March 31st 2025 – Sonoma, CA.
Kenny Schmied traveled to Sonoma California over the weekend for the opening rounds of the 2025 Pirelli GT4 America season. Schmied and team-mate Anthony Geraci shared driving duties behind the wheel of the AM class #72 RAFA Racing Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2.
Geraci started Race 1 from P4 in class on the grid and immediately moved forward into P3, but a full course yellow was required to clear debris of several incidents at the exit of turn 2. The race resumed with the showing of the green flag on lap 3 with Geraci quickly moving forward into P2, but another accident which took out several competitors required another full course yellow.
After several laps and with the cars now bunched up behind the safety car, the pit lane opened on lap 8 very close to the driver change window. The timing of the pit opening and the position of many cars on the track meant that several of the front runners in the field were unable to pit as they would not hit their maximum stint length. Fortunately Geraci was within the pit window at the commitment line, so a late call saw the #72 hit pit lane for a well executed driver change.
With Schmied now in the car and still under full course yellow, the early stoppers raced to catch back up to the back of the field where those who were unable to pit on first calling now came in to complete their stops. This shuffled the early stoppers to the front of the field, with the late stoppers now racing to rejoin the queue.
With cleanup complete and all of the mandatory pit stops taken care of, the race resumed with the flying of the green flag on lap 12 with Schmied and the #72 now leading the AM class. As the Silver drivers that got shuffled rearward during the pit stops started to come through the field, Schmied was under pressure in the closing stages of the race. But finally, late in the race and with the buffer down to just a single car between Schmied and P2 in AM class, clear track and a string of personal best laps saw him hold off the contenders to cross the finish line in P1 for the pairings maiden class victory and Schmied’s first professional race win.
Race two on Sunday started in very wet conditions with Schmied taking the start from P2 in class. With heavy spray and multiple cars spinning off of the cold and wet track, Schmied struggled to get heat into the Pirelli’s and lost several positions during the first 20 minutes of the race. In such tricky conditions, Schmied managed to survive while being focused on preserving the car until lap 12 when a safety car was deployed to recover several stranded vehicles which had succumb to the conditions.
After the field was bunched up and the pit lane opened on lap 13, Schmied hit the pit lane to hand the #72 over to Geraci, and another well executed driver change saw Geraci emerge from the pit lane P2 in class. With the track now clear and also drying, the green flag flew on lap 17 of the race and Geraci quickly jumped into P1, but was nudged back to P2 later in the lap as a good battle raged.
Several laps later on the main straight Geraci was battling with a Mercedes and an Aston Martin, but contact with the #37 Mercedes sent Geraci down the escape road at high speed, where he then rejoined the circuit at the exit of the Carousel. Several laps later, a 30 second post-race penalty was issued to Geraci for short-cutting the track, and a drive through penalty was issued to the #37 Mercedes for incident responsibility.
After focusing and pushing hard to overcome the pending 30-second penalty, a string of personal best laps allowed Geraci to make up the penalty deficit and cross the line P1 in class and 32.15 seconds ahead of the #07 Skip Barber Racing Aston Martin of M. Garcia in P2.
About an hour after Schmied and Geraci celebrated their second victory on the podium and sprayed their champagne, the stewards amended the short-cut penalty from 30 seconds to 40 seconds, which relegated the RAFA Racing #72 to second place in class for Race 2.
When asked if he could have had a more perfect weekend, Schmied said “No, absolutely not. You know it was so tricky at the start, and I just trusted that he [Geraci] was going to bring it home so I just tried to keep it real safe. But yeah, I handed it over to him [Geraci] and he just crushed it at the end.”
When asked how tough it was during Race 2, Geraci said “I got to tell you, the track was getting better as the race went on, and you know, we got into the incident and luckily I was able to stay with the leaders and follow their pace… and we came out ahead.”
The next round of the Pirelli GT4 America championship will be at Circuit of the Americas on April 26th for the Lone Star Enduro, which is a three-hour long double-points endurance event.
Photos from GT4 America at Sonoma can be found below or at the photo gallery page here.
