JMF Motorsports’ Mikael Grenier and Michai Stephens controlled the proceedings Sunday (March 29) at Sonoma Raceway. The duo led the vast majority of the three-hour race to win the season opening GT World Challenge America powered by AWS race of the season. It is the duo’s fifth overall victory in the series.
“We started Michai [Stephens] on sticker tires so that we could stay in front of the Ford since they’re super quick in the straight line and [Sonoma] is probably the worst track to pass,” Grenier said to SRO America’s Amanda Busick after the race. “I think it worked, but then everyone else was on stickers [when we weren’t]. In the end, everything was fine.”
The margin of victory was .922 seconds over AF Corse’s Matias Perez Companc and Frederik Schandorff. GMG Racing’s Tom Sargent and Kyle Washington were third, followed by Wright Motorsports’ Dave Musial Jr. and Ryan Yardley. Dollahite Racing’s Cameron Lawrence and Alex Sedgwick were fifth.
In Pro, JMF Motorsports’ No. 34 and AF Corse finished one-two. Lawrence and Sedgwick were third, followed by Turner Motorsport’s Robby Foley and Justin Rothberg.
With a new combined qualifying session Sunday morning, JMF Motorsports’ Michai Stephens started from the overall pole in his Mercedes. He immediately came under pressure from the Ford Mustang GT3 Evo of Dollahite Racing’s Alex Sedgwick. The two drivers proceeded to open a big gap up over the rest of the field.
10 minutes into the race, trouble broke out down the order. Random Vandals Racing’s Derek DeBoer spun in turn 11 after contact from the distinctive BMW of Riley Technologies’ Slade Stewart. DeBoer then caught “Sparklefarts” and spun Stewart out when he was coming around the back of him. That caused the race’s only full course yellow.
DeBoer was able to continue sans his rear bumper. Stewart, who was making his GT World Challenge America powered by AWS debut, was out on the spot due to significant damage to the right rear corner of his BMW.
The first round of pit stops saw Stephens have a decent stop. However, Perez Companc had an excellent stop and was able to jump Stephens into the Pro lead.
That lead was short-lived as Stephens was quickly able to retake the advantage. Once back up front, he quickly drove away to a lead of nearly 10 seconds.
The second stop of the race saw Grenier get into the No. 34 Mercedes. A slightly slower pit stop cost him part of his lead. However, the main threat behind was from Schandorff. The IMSA regular with Inception Racing was faster than the Mercedes and slowly cut into the lead.
Shortly before the last round of stops, Schandorff caught Grenier. The duo ran bumper-to-bumper until Schandorff pitted early in an attempt to undercut Grenier.
That move did not work out as Grenier and the JMF Motorsports team had a total pit time of 85.012 seconds, just .012 more than the minimum allowed. Not only did Grenier maintain the lead, but he expanded it.
Grenier expanded his advantage to nearly three seconds over Schandorff’s Ferrari in the final run of hte race
In Pro-Am, Jason Daskalos started from pole (third overall) in the second JMF Mercedes. He ended up with with the AF Corse Ferrari of Matias Perez Companc between himself and Archangel Motorsports’ Todd Coleman at the start. That allowed Daskalos to open up a small advantage.
The first round of stops saw the frontrunners have multiple issues. Daskalos ended up having his pit stop delta fall under the minimum of 85 seconds. As a result, he had to do a drive-through penalty. On that drive-through, he was speeding. That resulted in a stop and 30-second hold penalty.
Coleman had his own issues with a short pit stop. He then compounded that by running off the track and filling his grille with grass. That required an additional stop to clean out the McLaren’s front end. Both drivers ended up losing a lap.
With both of the Pro-Am runners way down the order, that allowed Rennsport One’s Juan Pablo Martinez to take the class lead in third overall. That said, it wasn’t completely clean as he missed turn 9 early in the second hour and went through the grass.
Decent pace allowed Martinez to get up to second overall before he pitted to hand over to Jan Heylen. However, there were issues on the stop that resulted in the team being handed a 30-second penalty.
That penalty would be served on the final pit stop, so Heylen was allowed to stay in third overall. However, he only had four seconds over GMG Racing’s Tom Sargent, who was flying in his Porsche. The goal was to drive as hard as he could to mitigate the negative affects of the penalty.
Despite that, Heylen could do nothing to prevent Sargent from running him down for the Pro-Am lead. Turning in the fastest laps of the race, the EBoost Porsche caught Heylen with just under an hour to go. Once there, Sargent more or less treaded water, knowing that Heylen had the 30-second penalty to serve.
When the final stops were complete, Sargent ended up with an 19 second lead over Ryan Yardley. Heylen ended up third, 34 seconds back.
From there, Sargent continued to turn in quick laps in an attempt to not only confirm the class victory, but also run down the overall leaders. It was a task easier said than done given that he was 16 seconds back at the beginning of the final run.
Further back, there was a three-way battle for fifth between Hampus Ericsson in the Random Vandals BMW, Wright Motorsports’ Thomas Merrill and Kellymoss’ Colin Braun. Merrill ran Ericsson hard for a number of laps before making a big move at turn 4 to take the position.
The move was not completely clean as Merrill actually got into the back of Ericsson while making the move. While it didn’t result in a spin for either driver, it did damage the nose of Merrill’s Porsche. As noted earlier, Ericsson was already missing his rear bumper as a result of DeBoer’s spin in the opening laps.
Up front, Sargent was able to get within five seconds of Schandorff at the finish. It was more than enough for a big victory for himself and Washington in third overall.
The margin of victory was 31.949 seconds over Musial and Yardley. Heylen and Martinez ended up third after their penalty, while Kellymoss’ Riley Dickinson and Todd Parriott were fourth. Merrill and Therese Lahlouh were fifth in their Porsche.
GT World Challenge America powered by AWS at Sonoma Results
Next up for GT World Challenge America powered by AWS teams will be a three-hour enduro at Circuit of the Americas. That race is scheduled for April 26 and will air live on beIN Sport and the GT World YouTube channel at 1:30 p.m. ET.
