WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – Rennsport One’s Stevan McAleer and Eric Filguerias kept up their strong form Saturday (July 23) at Watkins Glen International. The duo led nearly flag-to-flag to earn their sixth Pirelli GT4 America SprintX overall victory of 2022 in seven starts.
Filguerias started from the overall pole and scooted off to a small advantage. Gavin Sanders started second in his Conquest Mercedes, but quickly lost the advantage to AutoTechnic Racing’s Tom Capizzi. That didn’t last as Capizzi dropped a wheel exiting turn 6, allowing Sanders to get back by.
By the time the mid-race pit stops came around, Filguerias had a lead of over five seconds over Sanders. When the window opened 25 minutes in, Filguerias pitted almost immediately in order to swap over to McAleer.
The pit stops actually allowed the Rennsport One team to increase their lead to 8.4 seconds over Conquest Racing’s Michai Stephens. However, that lead was not long for this world as Random Vandals Racing’s Al Carter had a failure in the left front of his BMW that shot him off and into the tires in turn 7 to bring out the race’s sole caution. Carter was ok, but was out for the day.
Once the race restarted, McAleer was able to hold a steady hand while the Pro-Am battle swamped Stephens. That allowed McAleer to pull away to take the overall and Silver class victories.
The margin of victory was 2.682 seconds over Sanders and Stephens. SMOOGE Racing’s Kevin Conway and John Geesbreght were third. Dexter Racing’s Ryan Dexter and Dominic Starkweather were fourth in Silver (ninth overall), while AutoTechnic Racing’s Austen Smith and Zac Anderson were fifth in class.
In Pro-Am, Capizzi started on the Pro-Am pole and ended up doing battle with the Silver class leaders while putting significant distance on the rest of their direct competitors. Further back, Edgar Lau drove his Ford Mustang GT4 up to second in class.
Meanwhile, there was Aston Martin on Aston Martin violence in the Esses when GMG Racing’s Jason Bell and BSport Racing’s Bryan Putt came together. Putt’s car ended up with a broken right front toe link that put him out for the day. Bell ended up with a flat tire that necessitated a pit stop.
Capizzi gave way to John Capestro-Dubets at the halfway point, who continued his strong form from Lime Rock last weekend. He was still third overall up until the caution.
On the restart, Billy Johnson was able to get past Geesbreght for fourth…
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