am competitor Koch would pass both Elghananyan and Ciraulo to run third overall, still second in class.
As the checkered flag waved Auberlen would cross the line in first taking the overall and Pro-Am victory. Koch and the No. 15 Bsport Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4 would finish third overall, second in Pro-Am with Patrick Gallagher and the No. 33 RS1 Aston Martin Vantage GT4 third in class, seventh overall.
The Silver class victory would go to Wittmer and the No. 28 ST Racing BMW M4 GT4 withAndretti and the No. 36 Andretti Autosport Window World of Michigan McLaren 570S GT4 second in class, fourth overall. The No. 71 Marco Polo Motorsports KTM X-Bow of Nicolai Elghanayan would finish third in class, fifth overall.
In Am, the NOLASPORT teammates would continue their battle, but see the No. 7, now with Zac Anderson driving, retake the class lead from the No. 46, now with Russell Walker behind the wheel. Kris Wilson in the No. 16 Rearden Racing Mercedes would run third in class. The three cars would finish nose to tail in this order.