VIR Saturday Notebook

Photo: Wes Duenkel/Ford

***Andrea Caldarelli claimed the first pole position for the Lamborghini Temerario GT3 in global competition, just three weeks after the Italian and fellow Lamborghini factory driver Sandy Mitchell delivered the first-ever win for the car at Road America, which came retroactively following the disqualification of Mirko Bortolotti’s win in the second DTM race at Oschersleben due to wheel bearing non-compliance.

***The pole for Sunday’s Michelin GT Challenge was Lamborghini’s first at Virginia International Raceway in 2017 when Jeroen Mul took Change Racing’s Lamborghini Huracan GT3 to top qualifying honors in GTD. Mul and Corey Lewis translated the pole run into a class win that year.

***Caldarelli revealed they went into qualifying “blind” after he turned only a single laps in Friday’s opening practice due to a wheel speed sensor issue. “We took a direction after FP1 and even if we didn’t drive, we [decided] to go towards that direction,” he explained. “Then in FP2 we were like, ‘Ok, we don’t have a comparison to FP1 but the car feels pretty decent even though we don’t know if it’s going to be as good or as bad as FP1. We really went into qualifying with an open mind and take it as a test.”

***He credited the engineering team, between Lamborghini Squadra Corse and Pfaff Motorsports, for the gains made with the new-for-2026 car in recent races. “I think this really shows how strong these group of guys working in the engineering room between Lamborghini and Pfaff to really understand the car in the last few events and give us a good car for quali and the race.”

***DragonSpeed became the third different Corvette team to claim IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship pole positions this year, joining DXDT Racing at Long Beach (Robert Wickens, GTD) and Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports at Detroit (Alexander Sims, GTD Pro).

***The Elton Julian-led team became one of the few WeatherTech Championship teams to have scored class poles in three different classes, thanks to Casper Stevenson’s top qualifying run in GTD. Its most recent pole came at VIR last year in GTD Pro with Giacomo Altoe, while also having previous poles in LMP2 competition.

***Stevenson, who claimed his second top-qualifying effort in series competition after taking GTD pole for last year’s Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with Heart of Racing Team, said getting a podium tomorrow is a “huge target” after he, Altoe and Alec Udell initially celebrated a third place class finish at Road America but were moved back to fourth after the podium ceremonies concluded due to a post-race investigation by race control.

***Stevenson said: “It felt really good for the ten minutes we were on the top three at Road America, so I want that same feeling, and I see no reason why we can’t.”

***Ironically, both pole-sitting teams will not be returning to the WeatherTech Championship next year.

***Danny Formal believes he could have made it a double pole for Lamborghini, had he not made a mistake on his fast lap in the No. 45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, which paced Saturday’s final practice overall. The Costa Rican ended up qualifying fourth in GTD.

***Formal said: “Traffic at the last lap, a driver got in my way, but I was mad at myself because I didn’t get the pole. The team, the car, they did such a fantastic job. I don’t like making mistakes and I made a big one into the last corner. I don’t know whether we would have gotten pole, but we, for sure, would have been closer.”

***An uncharacteristic accident by Felipe Fraga in the No. 16 Myers Riley Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3 EVO in the opening moments of final practice resulted in left-front damage to the GTD class contender, although the team managed to repair the car and get it back on track for the final 15 minutes of the session.

***Bill Riley told Sportscar365: “The crew put it together really quickly and got the car back on track. It was mostly cosmetic, and while the guys still worked super hard, we got it back [in the session] to at least verify the car before qualifying and therefore before the race.”

***Sheena Monk qualified 12th, having lost her quickest time in the session due to the car having brought out a red flag during practice. She was also forced to serve a drive-through penalty early in the session due to a pit speeding infraction.

***It was revealed that the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 lost considerable time in Friday’s practice session after Benjamin Pedersen ran over a curb and damaged the car’s splitter. Co-driver Aaron Telitz qualified the car sixth in GTD.

***The pair of factory Ford Mustangs qualified sixth and ninth in GTD Pro in the hands of Dennis Olsen and Frederic Vervisch, respectively, after running 1-2 in Friday’s opening practice session. Vervisch told Sportscar365 that their position on Friday was not the “real picture” indicating they had a leg up on the competition early in the weekend by testing at the track last week.

***Vervisch’s co-driver Christopher Mies feels that tire degradation will play a key factor in tomorrow’s two-hour and 40-minute contest, due to the abrasive nature of the 3.27-mile circuit, which was last fully repaved in 2014. He also expressed safety concerns in the Turn 10 section of the circuit.

***He told Sportscar365: “Here, it’s a huge tire deg. Once you stop, you lose, six, seven, eight, nine-tenths. I’m hoping for next year VIR is repaved and do something on the T10 exit because if you go off there, I think it’s dangerous for the car and for the driver. Jules Gounon broke his vertebrae a couple years ago in the Mercedes going off because there’s a big ditch.”

***While it was previously confirmed that YRB Racing would complete the season in the GTD Pro class, Aston Martin factory driver Marco Sorensen indicated to IMSA Radio’s Arjuna Kankipati that he expects to be in the ‘Car Blanche’ Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo for both the Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

***Wayne Taylor Racing is expecting to maintain its presence in multiple classes next year according to its vice president and general manager Travis Houge, who confirmed a continued two-car Cadillac V-Series.R effort in GTP and effort in the GT ranks, alongside multiple Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America entries.

***While declining comment on the manufacturer for its GT program, Sportscar365 previously reported that WTR has placed a bid for Lamborghini’s GTD Pro effort in the wake of Pfaff’s exit from the series. The team is believed to have been in contact with other manufacturers as well given the current shift in the paddock with several teams either leaving the series or consolidating programs.

***Houge, however, confirmed that WTR will not be on the grid at the 24 Hours of Le Mans next year, in what’s been a rotation agreement with fellow Cadillac IMSA GTP squad Action Express Racing that was established last year. Both teams were present at Le Mans in 2025, which is understood to not have been the original plan, with WTR having gotten a late call-up for its Le Mans debut.

***He told Sportscar365: “AXR is going next year and we went this year. It’s been a gentleman’s agreement of rotating on what GM wants us to do.” Grid space in the French endurance classic will significantly tighten beginning next year with the arrival of both Ford and McLaren in the Hypercar ranks, alongside an expected continued presence of Signatech, which is in the final stages of finalizing a deal with Chinese auto giant Geely to take over the Alpine program.

***Sunday’s Michelin GT Challenge will air live on network NBC, starting at 12 p.m. EST. Brian Till and Calvin Fish will be joined on the NBC Sports commentary team by Chris Wilner on the pit lane. IMSA Radio, meanwhile, will have usual coverage from the team of John Hindhaugh, Ryan Myrehn and Kankipati.

***Radio Show Limited, co-producers of IMSA Radio, celebrated a milestone 1,000th episode of its flagship Midweek Motorsport program earlier this week. Click Here to listen.

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