Pumpelly Holds Off Hindman for VIR Win

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Spencer Pumpelly stretched the fuel mileage of his BGB Motorsports Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport to take victory in Saturday’s Virginia is for Racing Lovers Grand Prix at Virginia International Raceway, in a race that saw trouble hit both class championship-leading entries.

Pumpelly denied Trent Hindman and Stevan McAleer their third consecutive IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge victory in a hard-fought two-hour contest.

Pumpelly, who finished just 0.373 seconds ahead of Hindman, shared top honors with Thomas Collingwood, having made only one pit stop compared to all others in the class that had two stops.

The No. 59 KohR Motorsports Ford Mustang GT4 of Luca Mars and Bob Michaelian completed the overall and GS class podium in third, ahead of the No. 91 Kellymoss with Riley Porsche of Riley Dickinson, who lost third to Mars in the closing stages.

McAleer led from pole until making his first stop with 1 hour and 16 minutes remaining, prior to the race’s first full-course caution when Moisey Uretsky ran out of fuel on track while leading in his No. 44 Baby Bull Racing Porsche.

While the field returned to action with 48 minutes to go, a second yellow, for a multi-car accident that collected the GS championship-leading No. 46 Team TGM Aston Martin Vantage GT4, shuffled up the running order and title implications.

Matt Plumb lost five laps behind the wall undergoing repairs to his TGM Aston, which rejoined in 17th in class and ended up finishing 15th, costing valuable championship points.

The No. 43 Stephen Cameron Racing Ford Mustang GT4 of Sean Quinlan and Gregory Liefooghe made it two Mustangs in the top-five, ahead of the No. 88 Archangel Motorsports Aston Martin Vantgae GT4 in sixth.

Robin Liddell, driving a damaged No. 71 Rebel Rock Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4 EVO, dropped back to seventh in the closing minutes after an off-course excursion for the Scot.

First Win of Season for Honda in TCR Thriller

An early race incident for the No. 17 Unitronic JDC-Miller Motorsports Audi RS 3 LMS TCR of Chris Miller, who finished seventh with Mikey Taylor, took a dent to their class championship lead as well.

TCR class honors, however, went to the No. 93 Montreal Motorsports Group of Honda Civic FL5 TC of Dai Yoshihara and Karl Wittmer, following a hard-fought battle between Wittmer and the No. 99 Victor Gonzalez Racing Team Hyundai Elantra N TCR of Tyler Gonzalez.

After multiple attempts for the class lead, in the closing stages, Wittmer got around Gonzalez for the eventual win with less than three minutes to go.

It marked the first win of the Pilot Challenge season for Honda.

Gonzalez initially got around the No. 98 Bryan Herta Autosport Hyundai of Mason Filippi following the pit stop sequence, after the sister, class pole-sitting No. 77 BHA Hyundai of Bryson Morris led from the start.

He was passed by Wittmer with just two laps to go in the race for the historic win for the Canadian team and Japanese manufacturer.

RESULTS: Virginia is for Racing Lovers Grand Prix

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John