It has been a hard fought weekend in Sebring for Ryan Yardley, coming away with a set of disappointing results in Pirelli GT4 America, but was able to bounce back to take a top 5 in class in GT World Challenge America.
GT4
Race 1
Once again competing in GT4 America with co-driver Damir Hot, the duo qualified eighteenth overall for Race 1, and thirteenth overall for Race 2. After taking a class podium at the Circuit of the Americas, both drivers would need luck to fall their way to get back up to where they knew they could be.
However, Race 1 did not go to plan at all. Co-Driver Hot started the race and soon moved up to fifteenth overall, showing good pace early on. After five minutes of racing, the first full-course yellow came out with a driver stranded with a puncture. Soon after racing resumed, Hot suddenly dropped out of the top twenty-five, with no reason stated over the commentary.
Yardley and Hot were classified in twenty-seventh place at the finish, twenty laps down on overall winners Spencer Pumpelly and Luca Mars.
Race 2
After a difficult Race 1 for the ACI Motorsports team, Yardley and Hot were looking to bounce back in strong fashion.
Starting in thirteenth, the Kiwi would be the driver in the car for the first stint of the race. Yardley, doing what he does best, had a great start to move up into ninth position.
Once again, after five minutes of racing, a full-course yellow came out after a big off for the #26 car. Yardley had moved up to eighth by the time the yellow had come out, meaning the Kiwi was one of the biggest movers in the race so far.
It would take the safety team ten minutes to get the track to a safe state, meaning Yardley only had approximately twenty minutes to make as many moves as possible to climb his way to the podium.
Due to the tight, close racing off the restart, an aggressive move from Miller in the #39 left Yardley on the back foot after falling down to fifteenth. However, Yardley was able to claw his way back up the field, climbing as high as fifth while other drivers headed into the lane, before he handed the car over to Hot with approx. twenty-six minutes to go.
Hot emerged from the lane in thirteenth position but moved down to fifteenth after some close battles on pit exit. Unfortunately, Hot was unable to keep up with the drivers ahead and while nursing a potential issue, fell down towards the bottom of the top twenty.
Hot crossed the line in twenty-second, over twelve seconds behind the next finishing car.
GT World Challenge America
After a string of tricky races in GT4, Yardley and co-driver Dave Musial Jr. knew they had potential to ruffle some feathers at the sharp end of the grid. Yardley and Musica Jr qualified fifth in class in their Porsche 911 GT3-R (992) EVO, meaning they would start the race from tenth overall.
Musial Jr. started the three hour race as the first driver, remaining in tenth in the early stages. Musial Jr. elected for an early pit stop, heading into the lane after fifteen minutes but remained in the car. This left the #31 Wright Motorsports car down in fifteenth overall, but with a significant chunk of pitstop time completed.
The stint then focused on Musial Jr moving his way up the order, after rejoining the race in fifteenth. The Porsche 911 did not look as fast as the other brands on track, and Musial Jr. slowly picked cars off ahead, climbing as high as eighth in the race while drivers around him elected for a different strategy.
Musial Jr. eventually elected to head into the lane with an hour and fourty minutes remaining, with Yardley jumping in the car at this point.
Yardley emerged behind trans-tasman teammate Tom Sargent, and sat in tenth with an hour remaining. There was a comfortable gap to Sargent ahead and Eriksson behind, meaning Yardley just needed to preserve the car, tires and fuel levels to come away with a good result.
With an hour to go, Yardley came into the lane for his final stop but remained in the car. This dropped him down to twelfth, but he remained behind teammate Sargent. Soon enough, a full course yellow came into action on track which left Yardley in ninth with twenty minutes to go.
When the green flag dropped once again, Sargent was able to pull away and start to make progress forward, but Yardley remained in ninth. He still sat in a comfortable fifth overall, and still had fourteen minutes remaining to make further progress through the field.
Ninth overall and fifth in Pro-Am is where Yardley remained until the finish, coming home less than a second behind eighth, and less than a second ahead of tenth.
Yardley now has a short break from GT4 America and GT World Challenge America, where the Kiwi will next take to the track on the 12th of June at Road Atlanta.
Header Image: GT World Challenge America
