VIR Post-Race Notebook

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

***Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims’ victory in Sunday’s Michelin GT Challenge at Virginia International Raceway marked the 25th year that Corvette Racing has won at least one IMSA race in 26 seasons of competition to date. It marked the Pratt Miller-run team’s 117th IMSA class win, with its last win coming 11 races ago at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, also with Garcia and Sims.

***It was Garcia’s fifth win at VIR in 16 starts, the most by any driver in IMSA history. Additionally, three of the last six races at VIR have been won by the Pratt Miller squad.

***Corvette Racing program manager Jess Dane said: “The strategy and execution by both the No. 3 and No. 4 Corvette teams were perfect and showed that ‘Never Give Up’ spirit of Corvette Racing. It’s great for our Corvette Z06 GT3.R program, good for the manufacturers championship and good for the drivers championship as well.”

***Garcia and Sims have extended their lead in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTD Pro championship standings to 53 points over DragonSpeed’s Albert Costa, who along with co-driver Giacomo Altoe, finished second in the two-hour and 40-minute contest.

***Altoe, who scored his third class pole of the season on Saturday, was left confused how he lost the lead at the start of the race to the pair of Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVOs of Neil Verhagen and Dan Harper. However, the end result marked the Elton Julian-led team’s fourth consecutive GTD Pro podium.

***He said: “As always, you can never predict a result here in IMSA, even if you’re starting on pole. I didn’t really understand what happened at the start. I have to watch the replay before to understand. But in the end, we had a hard fight on track. Albert did an amazing job, as always, and we got really good points for the championship, even if the No. 3 car finished above us.”

***Davide Rigon will return to the wheel of the No. 81 Ferrari 296 GT3 for next month’s Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with Costa as a driving duo, while Altoe will return as the team’s third driver for the season-ending Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. Like GTP, GTD Pro rules do not mandate three drivers for six-hour races.

***Ford Multimatic Motorsports nearly pulled off a podium finish with its No. 64 Ford Mustang GT3 of Mike Rockenfeller and Seb Priaulx, which saw Priaulx both start and finish the race in one of the many alternate strategies executed by teams on Sunday.

***Rockenfeller said: “We realized that this week was going to be challenging on this circuit, but we gave it everything we had in our Mustang GT3. Finishing fourth helped us gain some points on some of our competitors in the manufacturer’s championship, which is very positive. Of course, we wanted to podium – especially with such a great presence here from Ford.”

***AO Racing’s Laurin Heinrich and Klaus Bachler salvaged a fifth place result, aided by a well-timed full-course yellow that saw Heinrich pit his No. 77 Porsche 911 GT3 R for service moments before the caution. It’s kept the driving duo still in with a mathematical chance of the GTD Pro championship, although 191 points behind Sims and Garcia with two races to go.

***The No. 77 Porsche was one of six cars to be penalized for either incident responsibility or blocking, following a significantly ramped up enforcement of driver conduct, as outlined in the pre-race drivers’ meeting by IMSA race director Beaux Barfield. This led to a significantly different-looking race than the most recent round at Road America, which many drivers admitted was ‘over the limit’ in terms of contact.

***Triarsi Competizione’s Ferrari of Kenton Koch and Onofrio Triarsi, who ended up finishing second in GTD, was also also assessed a drive-through penalty early in the race. “It was unfortunate we got the penalty at the beginning,” said Koch. “I’ll have to look as it and see if it was really warranted but I’m glad that they did crack down on a lot of stuff because it was definitely aggressive and getting a little bit out of hand.”

***Triarsi, who was driving at the time of the penalty, added: “It was unfortunate. I got the car up to first place. It was definitely a clean pass and unfortunately, I guess, [they] were trying to make a point out of me here. It’s worth the discussion with Beaux because I did give the space. I think it was undeserved.”

***In a rare occurrence, the pit exit light malfunctioned while under the race’s second yellow. AO’s Heinrich escaped a penalty due to the issue, which resulted in IMSA utilizing a person with a flag at pit-out for the remainder of the race.

***The No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW of Verhagen and Madison Snow, which led a class-high 31 laps, finished sixth in GTD Pro after being the first car home that pitted while under the second yellow. Verhagen, as well as the No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Nicky Catsburg, were among the last cars to make their first pit stops, nearly at the end of the opening hour.

***Winward Racing’s third class win of the season has seen Philip Ellis and Russell Ward extend their lead to 171 points over Heart of Racing Team’s Casper Stevenson, who along with co-driver Tom Gamble, claimed a last-gasp podium finish on Sunday following the post-race time penalty, equivalent to a drive-through penalty, to the No. 78 Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 of Mario Farnbacher for blocking. Farnbacher, who led a race-high 27 laps in GTD, was classified 12th in class.

***Koch, who was behind Farnbacher while battling for second, said: “Because they were cracking down [on contact], I knew he was kinda sniffing and moving under braking quite a lot. The only way I could really get by was hopefully to try and get close enough to make something happen. But every time I’d get close enough, he would move under braking. There was not much I could do about that.”

***Ward, who started second in class, got shuffled back to seventh at the start due to what the Silver-rated driver indicated was because of GTD Pro traffic. A new-for-2025 rule grids all cars according to their class, which saw seven of the ten GTD Pro cars placed ahead of the GTD pole-sitter Jack Hawksworth.

***Ward said: “It was a pretty uncharacteristic start with a lot of stop-go, stop-go. Then we went and I felt like I got a pretty good jump but the inside lane got a much better jump. I don’t know what to say. This is what happens when you stick a red sticker (GTD Pro) in the car and put it above everybody.”

***Gradient Racing scored its first top-five finish of the season, coming in the final outings for Jenson Altzman and Robert Megennis this season. “To end our sprint campaign with a top five is super exciting,” said Megennis. “This team does such a great job executing. We have this Mustang GT3 in such a good window now, and I’m really excited to see what Gradient Racing can do with it moving forward. It feels even better, because we worked so hard to get here.”

***The cause of the fire on the No. 45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini of Danny Formal, who was evaluated and released from the trackside medical center, will be investigated once the car returns to the team’s shop in Indianapolis according to team principal Wayne Taylor.

***Formal said: “Luckily, I was able to get out the car with minor burns, but I am OK and in great spirits. I’m super bummed to go out this way after a strong first stint but happy I was able to walk away. I am very thankful for the safety team at IMSA and everyone who took care of me today.”

***The WTR Lamborghini was one of two retirements, the other being the No. 48 Paul Miller BMW, which stopped on track with apparent engine failure to bring out the race’s second yellow.

***All four WeatherTech Championship classes will return to action at The Brickyard on Sept. 19-21, which will mark the final scheduled Michelin Endurance Cup round at Indianapolis before it moves to Road America next year. The season concludes with the ten-hour Petit Le Mans enduro on Oct. 9-11.

Tony DiZinno contributed to this report

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