| October 11, 2024By Mark RobinsonIMSA Wire Service |
| Race 2 Results BRASELTON, Ga. – The IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge driver’s championship was out of reach for Jagger Jones, but he wasn’t to be denied securing the title for his team in Friday’s season finale at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. Jones led the entire 45-minute race on the 2.54-mile, 12-turn road course in the No. 87 FastMD Racing with Remstar Duqueine D08. The win lifted FastMD past MLT Motorsports in the Le Mans Prototype 3 (P3) team standings by just 20 points. MLT’s Steven Aghakhani – the 2024 driver champion – finished second on Friday in the No. 6 Ligier JS P320, 4.835 seconds behind Jones. The victory capped a magical season for Jones, who after missing the opening doubleheader round of the season joined FastMD and crossed the finish line first in 10 straight races. Two of the triumphs were negated – one by a postrace technical inspection infraction and the other for a postrace time penalty assessed in Thursday’s race – but he still collected a series-high eight wins. “It was an awesome race,” Jones said Friday, “Yesterday, I feel like we were even better – we dominated but we got the penalty – so today I just wanted to make sure we got the win, got the team championship.” Now that the season is complete, Jones said he hoped his performance opened eyes in the IMSA paddock as he looks to advance up the series ladder in 2025. “I had to make the most of this opportunity,” he said. “These guys brought me in on the second weekend of the year and if I didn’t win, I don’t think I would be coming back. When your ride’s on the line, you have to go win to make it happen. And that’s what I did. “I’m just really happy to be racing in this series. Thanks to IMSA, Michelin, VP. I had a really fun this year and hopefully I can further my career in the IMSA paddock. Hopefully, some of the LMP2 teams were watching today and even yesterday and this year. I would like to run there next year, but no plans just yet.” Hoffman Takes GSX Win to Give Toyota First IMSA Victory of 2024 |
| In the Grand Sport X (GSX) class, Tyler Hoffman rode the No. 9 Kingpin Racing Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO to the class victory to cap an impressive debut weekend for driver and team. The victory for Toyota means that all 18 manufacturers competing in IMSA have won at least once in 2024 across the sanctioning body’s seven sanctioned series. “This is fantastic,” Hoffman said when informed it was Toyota’s initial win of the year. “I actually didn’t realize that until now. It’s amazing. Toyota has been so great to us, we’re super grateful for all their expertise – the parts, the support, acquiring the cars. They’ve been wonderful to work with and the car is just a blast to drive!” Hoffman, who finished third in Thursday’s race, started second in GSX on Friday, passed pole sitter Patrick Wilmot (No. 88 Split Decision Motorsports BMW M4 GT4) on the first lap and never looked back. He took the checkered flag 3.231 seconds ahead of Bob Michaelian, who hopped into the No. 59 KohR Motorsports Ford Mustang GT4 that Luca Mars clinched the GSX driver and team championships in the day before and drove from the rear of the field to finish runner-up. Hoffman is hopeful that the team’s IMSA debut this weekend is only the beginning. “We were so fortunate to get the Kingpin Racing team out here and to go third yesterday and first today, and really start to figure out the car on this tire,” he said. “It’s just an incredible experience. We look to hopefully come back next year and showcase what we can really do here in VP Challenge and possibly Michelin Pilot Challenge as well.” The 2025 VP Racing Challenge season opens Jan. 17-19 at Daytona International Speedway during the Roar Before the Rolex 24 weekend. |
