AUSTIN, Texas – NOLASPORT teammates Matt Travis and Jason Hart dominated Saturday’s GT4 America SprintX event at Circuit of the Americas.
Polesitter Nicolai Elghanayan and the No. 71 Marco Polo Motorsports KMT X-Bow GT4 led the grid to the green flag under chilly and overcast Texas skies.
After starting in the ninth position, Jon Miller and the No. 38 ST Racing BMW M4 240iR Cup went on a charge and quickly moved up to third overall, second in the Pro-Am class, with 10 minutes off the clock.
With 45 minutes on the clock, Travis drove the No. 47 NOLASPORT Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 around Elghanayan to take the overall lead with an inside pass at the turn 11 hairpin.
Miller was not done with his charge and with 35 minutes on the clock then moved past Elghanayan for second position at the turn 11 hairpin as the pit window for mandatory driver changes opened.
When the pit window closed, the No. 47 NOLASPORT Porsche 718 Cayman GT4, now with Hart driving, retained the lead with a massive 17-second gap over the No. 38 ST Racing machine with Samantha Tan now behind the wheel. The No. 36 Andretti Autosport McLaren 570 of Jarrett Andretti sat third.
Five minutes later, Andretti and Tan would battle for the second position with the McLaren driver taking the position at the inside of turn 13. Hart’s lead would grow to more than 28 seconds.
On the next lap, Jan Heylen in the No. 37 RS1 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 would get around Tan at turn 13 and move into third overall and go into pursuit of Andretti and the second position. At turn 19 Andretti would go wide allowing Heylen to slip past for second, 33 seconds behind the leading Porsche.
The No. 47 NOLASPORT machine would never look back and go on to claim an easy victory.
“The NOLASPORT crew put a lot of hard work in to give us a great car and they nailed it today, it was a great car,” said Hart.
With less than 15 minutes left on the clock Jeroen Bleekemolen and the No. 54 Black Swan Racing Porsche Cayman CS MR would out-brake Tan’s BMW at turn 12 and take over the fourth position.
With eight minutes remaining in the race, Bleekemolen would then sneak past Andretti at turn 15, taking control of the third overall position, where he would ultimately finish with Heyley just ahead in second. Andretti would win the Silver class and finish fourth overall.
Andrew Davis and the No. 2 GMG Racing Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 would catch and pass the No. 28 ST Racing BMW M4 GT4 of Harry Gottsacker for fifth overall at turn one with two minutes left on the clock. The No. 71 Marco Polo Motorsports KTM Xbow GT4 of Mads Siljehaug would also catch up to Gottsacker as the two would battle for sixth overall, second in the Silver class.
On the last lap at the outside of turn 20, Siljehaug would sneak around the outside of Gottsacker for sixth overall, second in class. Gottsacker would end up third in class, seventh overall.
Zac Anderson and Sean Gibbons in the No. 7 NOLASPORT Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 would claim the Am-class victory, finishing ninth overall. Michael McGrath and Alex Welch would bring home the No. 14 GMG Racing Audi R8 LMS GT4 second in class with Derek DeBoer and James Rappaport third in the No. 17 TRG Porsche 718 Cayman GT4.