CTMP Podium and Results Shift the Leaderboard
By Tony DiZinno
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Just 40 points cover the top three and 190 span the top five contenders in IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Grand Sport (GS) coming out of Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, and it’s truly a toss-up with just four rounds to go.
Nate Cicero and Robert Noaker have ascended to the GS lead with their third podium in the last four races aboard their No. 13 McCumbee McAleer Racing Ford Mustang GT4. The young chargers hold a 30-point lead over two-time race winners Michael Cooper and Moisey Uretsky in their No. 44 Ibiza Farm Motorsport McLaren Artura GT4 and 40 over Austin Krainz and Stevan McAleer in the No. 27 Auto Technic Racing BMW M4 GT4 EVO.
A back-to-back pair of unlucky races for Turner Motorsport’s No. 95 BMW M4 GT4 EVO has dropped the early season championship leaders and WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca winners, Dillon Machavern and Luca Mars, to fourth and now 140 in arrears. Bryce Ward’s second tough result in the last three races – sandwiching a win at Watkins Glen International – sees him fifth and 190 back in his No. 57 Mercedes-AMG GT GT4.
Consistency Propelling Top Three
In a GS field that has averaged 31 entries per race, ranging anywhere from 29 to 35 cars, your “best worst finish” is a valuable metric to track.
The No. 13 Ford leads that stat, with a perfect six top-10 finishes from six starts. The No. 27 BMW is next best with five top-10s and an 11th. And after an 18th at Daytona, the No. 44 McLaren has ripped off five straight top-10 finishes.
Quite how Cicero and Noaker kept themselves atop that chart is impressive to note after a first-lap incident at CTMP this weekend nearly derailed their race. When caught up in a multi-car skirmish at Turn 5, the No. 13 car fell from sixth on the grid to 25th, but rebounded to third at the checkered flag.
“After how the race started – at the end of the first lap I think we were 25th or something – we put our head down and knew we had to do something to get back up into the points,” Noaker said. “For Nate to get the No. 13 Ford Mustang GT4 to third is a great job by him and the whole team. What looked like a bad day to start with, it’s great to end with a podium.”
The McAleer the Driver vs. McAleer McCumbee Racing Dynamic
One of this series’ fun quirks is that Stevan McAleer races against his own MMR team he co-founded with Chad McCumbee. McAleer’s brother Stuart is often a more omnipresent McAleer in the MMR pit box on race weekends.
On Saturday, Cicero had the fun yet possibly unenviable task of trying to pass his team boss and the No. 27 car in the late stages.
Last year, the battle for third in the championship flipped in the last race when McAleer, the driver, emerged 10 points and one spot ahead of the MMR entry driven by Jenson Altzman for the full season with Cicero as co-driver the second half.
“We had a great Mustang after the second stop when we took the left side tires,” Cicero said. “I was trying to chase down our team owner and boss Stevan McAleer but you know how good he is. He doesn’t make mistakes. Our Mustang was really good today. I had to battle the last couple laps with a little issue with the car but we held on. Amazing.”
The elder McAleer, for his part, was delighted to finally secure the Auto Technic pair’s first podium of the year – just as they did in 2025. But their run to second was not without its challenges.
“I felt we were a little behind after first practice this weekend,” he said. “We definitely found something in practice two. Austin did well in qualifying. We had some good pace. Nate was fully in my mirrors my entire stint; that was great, because I’ve obviously trained him well!
“We needed this. Some of our championship guys hit some bad results today. We got our first podium here last year, got a second, and hopefully Austin and I can build on it.”
Turner, Winward’s Chances Take Tough Turns
Combined, Turner’s No. 95 BMW and Winward’s No. 57 Mercedes-AMG have two wins and six podiums this season. But they’ll need a rally in the final four races after the month of June and start of July dealt them some unexpected tough hands.
Poised for a fifth top-five in as many races, debris struck the No. 95 car in the waning stages at Watkins Glen and dropped it to an unrepresentative 17th. The trip to CTMP was no better as the No. 95 car suffered suspension damage in the aforementioned first-lap kerfuffle and fell down the order to 23rd by the finish.
The No. 57 car suffered an alternator belt issue at Mid-Ohio, bounced back quickly with a win at Watkins Glen, then fell back down again with damage and a second finish outside the top 20 in three starts.
These are championship-caliber teams so they’ll no doubt be back in the fight for the final few events if the luck can turn.
Who’s Done Well at the Final Four Venues?
Coincidentally, both McAleer and McCumbee McAleer Racing have a lot to look forward to next time out at Road America.
MMR won at the track last year with Cicero and Altzman. McAleer won a year earlier in 2024, as part of RS1’s Porsche effort with Trent Hindman.
Mars won at VIR last year with Jan Heylen in an RS1 Porsche en route to their eventual GS title.
Turner and Winward’s Michelin Pilot Challenge recent histories at the upcoming venues have, like their 2026 campaigns (both pictured here alongside Ibiza Farm on the Sebring GS podium, above), also been intertwined.
In 2023, Winward Racing won on the track at Road America with Ward and Daniel Morad but were sent to the rear post-race for a fuel capacity infraction. Turner most recently won in GS at Road America in 2021 with Machavern and Bill Auberlen.
Turner’s most recent GS win at VIR came in 2020 with Auberlen and Robby Foley, a race Winward qualified fastest with Russell Ward.
Winward has a win at Indianapolis, in the venue’s one year hosting a four-hour race in 2023.
But the big star of the last two venues is Ibiza Farm Motorsport, whose No. 44 McLaren went back-to-back to win at Indianapolis and Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.