Pole and a Podium in Las Vegas for Gradient Racing

A unique day-night double-header at Las Vegas Motor Speedway brought Gradient Racing’s debut season in the Blancpain GT World Challenge America to a close. Pole position and second place in race Race 1 was followed up by a fifth place finish under the lights at the venue situated less than 17 miles North of the Entertainment Capital of the World.

_SM_3403_Web_Edit_800.jpg

Saturday’s busy race day started in encouraging fashion with Till Bechtolsheimer taking pole position, in qualifying, by .217 seconds, a significant margin on such a short lap. Understandably, the Manhattan-based Brit was delighted with his performance. “I really wasn’t going out on Lap One for a quick lap,” explained Bechtolsheimer. “When I saw the time for the first flying lap with tires not quite up to temperature and pressure I was surprised. I wasn’t pushing that hard but sometimes that is the way it goes, you end up going quicker when you’re not trying as hard. Second time-by, I thought I was going to be quicker still but I wasn’t able to match the lap time so I decided to pit which meant I only put three laps on the tires while the rest of the field did a few more laps which should help us in the race.”

Team Manager, Andris Laivins was encouraged by the #5 car’s immediate speed and credited Bechtolsheimer’s qualifying performance to the team’s efforts at the previous race in Wisconsin. “A lot of our improvement comes from changes we made at Road America. The last change we made there, going to a stiffer rear spring, was a gain. Coming here, we started off with a better car.”

At the drop of the Green Flag in Race 1, Imperato’s Porsche got by the Gradient Racing Acura to take the lead in the Pro-Am Class. Till settled down and kept the pressure on the leader over the next 20 laps, impressively keeping the gap under one second. On Lap 26, the leading Porsche entered pit lane for its mandatory pit stop handing the lead to Bechtolsheimer. With clear air, Till ran his fastest race lap before pitting and handing the Acura NSX GT3 Evo over to Marc Miller. 

With the the #5 Unit Nutrition team’s best pit-stop of the season, Miller joined the race with an extended lead in the Pro-Am Class. Over the next 10 laps the driver from Michigan, pushed the car to the limit to keep factory drivers, Matt Campbell and Dane Cameron at bay. 

The nature of the race track and the parity in performance of the GT3 cars meant that overtaking was extremely difficult. Unfortunately Campbell’s Porsche made contact with Miller pushing the leading Pro-Am car off track and relegating the car to third place. After the Checkered Flag, race control imposed a 22 second penalty on the leading Porsche which promoted Miller and Bechtolsheimer to second place, the team’s best result since winning in Canada in May.

“The contact by Matt was unfortunate,” explained a disappointed Marc Miller after the race. “I felt like I had settled into a rhythm and as the tires began to wear, I felt like I the car had the balance and the speed to hold Matt and Dane off.”

The final race of the season was held under the lights of the Speedway, Marc Miller began the race for Gradient Racing and worked hard in the early laps to make up for a tough qualifying position.

On Lap 28 Miller passed the #5 Unit Nutrition Acura over to Bechtolsheimer who began his final stint of the season sitting sixth in the Pro-Am Class. The New York made light work of passing the fifth place Ferrari but just as in Race 1 running fast laps and catching drivers was a lot easier than passing. The remainder of the race proved frustrating for Bechtolsheimer as he was faster than the cars in front but could not find a way past the fourth place #80 Acura of Martin Barkey. P5 in Pro-Am would be the result of a drive that deserved much more.

The result was enough to secure fourth place in the SRO Blancpain GT World Challenge America Pro-Am standings, just a single point off P3. The team’s debut season in the category saw one trip to Victory Lane, a pole position and multiple podium finishes in the Class. Without question it has provided the Austin-based outfit with a strong platform on which to build as it heads into the 2020 season.

To keep up with all of our off-season activities and to be the first to find out about our 2020 plans, please follow Gradient Racing on Twitter at @GradientRacing, on Instagram at @gradientracing and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/GradientRacing/.

Declan Brennan