Christian Szymczak and Kenny Murillo Cap Pole and Double Podium Weekend with Sunday Race Win at Sonoma in Murillo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4

The victory, which is the fourth for Murillo Racing in the last three Pirelli GT4 America race weekends, marks another strong performance for the California-based team.

Szymczak won the SprintX pole position Saturday morning and co-drove with Murillo that afternoon to a third-place overall finish in the weekend's first 60-minute race.

The Murillo team also swept SprintX West Pro-Am class honors at Sonoma. The No. 34 team is well-positioned in a pair of Pirelli GT4 America SprintX regional championships, as Fassnacht and Szymczak won in the East Am class at CTMP and in the Sunday round of the season-opening race weekend at Circuit of The Americas (COTA) in March.

The weekend's strong results for Murillo, the 22-year-old son of Murillo Racing team owner Ken Murillo, came in his GT4 competition debut. The younger Murillo challenged for the overall win to the finish on Saturday and drove a quick but car- preserving pace in his race-opening stint on Sunday.

After a remarkably quick pit stop by the Murillo Racing crew, Szymczak took over in fifth place for the final run to the finish in the No. 34 Mercedes-AMG GT4. While other teams fell off the pace or served penalties for pit violations, the No. 34 Mercedes- AMG GT4 was the fastest car on the track. Szymczak quickly raced from fifth to second and pulled off what would be the winning pass for the overall and class victory, merely 20 minutes from the finish.

In the twin 90-minute Blancpain GT World Challenge America races at Sonoma, DXDT Racing persevered through a tough weekend with its pair of Mercedes-AMG GT3 entries.

The highlight was a fifth-place Pro-Am finish Saturday by George Kurtz and Colin Braun in the No. 04 DXDT Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3.

Next up for Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing teams in the Pirelli GT4 America series is the July 12 – 14 race weekend at Portland International Raceway in Oregon.

Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing teams competing in Blancpain GT World Challenge America return to action at Watkins Glen International in upstate New York on Labor Day Weekend, August 30 – Jun 1.

Kenny Murillo, Driver – No. 34 Murillo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4: 'The team has been firing on all cylinders this year, so I knew it was a good time to settle in and move forward on being a Mercedes-AMG GT4 and Murillo Racing driver. We set out with a game plan for the last race of kind of conserving in the first stint on a different strategy than everyone else. It was a very disciplined drive, to say the least, of maintaining the tires while making sure everybody didn't get away from us. My main goal was to hand over a good, clean car to Christian. We managed to go through the entire weekend with really good results and not a scratch on the car. It's just a lot of hard work and preparation that has been turning up good results. We are really fortunate to have a good, strong group of guys that all have the same dedication and motivation of winning as my Dad and I do. It's incredibly satisfying to put a lot of work into being a driver this weekend and coming out with the results that we did.'

Christian Szymczak, Driver – No. 34 Murillo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4: 'It was really kind of a thinking man's race. The tire degradation is always so severe at Sonoma that you really have to take care of your car early if you want to be there at the finish. Kenny did just that in his drive and let some of the others go ahead even

though he could have stayed with them. That gave me a great car for the finish and the Mercedes-AMG GT4 was just really good all weekend. I've been racing with the Murillos for years now, the team is great and gave us a great car and pit stop.'

Colin Braun, Driver – No. 04 DXDT Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3: 'It was a solid weekend for us. I think we were happy to log all the laps and learn as much as we could. George did a good job in both of his stints and we had some really good pit stops, and I was pretty happy with our car. These races are tough – it's so dependent on where you cycle out into traffic, and it is definitely a tough place to pass. I got stuck behind a couple of cars in my stints and just lost time before I finally got by those guys. All in all, I think we were happy to come out with some good, solid finishes and keep learning as much as we can.'

Photo credit: Mercedes-Benz
posted on conceptcarz.com

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