Shift Up Now Athletes Laura Hayes, Hannah Greenemeier and Hannah Grisham competed in rounds 10 and 11 of Pirelli GT4 America at Barber Motorsports Park on September 5-7, 2025, where Hayes brought home a class win on Sunday.
Driving for Thunder Bunny Racing (TBR), Hayes and teammate Allen Patten piloted the No. 606 BMW M4 GT4 (G82) EVO in the Am class. “The Hannahs” competed for Heart of Racing (HoR) in the No. 26 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 EVO in the Silver class.
The Barber weekend featured a unique schedule due to the first race from the previous event weekend at Road America being rained out. It was then added to the Barber racing schedule, with the starting grid set from the Road America qualifying results.
On Thursday, cars took to the track for the first time for testing and practice one. Practice two then took place on Friday morning before the rescheduled race later that day.
For HoR, Greenemeier was lined up on the outside of row six - in 12th place - for the 3:35pm CST start time. Hayes was behind the wheel first for TBR, starting on the inside of row nine.
At the drop of the green flag, the field had a clean start and Hayes immediately went into attack mode, picking up a position on the first lap. She was in a nose-to-tail chain with the two class leaders on the 2.38-mile, 17-turn road course where passing is notoriously difficult.
For most of her stint, Hayes battled with the class leaders, looking inside and outside for opportunities to pass. The three cars were separated by inches but raced clean for her entire stint.
Meanwhile, Greenemeier had her sights set on making the pass for 11th. She made her move and then began chasing down the 10th-place car.
In the battle for the lead in the Am class, the two front cars made light contact at the esses, causing the leader to spin into the barriers. Hayes, now running second in class, reacted immediately and pulled into the pits in anticipation of the caution. When the yellow flag flew, she was on pit lane at exactly the right moment.
The HoR team also had a good stop, gaining several positions overall as Grisham took over the car. Twenty minutes remained when green flag racing resumed and Grisham picked up where Greenemeier left off, setting fast times and picking off competitors one at a time. She crossed the finish line in sixth overall.
Patten was behind the wheel for TBR in the second half of the race. Despite a chaotic stint, the team took the checkered flag third in class to earn their third podium of the season.
With the Road America makeup race in the books, it was time to focus on qualifying and the two regularly-scheduled, one-hour races at Barber.
Qualifying took place on Saturday morning, with Hayes behind the wheel first for TBR. The Wilton, California native put the car on pole for the first race, and eleventh overall. Then teammate Allen qualified second in class for race two.
A technical issue with the HoR Aston Martin forced the team to bring the car back to pit lane after only a couple laps, putting them on the back of the starting grid for both races.
Saturday afternoon, the field lined up for the start at 4:50pm CST. Hayes rolled off from the inside of row six and had a strong start again, flying side-by-side with the 10th-place car through the first several corners.
When the technical issues continued for the HoR team, Grisham had to pull the car into the pits and retire after just a few laps.
Hayes kept pace with the lead group, leading her class, and fighting cleanly and fast inside the top ten. She was 3/4 of the way through her stint when the car’s left front tire began to lose air, causing handling issues and a loss of pace.
Just one lap before the pit window opened, the tire gave up. Hayes’ five-second lead in class disappeared as she limped the car to pit lane for a tire change. Because the stop was outside the pit window, TBR also wasn’t allowed to switch drivers, so the additional stop only a few laps later put the team down one lap for the remainder of the race. They would finish 18th overall and third in class.
On Sunday, the start of Barber’s race two began at 11:10am CST, with Patten behind the wheel for TBR in 15th, and Greenemeier starting for HoR from the back of the field.
After a clean start, two mid-pack cars made contact heading into turn 13. Greenemeier took advantage and picked up multiple positions. By the end of the first lap, she had advanced to 16th, then moved to 15th within a few more laps.
Just ahead of her, Patten was maintaining his position in 12th overall, and second in class.
When the pit window opened at the halfway point, teams held off as long as possible in case of a yellow flag. Both TBR and HoR had clean, quick pit stops and driver changes before debris from a competitor’s blown tire caused a full-course yellow as the pit window closed.
After a short caution period, 18 minutes remained in the race. During a frantic restart, two lead cars made contact, causing an accordion effect for the rest of the pack and sending another car off track in turn four. Hayes and Grisham were in the middle of the action but kept their cars clean.
By the end of the first green-flag lap that followed, Hayes was running behind the leader in class. She got a run to make the pass into turn one and take the class lead, running 10th overall. Grisham was able to follow her through and slotted into 11th overall, and fourth in the Silver class.
For the next several laps, Hayes and Grisham raced closely and cleanly. The two Shift Up Now Athletes were knew they weren’t racing each other in class, but aware that Grisham was aiming to advance further up the field overall while Hayes maintained her lead buffer.
On the penultimate lap, the car in front of Hayes spun at the bottom of the corkscrew. She narrowly avoided contact and a loss of momentum while holding her position in the lead of the class.
In the first turn of the final lap, Grisham ran slightly wide, allowing the second place in Hayes’ class through and onto her tail for a last-lap showdown for the win. Hayes withstood the pressure and crossed the line as the victor, finishing ninth overall, and just 0.4 seconds ahead of second place.
“I’m really happy to wrap up our SRO season with the win,” said Hayes. “We know we’ve had the potential to bring home victory many times this season, so the validation felt great. We’ve learned a number of lessons along the way and I’m excited to take that into next year.
“I’d like to send a big thank you to the TBR crew, Oore Jewelry, Shift Up Now, and everyone who kept fighting alongside Allen and I. We can’t wait for the 2026 season!”
The season finale for Pirelli GT4 America is next on the calendar as the series heads to the historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway for rounds 12 and 13, on October 16-19, 2025.
