Pilot Challenge Teams Bracing for Another Wild Race at VIR

The Virginia Is For Racing Lovers Grand Prix at Virginia International Raceway isn’t the deciding race of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge season. But for the last three years, it’s been one of the wildest races on the calendar.

A thoroughly epic scrap took place in TCR in 2024 between Karl Wittmer and Tyler Gonzalez, ending with Wittmer’s No. 93 Montreal Motorsports Group Honda Civic FL5 TCR just ahead of Gonzalez’s No. 99 Victor Gonzalez Racing Team Hyundai Elantra N TCR following a brilliant outside-inside pass of the 20-year-old. GA was a fuel-mileage affair captured by BGB Motorsports’ Porsche 718 GT4 RS Clubsport.

A year earlier in 2023, a GS dice went front-and-center with a three-car, one-lap dash that ended with a clash. Robin Liddell’s No. 71 Rebel Rock Racing Chevrolet Camaro GT4.R took the win with Frank DePew, ultimately the last for that car before the team switched to Aston Martin ahead of the 2024 Michelin Pilot Challenge season.

TCR saw the Unitronic/JDC-Miller MotorSports Audi RS 3 LMS TCR win ahead of the Bryan Herta Autosport Hyundai armada, led by Robert Wickens and Harry Gottsacker.

And in 2022, to keep up the craziness, Joey Hand made a last lap pass for the win in GS after then-leader, Scott Andrews, ran out of fuel on the final lap. Hand did so despite braking issues in his No. 40 PF Racing Ford Mustang GT4.

Eventual champions Taylor Hagler and Michael Lewis won in TCR for their first win of the season.

The post-script for the 2023 and 2024 VIR wins was fascinating in the following races.

The MMG Honda win in 2024 was the last for the brand in TCR before Hyundai reeled off six straight TCR wins – two to end 2024 and the first four of 2025 – until the No. 93 Honda recaptured the checked flag at this year’s LP Building Solutions 120 at Watkins Glen International.

Drama from the Liddell battle with the two other cars at VIR wound up biting them at the 2023 season finale at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, with one of its VIR rivals pitting on the final lap to lose enough positions that allowed the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 to leapfrog the No. 71 car to take the GS championship by 10 points – or one position.

With the last several years as a backdrop and VIR clearly a fascinating stop for the series as the third-to-last round of the season, will the wildness continue or will a calmer, cooler race prevail? Leaving Road America, the championship battles have intensified.

In GS, RS1’s pair of Jan Heylen and Luca Mars in the No. 28 Porsche have seen their once-unassailable 340-point lead leaving Round 5 at Watkins Glen reduce to 90 leaving Round 7 at Road America.

They’re still in a good spot and head to a track where Porsche won last year with BGB Motorsports.

However, back-to-back finishes off the podium have opened the door for closest rival Jenson Altzman, who along with Nate Cicero won the most recent race at Road America in the No. 13 McCumbee McAleer Racing Ford Mustang GT4. The No. 13 car also has three straight GS poles.

BMW M4 GT4 EVO entries from CarBahn by Peregrine racing, Auto Technic Racing and Turner Motorsport completed the top five at Road America, and BMW’s run of form has also brought it to a tie with Porsche atop the GS manufacturer championship standings with just three races to go.

The TCR title battle remains a neck-and-neck competition between the two BHA teammates in the Nos. 98 and 76 Hyundais, with the No. 93 MMG Honda of Wittmer and LP Montour surging.

The No. 98 Hyundai of Harry Gottsacker leads the No. 76 Hyundai of Denis Dupont and Preston Brown by just 20 points, while after four straight podium finishes, Wittmer and LP Montour are just 90 points back in third place.

The top-ranked Audi from Precision Racing LA sits fifth in points, but 300 points back of the lead.

Among the 40 cars on the entry list split between 24 GS and 16 TCR, there’s a handful of changes. KohR Motorsports’ second Mustang GT4 for Nick Persing and Sam Paley returns, while past TCR entrants Copeland Motorsports make their GS season debut with a Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2.

Stephen Cameron Racing also returns with a new chassis after its Road America incident, adorned in the same full livery of names as its primary chassis.

Three Audis are back in TCR (for a total of six), including Baker Racing also with a fresh chassis and a motivated James Vance and Sam Baker in their No. 52 entry, one of two team cars. Rockwell Autosport Development also returns.

Pilot Challenge teams have two one-hour practice sessions on Friday and qualify Saturday morning.

Saturday’s Virginia Is For Racing Lovers Grand Prix, Round 8 of the 2025 season, rolls off at 2:20 p.m. EST. It will stream live on Peacock and globally, ad-free, courtesy of Michelin on IMSA’s Official YouTube channel.