Conquest Racing Scores Surprise Victory At Sebring

Conquest Racing’s Michai Stephens and Gavin Sanders scored a surprise win in Pirelli GT4 America SprintX Race No. 1 Saturday (Sept. 24) at Sebring International Raceway. The duo led only the final 1000 feet of the race after Rennsport One’s Stevan McAleer slowed suddenly exiting the final corner due to a possible fuel issue.

“I had no idea [what was going on],” Sanders told SRO America’s Amanda Busick after the race. “I just kept my foot down and asked [my crew], ‘Did we just win this race?’ Because honestly, I had no idea.”

Rennsport One’s Eric Filguerias started from the overall pole and was able to open up a steady advantage over Stephens. Unlike at Road America, there were no mechanical failures on the Community Beer Works-sponsored Porsche this time. The advantage gradually increased to about three seconds over the 27 minutes that Filguerias was in the car.

Once McAleer got in the car, he immediately put down a couple of really quick laps to expand his advantage. Despite this, Sanders was able to keep pace.

Sanders and Stephens’ margin of victory was 5.622 seconds over McAleer and Filguerias, who managed to coast over the line. AutoTechnic Racing’s Zac Anderson and Austen Smith were third in their BMW.  Accelerating Performance’s Justin Piscitell and Moisey Uretsky were fourth, while Flying Lizard Motorsports’ Andy Lee and Elias Sabo were fifth.

In the Silver class, the top three finishers overall were the top three in class. SMOOGE Racing’s Kevin Conway and John Geesbreght were fourth, while Forbush Performance’s Caleb Bacon and Matt Forbush were fifth.

In Pro-Am, there were early championship implications when the Premier Racing Porsche of Adam Adelson slowed to a stop on track. While Adelson was able to get his car restarted, he had to pit to have his Cayman looked at. He would ultimately continue, but Adelson and Elliott Skeer ended up three laps down in 31st overall, 13th in class.

Accelerating Performance’s Moisey Uretsky, fresh off of a GT4 class win in the GT America race earlier in the day, started from the pole and opened up a couple of seconds over Adelson. When Adelson had his problems, Ross Chouest moved up to second in his Aston Martin, five seconds back.

Uretsky was able to hold onto his advantage to the mid-race stops. Once Piscitell got in the car, he moved up to fourth overall and started to move in on Anderson for third overall. While Anderson had been in front of the Accelerating…