VIR Thursday Notebook

Photo: John Dagys

***IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship teams unloaded on Thursday at Virginia International Raceway for the lone GT-only race of the year. This weekend’s Michelin GT Challenge marks the 10th anniversary of Michelin, the Official Tire of IMSA, serving as the event’s title sponsor, which has seen a large level of activation around the event in the decade since.

***The GR GT3 made its un-camouflaged North American dynamic debut in last week’s Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, with Jack Hawksworth turning laps in the car that’s set to replace the Lexus RC F GT3 next year. Among the interested onlookers included RAFA Racing Team owner Rafael Martinez and team principal Kevin Conway, with the Toyota-affiliated GT4 squad understood to be evaluating a future expansion into the GT3 ranks.

***McLaren’s new MCL-HY LMDh-based prototype, meanwhile, was also on display during Monterey Car Week, in what marked the car’s first appearance on U.S. soil. McLaren United AS will campaign the car in the Hypercar class of the FIA World Endurance Championship next year, with the British manufacturer not ruling out a IMSA GTP effort for as early as 2028.

***Danny Formal returns to VIR one year after escaping serious injuries after his Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 sustained a fire while in the GTD class lead. “Obviously, no one remembers that [we were leading] and everyone remembers the moment with 40 minutes to go at the end of the back straight,” said the Costa Rican, who sustained minor burns. “That’s probably the scariest moment of my career and probably in my life. I got really lucky there. I count my blessings every time. I watched that video. Actually, I was watching the replay of the race just to get ready for this weekend.”

***The championship battles in both classes have tightened with three rounds to go, with 21 points separating first through third in GTD Pro and just 45 points between four teams in GTD, led by Heart of Racing Team’s Eduardo Barrichello, who has a scant 24-point advantage over Winward Racing’s Philip Ellis and Russell Ward, with Turner Motorsport’s Robby Foley and Patrick Gallagher sitting in third.

***Foley said: “We personally put ourselves in the position to now be in the conversation to fight for the championship. Realistically, it’s a four-car race now, and I think we have to turn up the wick a little bit and just be a little bit more aggressive now knowing that we have a small buffer back to P4, P5 in the championship.”

***With Mirko Bortolotti’s Grasser Racing Team entry having been stripped of its victory in the second DTM race at Oschersleben, pending an appeal by the Austrian squad, Pfaff Motorsports has now provisionally claimed the first win for the Lamborghini Temerario GT3 in global competition. The Canadian squad also gave the Type-992 Porsche 911 GT3 R its maiden win as well, back in the 2023 Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

***YRB Racing, which is making its second appearance in the GTD Pro class with its ‘Car Blanche’ Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo for Valentin Hasse-Clot and team debutant Marco Sorensen, is set to complete the season in the top production-based ranks. The former Van der Steur Racing squad has swapped between GTD Pro and GTD since its acquisition and rebrand just prior to the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen.

***Team principal Chris Deely previously revealed plans for the team to contest a full season in GTD Pro next year.

***With the GTP class not in action this weekend, Acura Meyer Shank Racing driver Colin Braun will be back behind the wheel in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, driving Kaulig Racing’s No. 25 Ram 1500 for his third start of the season in Ram’s Free Agent Driver Program.

***Braun finished ninth and tenth, respectively, in his two previous outings in the races at St. Petersburg and Lime Rock Park, although he makes his first oval start in the truck at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Saturday.

***Speaking of New Hampshire, Porsche factory ace Nick Tandy suggested that he’d like to see a WeatherTech Championship GT-only race on ‘The Magic Mile’ or shorter ovals such as South Boston or Martinsville, when polled by Sportscar365 in this week’s pre-event IMSA media Zoom session. Martinsville has hosted IMSA-sanctioned Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup races on two occasions.

***Corvette Racing’s Tommy Milner, meanwhile, expressed interest in an additional GT-only race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, while Formal suggested Laguna Seca and Foley wishes for a return to Mid-Ohio, which currently features a Michelin Pilot Challenge four-hour headline race, which of note, will clash with next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

***Ricky Taylor, who has been linked to a full season WEC drive next year with Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA, has joined FATE Sports Group, an agency co-founded by British drivers-turned-managers Chris Buncombe and Struan Moore. The group has drivers such as Charlie Eastwood, Jonny Edgar and Jamie Chadwick in its portfolio.

***Confirmation earlier this week that NASCAR will continue at Chicagoland Speedway in 2027, after a date could not be agreed upon between the sanctioning body and the City of Chicago for a return to the downtown streets, has ruled out an IMSA-sanctioned single-make series appearance as a result. Sportscar365 understands there was an active effort from IMSA to be part of the proposed return of the street race, which ran from 2023-25.

***While a number of media reports have indicated this weekend’s Freedom 250 Grand Prix of D.C. NTT IndyCar Series race will be the first motorsport event in the nation’s capital, it is wide of the mark. The American Le Mans Series organized the Grand Prix of Washington D.C. at RFK Stadium in 2002, a race won by David Brabham and Jan Magnussen in a Panoz LMP01 Evo.

***Coincidently, the ALMS circuit layout, staged in the parking lot of the now-demolished stadium, and the seven-turn IndyCar street course circling the National Mall, are both 1.66 miles in length.

***WeatherTech Championship competitors will have a single 90-minute practice session at VIR on Friday, from 1:35-2:05 p.m. EST. Track action will also include practice sessions for Pilot Challenge, VP Racing SportsCar Challenge and Mustang Challenge North America, with the single-make series also qualifying ahead of its two 45-minute races this weekend.

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