Estre Rejoins WeatherTech Racing; 18 Entries for VIR

Photo: Porsche

Porsche factory ace Kevin Estre will make his second start of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season with WeatherTech Racing, as part of an 18-car entry for next weekend’s Michelin GT Challenge at Virginia International Raceway.

The 2018-19 FIA World Endurance GT champion will join full-season driver Cooper MacNeil at the wheel of the No. 79 Porsche 911 RSR-19 in the three-car GT Le Mans class, which includes the pair of championship-leading factory Chevrolet Corvette C8.Rs.

Estre last drove with the Proton Competition-run squad at the season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona, with fellow works drivers Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet having been on rotation ever since.

It is one of several changes for the final WeatherTech Sprint Cup round of the season.

As previously reported by Sportscar365, Alegra Motorsports will make its return with Michael de Quesada and Daniel Morad at the wheel of its Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo after missing the last three races.

It joins the Glibert Korthoff Mercedes for Guy Cosmo and Mike Skeen, which also is back in action for the two-hour and 40-minute GT-only contest.

Mario Farnbacher will fill in for the injured Marc Miller at Gradient Racing, with Farnbacher’s Sprint Cup season-long ride Compass Racing electing not to make the trip to Virginia.

A total of 15 GT Daytona class entries are listed compared to the 17 that were at Long Beach last weekend, a handful of which were one-off efforts.

The VIR race is scheduled for Sat. Oct. 9, with practice set to kick off on-track activities the previous day.

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