Anderson, Garett Win Incident-Filled Race 1 at Sonoma

Photo: Fred Hardy/SRO

Auto Technic Racing’s Zac Anderson and Colin Garett claimed victory in Saturday’s incident-filled opening Pirelli GT4 America race of the weekend at Sonoma Raceway.

Anderson guided his No. 52 BMW M4 GT4 EVO to a 0.431-second win over the Pro-Am class-winning No. 33 Blackdog Racing McLaren Artura GT4 of Michael Cooper that saw more than half of the race run under yellow.

None of the starting drivers got any green flag running following a series of two full course cautions, the first coming on the opening lap for a three-car crash between Paul Sparta, Sam Owen and James Clay.

On the restart, second-placed Alex Ellis in the No. 77 VPX Motorsport Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport tagged the leading No. 71 Marco Polo Motorsports Toyota of Mads Siljehaug.

The incident collected multiple other cars including the Am class pole-sitting No. 606 Thunder Bunny Racing Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2 of Allen Patten, the No. 3 JMF Motorsports Aston Martin Vantage GT4 Evo of Jesse Webb and Matt Million’s No. 53 Auto Technic BMW.

It led to a split pit stop sequence, due to the opening of the pit window, which saw the top ten cars at the time all come in for service one lap after the rest.

Anderson took over the lead on the restart from Siljehaug, who pitted on the race’s second and final restart with 27 minutes to go.

The No. 82 BimmerWorld BMW of Tyler McQuarrie and James Walker Jr. finished third overall and second in Pro-Am, ahead of a pair of Porsches, led home by Riley Dickinson and Matheus Leist for ACI Motorsports and Nolasport, respectively.

Kenton Koch, who finished seventh overall, ended up second in the Silver class in the No. 97 Random Vandals BMW, ahead of Braydon Arthur, who was third in class in the No. 4 JMF Aston Martin.

Am class honors went to the No. 72 RAFA Racing Team Toyota of Kenny Schmied and Anthony Geraci, which finished 12th overall.

The No. 68 RAFA Toyota of Gresham Wagner, which qualified second, started the race nearly 30 minutes late after encountering electrical issues.

Race 2 is set for a 11:35 a.m. PST start time on Sunday, with live streaming on SRO’s GT World YouTube and Twitch channels as well as on MAVTV.