8Star Sweeps PC Weekend at VIR

Photo: John Dagys

8Star Motorsports swept Prototype Challenge honors at Virginia International Raceway, with Luis Diaz taking a flag-to-flag victory in Sunday’s Race 2.

Diaz picked up where co-driver Sean Rayhall left off in Saturday’s first segment, which saw the Mexican ace lead every lap of the 45-minute sprint race, which ended under caution.

While coming under attack from the No. 54 CORE autosport Oreca FLM09 of Colin Braun and Renger van der Zande, who came from dead last on the grid in his No. 8 Starworks Motorsport entry, Diaz managed to hold off both in the closing stages.

A full-course caution for Bruno Junqueira, who suffered a heavy crash at the esses with seven minutes to go, sealed the win and overall event honors for the Enzo Potolicchio-owned squad.

8Star enjoyed a perfect weekend, with Rayhall scoring pole on Saturday dominating Race 1.

It marked the team’s first TUDOR United SportsCar Championship victory and helped close to within 14 points of CORE in the teams’ championship with two races to go.

Braun came across the line in second, although he and co-driver Jon Bennett ended up third overall on the weekend, due to a tie on points with the No. 38 Performance Tech car of David Ostella and James French, who finished ahead of Bennett in Saturday’s race.

Van der Zande finished third in Race 2 but was classified sixth overall due to co-driver Mirco Schultis’ 8th place result in Race 1.

The No. 09 RSR entry of Junqueira and Duncan Ende was classified with a fourth place weekend result, despite the Brazilian’s Race 2 ending accident. Junqueira ran second early but suffered a spin that relegated him to the back of the pack prior to the crash.

PC cars reunite with the rest of the TUDOR Championship grid for a traditional four-class race at Circuit of The Americas on Sept. 20.

RESULTS: Race 2 (PC)
RESULTS: PC Overall Weekend

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