Ryan Yardley has kicked off his double-duty weekend at the Circuit of the Americas, with a podium in GT4 America with his co-driver Damir Hot.
Yardley and Hot had qualified sixth in class and tenth overall, leaving them with work to do. Hot was the elected driver to start the race, where they fell down to fifteenth overall at the start. For the first forty-five minutes, Hot stayed stagnant in fifteenth place while drivers at the front of the field battled it out. It was clear that the deciding factor in this race would be strategy, meaning Hot would aim to preserve the car until Yardley jumped in later for his first stint.
Yardley’s moment came after forty-five minutes of racing, where he jumped in as most of the field came into the lane for a driver change, where he emerged out of the lane in fourteenth.
The first full course-yellow of the race came out with just under two hours remaining. By this stage, Yardley had climbed his way up to a comfortable tenth overall, sitting fifth in class. The FCY did not last long, and Yardley was able to capitalize to climb up to eighth overall and fourth in class.
After forty-five minutes in the car, Yardley handed the #25 Porsche back over to Hot for his final stint. On cycle, Hot climbed up to sixth overall with just over an hour remaining in the race. Hot finished his final stint in sixth overall and fourth in class. Yardley emerged down the overall order but was still in the fight for a class podium, trailing the driver ahead by nine seconds, with less than forty-five minutes to go.
A spanner was thrown in the works yet again with a second full-course yellow coming out with thirty-two minutes remaining, after the #5 McLaren beached off Turn 19. This brought the field back together, allowing Yardley to close up to the back of the car ahead.
Green flag running resumed with seventeen minutes to go, and was trailing the car ahead by just over two seconds with thirteen minutes left in the race.
As a four car battle for the lead emerged, Yardley was able to capitalize on chaos unfolding ahead to slot into third. However, the race was not over as he would now have to sustain pressure from the car behind, not being in the clear yet. The gap got as small as three tenths with a few minutes remaining, however Yardley was able to use all of his experience and keep a very cool head to bring home third place for him and Hot, and also fourth overall.
This result can be considered a good result from their starting position and start of the race struggles.
Yardley will kick off the second half of his weekend in GT Challenge America, taking the track at 5:00am NZST tomorrow morning for his race in the GT class.
Header Image: ACI Motorsports
