Podium for Schmied and Geraci in Texas

Kenny Schmied travelled to Austin Texas over the weekend for the 2025 Pirelli GT4 America Lone Star Enduro at the Circuit of the Americas. Schmied and team-mate Anthony Geraci shared driving duties for the only three-hour race on the calendar behind the wheel of the AM class #72 RAFA Racing Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2. Due to the endurance nature of the event, double points were on offer for the competitors.

With a condensed three-day format, the team set out for testing on Thursday and quickly found the pace, with both the #72 and the #68 posting competitive times in the first two test sessions. As the two practice sessions on Friday kicked off, the team opted to run Geraci in practice 1 and Schmied in practice 2 so that the drivers could get used to long-run pace and how the car would evolve over the race. In between runs, the two drivers practiced their pit stops, as Geraci and Schmied would be helping each other during the driver change due to the crew tackling the tire changes and refueling. 

Saturday morning featured a unique qualifying session, with only one driver qualifying the car and any of the two drivers allowed to start the race. The team elected Schmied to qualify the #72 in the early morning session. On low fuel and sticker tires, Schmied set a blistering lap and his best of the weekend which set the #72 at P2 in class for the start of the race. Geraci would be the starting driver for the three-hour enduro, and Schmied would be the finishing driver, with the two swapping three times during the race.

Geraci took the green flag along 29 other competitors at 5pm central time. Keeping the car clean and maintaining position, several full-course yellows put a pause on the action early in the race. As the second full-course yellow came to an end, the team brought Geraci into the pits for Schmied to begin his first of two stints. 

While the field was still under full-course yellow when Schmied exited the pits, Schmied couldn’t quite catch up to the back of the pack before the green flag despite a rapid out lap. However, this clean air did allow Schmied to show his pace and stretch his legs, so Schmied set off for consistency. Over the next 45 minutes, Schmied would continuously move closer to the field in front and make up the time gap caused by the ending of the full-course yellow, putting the #72 in a competitive position halfway through the running.

With an entirely green flag stint under his belt, Schmied came into the pit lane with one hour and 30 minutes left on the clock to hand the car back over to Geraci. With another entirely green flag stint, Geraci set about the business of continuing the teams charge in what could be called an uneventful session. Track position ebbed and flowed, and the team began preparing for the final pit stop and driver change of the race.

With 50 minutes to go and Schmied having a leg up on race pace, the team opted to box Geraci at the earliest opportunity for the final driver change of the race. A smooth transition saw Schmied leave the pits for the last time just 3 seconds slower than the minimum allowed pit time. Schmied then began the long push to the checkered flag.

Sitting in third position with 30 minutes remaining, a mechanical issue for Fast Track Racing who’s car was now stranded in the carousel caused a full-course yellow. This was excellent timing for the #72 car, as it would bring down the gap to P2 and P1 in class, which were now directly in front of Schmied heading into the final sprint of the race.

With the stalled Fast Track Racing machine now removed from the track, the field began bunching up and preparing for the green flag in what was sure to be an eventful and chaotic final 14 minutes of the race. Schmied tucked up behind the #188 of Ogburn and Holt, with the #36 of Postins and Clay just ahead, and charged towards the timing tower as the green flag flew and the racers all jockeyed for position.

An exciting 14 minutes of racing saw Schmied attempt a few moves on the #188 of Ogburn, but none of them would result in a change of position. Tucking up the inside into turn 13, Schmied got along side Ogburn through 14, but Ogburn defended well and Schmied was unable to make it by the BMW driver into turn 15. Try as he might to chase down Ogburn and Postins, the field turned up the pace and Schmied fell back from Ogburn by a couple of seconds. Unable to make up the gap by the checkered flag, the #72 RAFA Racing Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO 2 crossed the finish line P3 in class and P14 overall.

“I really wish I could have made it by Ogburn in the end there, but Dave did a great job of defending and didn’t let me bully him around, and then it seems like he lit the afterburners and left me without another opportunity. It was great driving from all of the competitors out there” Schmied said. “The respect and the hard racing in this series is second to none. It’s just really impressive to see a field like this race so hard for 3 hours with very few incidents. I wish we could have done better than third with the double points up for grab, but I can’t be too sad to start my first GT4 America season three-for-three on podiums. It shows we are doing something right.”

It was a great weekend for the RAFA Racing team as a whole, with the sister car to the #72, the #68 Supra of Tyler Gonzalez and Gresham Wagner, crossing the finish line first in silver and overall for the teams first GT4 America overall win in 2025. The team continued it’s dominance in McLaren Trophy America, with the #812 of Rafael Martinez and Jon Lancaster bringing home the pro-am victory in Race 2 on Sunday after suffering mechanical issues during Saturdays race.

“This whole team is just full of superstars” Schmied added. “What a great weekend for the whole program, from the GT4 America side to the McLaren Trophy side… it is clear that this team is charging hard and bringing home the results to back it up.”

The next two rounds of the Pirelli GT4 America championship will be at Sebring International Raceway on May 16th to 18th, where the GT4 format returns to it’s normal regimen of two sixty-minute sprint races.