BOWMANVILLE, Ontario – The NOLASPORT Porsche 718 Cayman CS MR team of Matt Travis and Jason Hart continued their dominance by winning Friday’s Pirelli GT4 SprintX series race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
The NOLASPORT team has won every GT4 America SprintX Pro/Am race this season.
The Pirelli GT4 America SprintX series features 60-minute races with pit stops. From the drop of the green flag, second-on-the-grid Alan Brynjolfsson in the No. 77 Park Place Motorsports Porsche Cayman GT4 CS MR grabbed the lead from pole sitter Matthew Fassnacht, in the No. 34 Murillo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4 on the opening lap and stretched to a .748 second lead. Fassnacht and Jarett Andretti in the No. 36 Andretti Autosport McLaren 570S GT4 pursued in second and third respectively.
Over the next three laps, Brynjolfsson and Fassnacht pulled away from the pack with Fassnacht closing to Brynjolfsson’s rear bumper. Andretti, running in third, dropped six seconds back of the two combatants up front.
Closing out lap six, Fassnacht and Brynjolfsson went side by side down the front straight trading positions in an exciting battle for the lead. Fassnacht took the lead momentarily only to relinquish it back to Brynjolfsson. Meanwhile, a four-car battle for third, fourth, fifth and sixth ensued with Andretti holding off Travis, in the No. 47 NOLASPORT Porsche 718 Cayman CS MR, Kris Wilson in the No. 36 Auto Technic Racing BMW M4 GT4, Randy Mueller in the No. 3 Epic Motorsports BMW M4 GT4. Sean Quinlan in the No. 19 Stephen Cameron Racing BMW M4 GT4 joined the battle running in seventh.
Drama ensued on lap nine as the two leading combatants came together on the front straight. Brynjolfsson spun and brushed the inside of the front straight wall. He tried to continue but his Cayman was damaged ending his day. Fassnacht continued on and assumed the lead. A full-course yellow soon followed as Brynjofsson’s yellow No. 77 had dropped fluid on the front straight because of the contact with the front wall.
On the lap 12 restart, Fassnacht led the field to the green flag with Andretti, Travis and Wilson in pursuit. Race control then ordered Fassnacht to come into pit lane for a 60-second penalty for contact with Brynjolfsson. Andretti assumed the lead on lap 14 after Fassnacht served his penalty.
Pit lane opened at the mid-point of the race and teams started to come in for driver changes. Leaders Andretti and Wilson stayed out until near the end of the pit window. Andretti passed the wheel to teammate Canadian Karl Thomson, while Wilson’s teammate John Allen took over. With a shuffling of positions because of the driver changes, Allen assumed the race lead, while Mueller’s teammate James Clay slotted into second, with Hart in third and Thomson in fourth.
Lap 21 saw major changes up front as Allen dropped back while Clay took over the lead with Hart in pursuit, Quinlan’s teammate Liefooghe and Thomson in third and fourth respectively. Clay and Hart then engaged in a heated battle for the lead with Hart all over the bumper of Clay through laps 22-24. Hart continued to look for a way through as Clay defended vigorously.
On lap 25 Hart dueled alongside Clay through turns three and four and executed the pass for the lead in Moss Corner. Hart then built a 1.6 second gap over Clay. While Hart took the checkered flag with an 8.248 second lead an excited late race charge from Elivan Goulart, in the No. 27 KRUGSPEED Ginetta G55, who went from fourth to second in the last number of laps.