Star Performances, Motown in the Mix, Sizing up the Standings
August 26, 2024
By David Phillips
IMSA Wire Service
ALTON, Va. – Sports car fans in attendance from throughout the Southeast and as far away as the Midwest and Canada – not to mention those following the action via television, livestream and radio – were treated to a stellar weekend of racing during the Michelin GT Challenge at VIRginia International Raceway. In addition to three straight days of chamber of commerce weather, some of the highlights included a pair of budding stars of tomorrow – Jagger Jones and Luca Mars – strutting their stuff in two VP Racing SportsCar Challenge races, an IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge race that was tense and enthralling in equal measure, the debut of the Historic Sportscar Racing (HSR) NASCAR Classic series and Jeremy Fletcher’s Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by Michelin “double.”Sunday’s main event – on a weekend when the Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) and GTD PRO competitors were the featured attraction – saw a pair of firsts as the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 captured its initial GTD PRO win since joining the ranks following a GTD championship in ’23. In the GTD race, the No. 32 Korthoff/Preston Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 claimed the team’s first WeatherTech Championship victory.
Star of the Weekend
One of the stars of any race weekend at VIR is the track itself, be it the 17-turn, 3.27-mile “Full Course” or any of its siblings, the North, South or Patriot courses. In the case of the Full Course, not only are there any number of technically challenging sections of road, those sections enable – indeed, encourage – entertaining racing.That was never more apparent than in the final laps of Saturday’s Michelin Pilot Challenge when Karl Wittmer (No. 93 Montreal Motorsport Group Honda Civic FL5 TCR) and Tyler Gonzalez (No. 99 Victor Gonzalez Racing Team Hyundai Elantra N TCR) went wheel-to-wheel and door-to-door in an epic battle for the Touring Car (TCR) class win. Several times, Wittmer pulled even with or even slightly ahead of Gonzalez heading into the Roller Coaster section at the end of the back straight, only for the Hyundai pilot to hold his ground through the gentle left-handed entry and, as the Honda scrambled for traction through the subsequent sharp right-hander, surge back into the lead. To be sure, both drivers displayed remarkable sportsmanship and restraint in refraining from deliberate contact. Equally, the design and execution of VIR gave them the opportunity and the room to race one another as hard as they were respectful. Ultimately, Wittmer finally grabbed the lead for keeps with a sublimely executed fake to Gonzalez’s outside before diving inside under braking for the right-hand Turn 1 (a/k/a Horseshoe). On another day, Gonzalez might well have hung on ‘round the outside of the Horseshoe in the hopes of grabbing the inside line into Turn 2 and the NASCAR Bend left-hander. As it was, he dutifully slotted in behind Wittmer and looked for a better chance to reclaim the lead, a chance that never materialized but not for a lack of potential overtaking spots.That was a tough act to follow. To be honest, Sunday’s WeatherTech Championship race did not generate a signature moment to match the drama of the Michelin Pilot Challenge event. That said, Loris Spinelli’s last-minute charge from P7 to P3 in GTD aboard the No. 78 Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 was ample evidence of VIR’s “raciness” – as if you needed further confirmation of that after the aforementioned Fletcher charged from last to first in Saturday’s Mazda MX-5 Cup race.
Motown’s Mixed Fortunes
Sunday brought decidedly mixed fortunes for the monsters of Motown, Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports and Ford Multimatic Motorsports. Although the No. 1 BMW was in a class of its own, the Multimatic Ford Mustang GT3s were the best of the rest as Harry Tincknell powered the No. 64 Mustang into second spot at the drop of the green flag and remained there for essentially the balance of the race, with co-driver Mike Rockenfeller coming home P2 to claim the car’s first podium finish in GTD PRO; its stablemate, the No. 65 Mustang, finished fourth. And while the No. 55 Proton Competition Mustang – who started on the pole, the first in worldwide competition for the new Ford Mustang GT3 – settled for a seventh-place finish in GTD, a podium finish looked possible before a couple of late “offs” in the wake of the final restart.In contrast, Corvette Racing had a tough race, all the more so given the fact that the team came to VIR in the wake of a 1-2 GTD PRO finish at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and sweeping the front row in qualifying at Road America. Although the Nos. 3 and 4 ‘Vettes demonstrated good pace, they were waylaid by a series of mechanical issues.After running as high as fourth in the early laps, the No. 4 Corvette Z06 GT3.R dropped down the order when it proved reluctant to restart after its first pit stop. Later, the No. 3 lost power while running fifth and returned to the garage to replace a power steering pump, only to subsequently suffer a suspension failure. The net result saw the Corvettes placing eighth and ninth in the nine-car GTD PRO field.On a slightly brighter side, Orey Fidani and Matt Bell brought AWA’s No. 13 Corvette home P7 out of 14 GTD starters, the highest finishing car in IMSA’s Bob Akin Award standings for the second time this season. Fidani leads the Akin standings, which earn an invite to next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans for the highest finishing Bronze-rated driver, by 60 points over Sheena Monk.
It’s Game on in GTD PRO
Heading to VIR, AO Racing, Laurin Heinrich and Porsche enjoyed comfortable leads in the GTD PRO team, driver and manufacturer standings (76, 76 and 88 points, respectively). The only things standing in their way of a GTD PRO “triple” appeared to be the potential for a bad day or two for the No. 77 Porsche 911 GT3 R and the momentum enjoyed by Ross Gunn and the Heart of Racing Team’s No. 23 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of late.After a day when pretty much what could go wrong did go wrong for the AO effort, the respective advantages have slipped and Heinrich, AO and Porsche now lead Gunn, Heart of Racing and Aston Martin by 17, 17 and 39 points, respectively. What’s more, in the wake of their dominating performance at VIR, Madison Snow, Bryan Sellers and PMR have closed to within 111 points of the driver and team leads. With two races remaining on the calendar, suffice to say it’s game on for the GTD PRO championship hardware.As for GTD, although the torrid pace of Philip Ellis and Russell Ward and the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 has cooled just that little bit, they enjoy what for all intents and purposes is an insurmountable lead in the driver and team standings. Ellis and Ward are 284 points up on Turner Motorsport’s Patrick Gallagher and Robby Foley, while Winward enjoys a similar advantage over Turner in the team standings. On the manufacturer side, all hail Mercedes-AMG, which has built a monster 507-point lead over Aston Martin. |
