IMSA News & Notes, 7.1

***TRG-AMR North America team principal Kevin Buckler confirmed that following an impressive team debut, Kuno Wittmer will return to the team’s No. 007 Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 at Virginia International Raceway, again filling in for James Davison alongside Christina Nielsen.

***After the third round of the Tequila Patron North American Endurance Cup, all four driver pairings and teams that led the points going into the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen retained it coming out. The No. 5 Action Express Racing, No. 3 Corvette C7.R, No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports and No. 93 Riley Motorsports entries lead heading into Petit Le Mans.

***With a runner-up finish in GT Le Mans, the No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR of Jorg Bergmeister and Earl Bamber scored its first podium finish of the season in Watkins Glen. It was the eighth and final full-season GTLM entry to reach the podium this season.

***The Porsche 1-2 in GTLM is its first since Petit Le Mans last year, which occurred in the same order, with the No. 17 Falken car ahead of the No. 912 Porsche. It’s also Bamber’s first TUDOR Championship podium since Petit Le Mans, when he was part of that No. 912 lineup.

***Magnus Racing celebrated its third straight Watkins Glen podium, and first podium of 2015 with drivers Andy Lally, John Potter and Marco Seefried by continuing its weekend-long running joke of leaving Seefried out of its copy, or release photo. “With Potter out of the car, it was now time for the team’s third driver to get in and drive the middle the middle stint of the race. However, since this driver was not the team owner, nor a huge celebrity, we didn’t pay attention to what he was doing,” the team wrote in its post-race release.

***Bamber and Seefried have now scored podiums at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen in succession.

***With Magnus breaking through, it leaves the No. 33 Riley Motorsports Dodge Viper GT3-R and No. 97 Turner Motorsport BMW Z4 GT3 as the only full-season entrants in GT Daytona to have not scored a podium this season.

***BAR1 Motorsports recorded its first podium finish of the season in the team’s fourth race. The podium marked both Matt McMurry and Daniel Burkett’s first in TUDOR Championship competition.

***Team owner CJ Wilson watched Saturday’s Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge race from the IMSA App while in Anaheim ahead of that day’s Los Angeles Angels game versus the Seattle Mariners. It marked the team’s first win in two years.