Rennsport One’s Stevan McAleer was able to overtake AutoTechnic Racing’s Austen Smith with 29 minutes to go Sunday (Oct. 9). That ultimately ended up being the pass that gave them the overall lead. From there, McAleer held on to win his and teammate Eric Filguerias‘ 11th Pirelli GT4 America SprintX race of the season at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“[This season] has been a massive deal for ourselves,” McAleer told SRO America’s Amanda Busick after the race. “The chemistry between Eric [Filguerias] and myself right from the get go [has been great]. We won the round at Sonoma and just never looked back.”
The start was a complete mess. SMOOGE Racing’s Aaron Telitz started on pole, but didn’t get a very good start. Everyone scattered, creating a three-wide situation in turn 1. Contact was made between Flying Lizard Motorsports’ Andy Lee and NOLAsport’s Jason Hart, resulting in Hart spinning into Telitz. Telitz then spun out and was hit by Premier Racing’s Elliott Skeer.
The crash ultimately swung the Pro-Am championship as Skeer and Adam Adelson were in position to win it. The team’s Porsche suffered damage in the crash that put them out at the end of the first lap. The team entered the race with a two-point lead over NOLAsport’s No. 47 Porsche of Hart and Scott Noble, but that ended their chances.
When the smoke cleared, Conquest Racing’s Gavin Sanders ended up with the overall lead with AutoTechnic Racing’s Zac Anderson in second. Filguerias was up to third, while John Capestro-Dubets drove all the way up to fourth in two laps after starting 17th. Anderson was eventually able to take the overall lead away from Sanders, while Capestro-Dubets was able to follow through into second.
Right before the pit window opened, contact resulted in KRUGSPEED’s Jaden Lander breaking his left front suspension and coming to a halt in the grass near turn 9. A full course caution at that time of the race would cause chaos, so the SRO America officials chose to not put it out.
Due to fear that the officials might change their minds, all the leaders chose to pit as soon as possible. Here, AutoTechnic Racing ran into problems. There is a minimum pit lane delta that must be adhered to during the stops. A one-second “joker” under the time minimum can be applied once per weekend.
The pit stop for the race leading No. 51 to switch from Anderson to Smith was approximately two seconds too fast. That’s a penalty.
However,…
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