Shift Up Now Athletes Hannah Greenemeier, Hannah Grisham and Laura Hayes competed in round nine of the Pirelli GT4 America championship at Road America on August 15-17, 2025, with “the Hannahs” bringing home a season-best fifth place finish overall, and another fourth place finish in the Silver class.
Driving the No. 26 navy blue and yellow Aston Martin GT4 for the Heart of Racing Team, Grisham and Greenemeier were anxious to return to the track where they took their first Silver Class podium as teammates in 2024. The 4.048-mile, 14-turn Wisconsin road course is also where Grisham earned her first class pole in 2023, her first season with the Heart of Racing Team.
Hayes, together with teammate Allen Patten, piloted the No. 606 BMW M4 GT4 - with a new orange and black livery - for Thunder Bunny Racing (TBR) in the AM class. The car was new for the team, although both drivers have past experience in BMWs. They first won a race in the World Racing League (WRL) GTO class with a modified BMW M2 CS Racing. In addition, the first time Hayes competed at Pikes Peak it was in an M2.
The race weekend began on Friday morning with a strong practice session for all of the Shift Up Now Athletes. The Hannahs jumped into the top ten immediately, with TBR running in the top 15 overall, and second in class.
Later that afternoon, Hayes and Patten improved on their first session, showing their potential with the new platform, and running just outside the top ten overall.
On Saturday morning, qualifying consisted of two 15-minute sessions, with one for each driver. Greenemeier took the wheel first and set a 12th-place starting position for Heart of Racing position in race one. Grisham took over the car for the second session to set the grid for race two, and qualified 11th overall.
For TBR, Hayes was the first qualifying driver. Her run gave them a third-in-class spot - 18th overall - to start race one. Teammate Patten then backed up her performance by also qualifying third in class to set their spot for race two.
Race one - and round eight of the championship was scheduled for Saturday evening, but Mother Nature had other plans. One week earlier, the Shift Up Athletes running in Porsche Sprint Challenge at Road America had a race cancelled due to severe weather, and the trend continued. Torrential rain and major storms rolled in on Saturday, throwing a wrench in the plans.
The 26-car GT4 America field rolled out for pace laps behind the safety car, but the accumulation of water on track and nearby lightening immediately thwarted the effort. A red
flag was thrown to postpone the competition, and a make-up race has been rescheduled for the upcoming event weekend at Barber Motorsports Park.
Race two (round nine) began on Sunday with cool track conditions under overcast skies. Grisham was lined up on the inside of row six, with Patten on the inside of row eight. After one pace lap, the field went two-by-two to the green flag to start the one-hour race.
The start was relatively clean with no incidents, despite some side-by-side racing throughout the field. After a couple laps, Grisham had advanced to 12th place overall. Meanwhile, Patten ran in 18th overall, and within the next three laps, moved up to 17th overall (third in class).
Just as the pit window opened, an incident on track required a competitor’s car to be retrieved. However, race control deemed it to be a local yellow situation and left the pits open, causing a scramble and a crowded pit lane.
Both the Heart of Racing Team and Thunder Bunny Racing executed fast, clean stops, and mandatory driver changes.
Greenemeier and Hayes hit the track in 10th and 14th overall, respectively, and the green flag flew again with 21 minutes remaining in the competition. After the restart, Greenemeier advanced to ninth overall, and Hayes moved up to 13th overall.
Before the TBR team even had the chance to appreciate taking the lead in their class and setting the fastest lap in class, pinhole damage in the radiator from front-end contact earlier in the race forced an early retirement. Patten later reported that he spent a third of his stint driving with water spraying on the front left of his car.
Meanwhile, a full-course yellow flew when a car in the Hurry Downs area spun and hit the wall. Nine minutes remained when green-flag racing resumed, and Greenemeier moved up to eighth on the restart.
Running side-by-side with the seventh-place car, Greenemeier managed to avoid the melee when the leaders - also running side-by-side - made contact. As the chaos at the front of the pack ensued, she chose her line correctly and emerged from the skirmish undamaged, running in fifth in class.
One final full-course yellow emerged with six minutes remaining, causing the race to finish under caution. Greenemeier would cross the finish line in fifth overall - fourth in class - to give the Heart of Racing duo their best finish of the season.
"It was a strong weekend for Hannah [Greenemeier] and I, resulting in our best finish in class, fourth, and our highest overall position of this year, fifth,” said Grisham. “I think we had a shot at a podium, but the race went yellow with a few laps to go and never restarted. But overall, we made strong gains with our car and our driving this weekend. Unfortunately, race one had to be postponed due to the weather in the area, but we are looking forward to having a third race at Barber. Hopefully, we can carry this momentum into the last two race weekends of the year. Massive thanks to the entire Heart of Racing team for their continued support.”
Greenemeier echoed the sentiment, saying, “Overall it was a successful weekend. I believe Hannah [Grisham] and I showed good pace and the team gave a great car all week in every condition. Race two is a bummer just coming one spot shy of a podium but we will keep digging for more. Thank you to the whole Heart of Racing team for their effort this weekend!”
Next up, the Pirelli GT4 America series heads to Birmingham, AL for rounds 8, 10 and 11 of the 2025 championship season. Greenemeier, Grisham, Hayes and Patten will compete at Barber Motorsports Park on September 5-7, 2025.
