The 2024 Pirelli GT4 America Season began this past weekend at the renowned Sonoma Raceway in California. Jaden Lander, his new Rotek Racing Team, and teammate Robb Holland are competing in the AM class this season.
The weekend started with the field getting off to a rocky start, with track issues caused by the new pavement hampering both practice and qualifying. The teams participated in two practice sessions on Wednesday and did not see the track again until Saturday morning. Officials declared the Saturday morning session a 45-minute practice and a qualifying session. Despite being unable to get a fully clean lap and issues with Porsche’s Balance of Performance system, Lander set a time good enough for third in class.
Lander started the weekend’s first race and got a good start but got stuck behind an out-of-class Mercedes for the remainder of his stint. He handed the car over to Holland still in third. Holland finished the race in fourth position, the highest finish of any Porsche.
Holland started the weekend’s second race in sixth and maintained that position until handing the car over to Lander. Lander had the car running great and was catching the pack in front before an ABS issue caused him to hit the car in front, which led the team to retire the car from the race.
“This weekend was tough, the balance of performance (BOP) was not in Porsche’s favor. Starting off on the back foot we extracted the most out of the car we could and unfortunately had an early ending to the second race. This is definitely not how I wanted to start this year, but the season is long, and we will come back strong in Sebring! Big thank you to Rotek Racing, Porsche, Hella Pagid, and OMP for this weekend. “
Lander and the Rotek Racing team will be back in action from May 3rd to 5th in Sebring, Florida, for the second race on the GT4 America calendar. The team is already strategizing and preparing to overcome the challenges they faced in Sonoma.