Shift Up Now Athlete Laura Hayes, along with teammate Allen Patten, earned their first podium of the 2025 season, competing for Thunder Bunny Racing (TBR) in rounds four and five of Pirelli GT4 America at Sebring International Raceway on May 16-18, 2025.
Hayes and Patten were ready for the scoresheets to finally match their performance after the results from the first two events of the season hadn’t shown what they were capable of. In the season opener at Sonoma, despite qualifying well and earning the pole position in class, they were collected in a lap-one incident that forced them to retire for the weekend.
In the second event at Circuit of the Americas (COTA), the duo once again had a great qualifying run and led the race overall. But with just 20 minutes remaining in the three-hour race, a tie rod broke on the car, taking them out of contention.
Now ready to take on Sebring for the third event of the season, Hayes and Patten had two practices on Friday to dial in the No. 606 Oore Jewelry Toyota Supra GT4. Both drivers took stints behind the wheel to prepare for qualifying the next day on the 3.741-mile, 17-turn road course.
On Friday morning, Hayes was nominated as the first qualifying driver. Just like the day before, the weather was unpleasantly hot and humid, creating slick, greasy track conditions. Nonetheless, Hayes continued the teams successful qualifying streak with an 11th-place spot overall and sitting on the pole in class. Patten qualified second, earning sixth in class, just 0.3 seconds off the class pole.
The first of two one-hour races took place on Saturday afternoon in temperatures that commentators noted felt like more than 100-degree heat. Hayes was behind the wheel first for TBR, on the inside of row six as the 28-car field lined up two by two for the green flag.
After a clean start through the first turn, Hayes found herself briefly running three-wide into turn three before chaos erupted behind her. As the field headed to turn five, three cars went off track, bringing out a full-course yellow at the end of the first lap.
It took approximately 15 minutes to clean up the track before the green flag flew for a single- file restart. Hayes held the lead in class and began putting pressure on the 10th-place car overall. As her stint continued, she maintained the pressure, running just 0.5 seconds behind the car ahead while also defending her position as the car behind filled her mirrors.
When the pit window opened 25 minutes into the race, a majority of her competitors took to pit lane, but TBR elected to leave Hayes on track for some clean laps before her stop. She advanced to second-place overall before the mandatory pit stop and driver change.
When Patten went out, he was leading in class and continuing Hayes’ battle with the lead car overall. As they approached turn one, his competitor made a pass to claim the lead, and Patten tucked in cleanly behind.
The race stayed green until the end, giving Hayes and Patten their first podium of the year, and a fourteenth-place finish overall.
On Sunday morning, the oppressive heat continued to linger for the start of race two. This time, Patten was behind the wheel, rolling off from row 12.
The field made a clean start and Patten set his sights on making passes. When the race settled in, he maintained his position until the pit window opened. TBR elected to pit early and Hayes took over as driver.
Just a few minutes later, a full-course yellow flew and bunched up the field for the single-file restart with twenty minutes remaining in the race. Hayes was running 18th overall on the restart, and third in class, with several out-of-class cars between her and her competition ahead.
Hayes had a strong restart, advancing to the top 15 and onto the tail of the class leaders. With 10 minutes remaining, she made the pass for 13th overall, and second in class. Then, with just one minute on the clock, she caught the first-place car and made the pass, headed for the white flag with the lead.
The now second-place car stayed on her bumper for the first few corners before Hayes was able to establish a car’s length gap. The two caught the cars ahead, battling for position in their own class.
In the final corner, Hayes was forced to defend slightly and got caught by the traffic mid-corner, resulting in a drag race to the line. When the checkered flag flew, she crossed the line in second, missing the victory by just 0.05 seconds.
"After a tough start to the season, it's rewarding to finally walk away with results that reflect the pace we've shown all year," said Hayes. "Sebring isn't the strongest track for our car, so to be in the fight for the win felt good. While it was frustrating to come up just short, I'm proud of the performance we delivered and the statement we made to the rest of the grid. It was a fun race and Allen and I really are looking forward to VIR!"
Next up, the Pirelli GT4 America series heads to Virginia for rounds six and seven of the 2025 championship at VIRginia International Raceway on July 18-20, 2025.
