VIR Third Race Positions Leaders Towards Titles

IMSA officials added the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park Race 2 makeup event to the Virginia International Raceway schedule to create a triple-header for the VP Racing SportsCar Challenge. After the third race of the weekend, all three class leaders leave VIR on the doorstep of wrapping up their respective class championships with one full race weekend at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta remaining in the season.

Valentino Catalano (No. 30 Gebhardt Intralogistics Motorsports Duqueine D08 Nissan), Adam Adelson (No. 24 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R) and Kiko Porto (No. 8 RAFA Racing Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2) punctuated their potential title-winning seasons with strong results in Sunday morning’s 45-minute race at VIR.

So long as Catalano, Adelson and Porto start Race 1 at Michelin Raceway, they’ll all unofficially wrap their titles.

Catalano and Jake Walker (No. 6 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3) completed three-race sweeps of the VIR weekend, while Porto won his second race of the weekend.

Catalano led closest championship rival Brian Thienes (No. 77 Forte Racing Ligier JS P320 Nissan) in Sunday’s race by 29.269 seconds to score his seventh LMP3 victory of the season after leading the race flag-to-flag from pole.

As he leaves VIR, Catalano’s lead over Thienes is unofficially 370 points after he began the weekend ahead by 240 points.

In GTDX, Adelson had only a 20-point lead over AJ Muss entering the weekend. Alas with Muss’ absence and with Jake Walker making up 90 points across the three races, Adelson departs VIR with a much wider unofficial 210-point lead over Walker.

Adelson finished second in all three races this weekend behind Walker, who did everything he could to try to overcome a 300-point deficit heading into the weekend.

Today’s battle between the two included several intense moments.

Adelson passed Walker for the lead on the opening lap, Walker passed him back into the esses on Lap 6, Adelson passed him back once more when Walker went off course at Turn 12 on Lap 11, and finally Walker got Adelson back into Turn 13 two laps later. Walker won by 7.258 seconds over Adelson.

GSX saw Porto come into VIR up 340 points over Steven Clemons in the No. 76 BSI Racing Toyota. He leaves it with an unofficial 440-point lead over Clemons, with Porter a further 40 points behind. Porto enjoyed a trouble-free ride to the victory on Sunday, winning by 31.123 seconds over Porter.

Also of note, Matthew Dicken (No. 36 RAFA Racing Ligier) and Justin Di Benedetto (No. 4 Di Benedetto Racing Porsche 718 GT4 RS Clubsport) scored their best finishes of the season with third place in their respective classes in LMP3 and GSX.

The season concludes at Road Atlanta with a doubleheader on Thursday, Oct. 9 and Friday, Oct. 10.

RESULTS: CTMP Makeup Race 2