It has been a successful weekend for Ryan Yardley at Road America, coming away with a third in Race 2 in GT4 America, before backing it up with a third-place finish in GT World.
GT4 America – Race 1
Yardley’s co-driver, Damir Hot, was elected to start Race 1 and soon moved up to nineteenth. Hot held this position until the first Full Course Yellow came out with fourty-five minutes remaining.
The race resumed with thirty-five minutes remaining, with the majority of the field electing to head into the lane. Yardley jumped into the car at the stop, with the goal to move forward in the last half an hour.
With twenty-five minutes remaining, Yardley sat in fourteenth overall and fifth in class. The Kiwi sat just behind Ryan Eversley, as the Kiwi challenged for fourth in Pr0-Am.
Yardley was soon able to make his move on Eversley, and sat eleven places above where he started by this point. The Kiwi was soon able to jump the third-placed Pro-Am driver, promoting him to the podium.
The Kiwi then started to face late pressure from Roland Krainz, with Krainz making a late move on Yardley to take third in class. Yardley was unable to respond, and had to settle for ninth overall and fourth in class.
Yardley and Hot were able to finish twelve places above where they started, highlighting the race pace of the duo in a solid Race 1.
GT4 America – Race 2
Race 2 started under a Full Course Yellow, as rain fell. Yardley started the race in fourth, and soon moved into third before falling back to fifth.
Drivers started to setttle into their groove as they explored the limits of track conditions, and Yardley was soon able to move into fourth as Leist in third pulled to the side with an issue.
A monumental crash with fourty-five minutes to go brought out the Full Course Yellow, putting a pause to the racing for a significant amount of time.
The yellow flag lasted twenty minutes, and most of the field utilised that time to head through the pit lane for a driver swap. This put Hot in the car, and the duo sat in fourth place.
The race went green for a short period before falling back under full course caution with twenty-five minutes to go.
With approximately ten minutes to go, the green flag came out for a short burst of racing. Hot, sitting third overall and second in class, soon started to fall back as drivers pushed the limits in the wet.
Hot had fallen to ninth overall, but still importantly held onto third in class before a safety car came out, bringing a chaotic race to an end.
GT World Challenge America
After his success in Race 2 in GT4 America, Yardley took to the grid to continue his GT World season with Dave Musial Jr, in their Porsche 911 GT3-R (992) EVO.
The duo qualified twelfth, and started seventh in class. Musial Jr started the race for the team, and sat in thirteenth as the first full course yellow emerged after five minutes of racing.
The race went green for a short period of time before yet another full-course yellow was shown for an issue with another car.
The race alternated between short bursts of racing and yellow-flag running for an hour, and it went green again with two hours remaining. During the yellow flag period, Musial headed into the lane but remained in the car, and was able to move forward from seventeenth.
Musial soon moved into ninth overall, and sixth in class. Drivers started to pull away from each other, with many cars having three second gaps between them.
With around an hour and a half to go, Yardley jumped in the car to finish the race. He sat sixth overall and second in class, eight seconds behind the class leader and eight seconds ahead of third in Pro-Am.
With just over an hour remaining, Yardley sat in fifth overall as another full-course yellow was shown. On the restart, Yardley fell to third in class, but was able to build some breathing room to hold onto that spot.
Yardley sat in fifth with half an hour to go. The Kiwi sat two and a half seconds behind second in class, and held a two-second lead over the #242 of Merrill with twenty-five minutes left.
The Kiwi soon started to pull away, and was able to hold his own to bring home a third place in class – and importantly, seize the championship lead, which Yardley and Musial Jr now hold by a minuscule three points.
GT4 America and GT World will now head to Barber Motorsports Park, starting on the 25th of September.
