VIR Friday Notebook

Photo: Wes Duenkel/Ford

***On Friday morning, Ford Performance took the wraps off its Mustang GTD ‘Liquid Carbon’ liveried pair of Ford Mustang GT3s that will compete in Sunday’s Michelin GT Challenge at Virginia International Raceway. The Nos. 64 and 65 Multimatic Motorsports-run GTD Pro entries feature a similar livery to the Mustang GTD that debuted last week at Monterey Car Week.

***The Mustang GTD Liquid Carbon, which has 13 pounds of weight savings compared to the Mustang GTD Carbon Series with the Performance package, is on display at the Ford Corral, while a separate (non-Liquid Carbon) Mustang GTD will serve as the safety car (pictured above, leading the two Liquid Carbon-liveried Mustang GT3 cars) for the two-hour and 40-minute IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race.

***Announced last year, the Mustang GTD is the quickest road-going Mustang ever built, inspired by the Mustang GT3 race car. It features a Ford Performance-engineered, supercharged 5.2-liter Predator V8 that’s turned to produced more than 800 horsepower, along with a near 50/50 weight balance.

***Mercedes-AMG factory ace Philip Ellis is one of several drivers that took part in last month’s GT World Challenge America powered by AWS round at VIR, which Ellis said can be beneficial to some degree, especially having been at the wheel of the same base Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

***He said: “It’s not so much, unfortunately. It’s a different tire, a different BoP and different weight in the car. But you can get into the rhythm much faster, obviously, having been here a few weeks ago. I can try and relay to Russell [Ward] as well, to see what happened in the races, for example, what we figured it on track.”

***Ellis’ Winward Racing teammate Russell Ward, a Silver-rated driver, set the second quickest overall time in Friday’s one-and-only practice session, topping the GTD class time charts. Ellis and Ward head into the weekend with a 112-point lead in the class standings.

***The No. 36 DXDT Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, in Robert Wickens’ final WeatherTech Championship appearance of the season, was at the bottom of the time charts, although co-driver Alec Udell believes the balance of the car is good and that the team is just fighting for a “bit of grip.”

***Udell said: “We made a bunch of setup changes so there was a lot of in-and-out in this session. I think we’ve got a good handle on where the car should be and just adapting to the conditions this weekend. That’s kind of where we are. It’s not where we thought we would be, I would say, unloading so we have got to dig into that a little bit more.”

***Brendan Iribe and Orey Fidani head into the weekend once again tied for the lead of the Bob Akin Award, after the AWA driver edged out Inception Racing’s Iribe for first-place points last time out at Road America. The end-of-season winner will receive an auto-invite to next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans in LMGT3, an award Fidani won last year that saw the Canadian squad make its debut in the French endurance classic in June.

***While the class is not in action this weekend, AO Racing’s PJ Hyett holds a 107-point lead over Daniel Goldburg in the Jim Trueman Award in LMP2, which also provides an invite to Le Mans for either LMP2 or LMP2 Pro-Am.

***While the last three races at Watkins Glen International, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and Road America were incident and caution-filled, that trend is not expected to continue on Sunday. The last three WeatherTech Championship races at VIR have produced only one full-course caution in each race, while the 2017 edition ran caution-free.

***IMSA has announced the return of the IMSA Esports Global Championship on iRacing, with four rounds scheduled in the off-season, kicking off at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta on Nov. 2, before virtual stops at Sebring International Raceway on Nov. 16, Long Beach (GTP) and VIR (GTD) on Nov. 23 before the season finale at Daytona International Speedway on Dec. 7. A $25,000 prize pool will be on offer for the championship, which will again feature partners VCO, AMD and Michelin.

***Each will have a 75-minute race and be broadcast back-to-back on the same channel as part of a new-for-2025 split race concept. Broadcasts will air live on IMSA’s Official YouTube channel as well as iRacing’s Facebook, Twitch and YouTube channels, with more than 750,000 viewers having watched across the four-race 2024 season.

***IMSA’s VP of partnership marketing and business development Brandon Huddleston said: “It’s become a new tradition that the best sim racers in the world gather under the IMSA banner after our on-track season concludes. After three incredible seasons, the fourth IMSA Esports Global Championship should be another excellent, competitive showcase of talent, just like what you see in real life from the IMSA calendar.”

***Corvette Racing is offering an ‘Insider’s Experience’ fundraiser for the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America. The no-reserve charity auction will offer the top bidder at the season-ending Motul Petit Le Mans a package includes a lunch or dinner with former program manager Doug Fehan as well as being embedded with the team for the day as a ‘VIP team member’ which includes meeting with its drivers, a tour of the cars, VIP guest radio headset with car and crew communications and watching the race sitting atop the team’s pit stand. Click Here for more details and to make a bid.

***In the continuing rivalry between Chevrolet and Ford at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, Romain Dumas set a blisteringly fast 6:48.393 lap time Ford Performance’s 2,000-horsepower SuperVan 4.2 EV earlier this week to edge out the Corvette ZR1X’s 6:49.275 time that initially bettered Dirk Mueller’s 6:57.685 lap in a Ford Mustang GTD set late last year. Ford CEO Jim Farley indicated the ‘Blue Oval’ will bring the Mustang GTD back for another attempt with a proper road car.

***Sunday’s Michelin GT Challenge will have live coverage on USA Network and Peacock, beginning at 2 p.m. EST. Brian Till and Calvin Fish will be in the NBC Sports broadcast booth, with Matt Yocum and Chris Wilner on pit lane. IMSA Radio’s coverage of the international feed, available on IMSA’s Official YouTube channel, will again be anchored by John Hindhaugh and Ryan Myrehn, with Arjuna Kankipati on pit lane.

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