VIR Post-Race Notebook

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

***Pfaff Motorsports not only claimed its fifth IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship win of the season but also earned consecutive wins at Virginia International Raceway following Laurens Vanthoor and Zach Robichon’s GTD class victory in last year’s Michelin GT Challenge.

***Mathieu Jaminet and Matt Campbell will only need to start October’s season-ending Motul Petit Le Mans to be crowned the first-ever GTD Pro champions. The duo will be rejoined at the ten-hour enduro by Felipe Nasr, who completed the team’s Rolex 24 at Daytona class-winning lineup.

***Corvette Racing’s quest for a third consecutive VIR class win came up short with Jordan Taylor and Antonio Garcia finishing second in their No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD. “We were controlling it at the front but that yellow was really unfortunate,” said Taylor. “Otherwise I think it would have been an easy day. Once that came out, we had to battle back past and passed some guys on track.”

***The Heart of Racing’s Maxime Martin stretched the fuel in his No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 to a 1 hour and 14-minute final stint to finish second and put co-driver Roman De Angelis into the GTD points lead with one round to go. The Canadian now holds a 45-point margin over former championship leader Stevan McAleer in the No. 32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

***McAleer and co-driver Mike Skeen finished eighth in class after making an unscheduled stop for a loose right-rear tire in the second hour. It has ended the team’s streak of being atop the points standings dating back to the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring in March.

***Wright Motorsports’ Ryan Hardwick and Jan Heylen, who finished fifth in class on Sunday, now sit 57 points behind in third, with VIR class winners Russell Ward and Philip Ellis fourth and still mathematically in with a chance of the title at a 140-point deficit to De Angelis.

***Bryan Sellers, who along with Madison Snow won the WeatherTech Sprint Cup on Sunday, was left questioning how the eventual GTD class-winning Winward Racing Mercedes and several other cars got ahead his No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 following the late-race splashes of fuel.

***Sellers, who led for 17 laps overall prior to his stop for fuel and left-side Michelin tires, said: “I felt like we kind of had the race in control. I don’t really know how it unraveled on us at the end there. But, I know that we did everything we needed to do to be in the fight at the end there.”

***The overall and GTD Pro pole-sitting No. 23 The Heart of Racing Aston Martin was put off-sequence when Alex Riberas served a drive-through penalty for the crew working outside the pit box during its stop under the yellow. Riberas led GTD Pro by staying out until getting passed by Jaminet with 15 minutes to go and then pitting for a splash.

***Rick Ware Racing’s Acura NSX GT3 Evo22, which impressed early in the hands of Aidan Read, was also served with a drive-through penalty from the yellow, due to having too many crew working on the car. Read and co-driver Ryan Eversley finished ninth in class.

***A right-rear tire rub, triggered by contact from Ellis’ Mercedes, forced Jeff Westphal to pit his No. 39 CarBahn with Peregrine Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo with 1 hour and 4 minutes to go, which put them outside of the pit window and led to an additional late-race stop for fuel. Westphal and co-driver Robert Meginnis came home 11th in class as a result.

***The No. 44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin of Gold-rated driver Andy Lally led the race overall for seven laps after electing to stay out during the race’s only full course caution. The fellow Bronze-crewed team of Hardpoint was also on the same strategy with driver Katherine Legge, although did not factor into the final results.

***While Hardpoint finished tenth in class, Lally was forced to make an unscheduled stop for a right-rear puncture moments after making the green flag stop for fuel and tires in the final hour.

***NTE Sport’s Lamborghini of Jaden Conwright and Marco Holzer was the race’s only retirement, with Conwright pulling off track on the opening lap with steam billowing from the engine area after suffering a spin and off-course excursion.

***Michelin North America’s new director of motorsports Jason Anzalone gave the command to start engines for the race, with the Michelin Man waving the green flag to kick off the two-hour and 40-minute contest.

***All five classes will return to action for Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, which will close out the WeatherTech Championship season on Oct. 1 and crown champions.

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