VIR Thursday Notebook

Photo: John Dagys

***A total of 23 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTD Pro and GTD cars are set for this weekend’s Michelin GT Challenge at Virginia International Raceway, marking the lone GT-only race of the season following the elimination of Lime Rock Park from this year and next year’s calendars.

***Antonio Garcia heads into Sunday’s two-hour and 40-minute race as the only driver who can defend his win from last year in class. Garcia, who holds four class wins at the 3.27-mile circuit in Alton, Vir., teamed with Jordan Taylor for top honors, in what came as the last victory for the GTE-spec Chevrolet Corvette C8.R in worldwide competition.

***Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow, who won last year’s race in GTD, meanwhile, have moved up to GTD Pro to face off against the pair of factory-supported Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs, works-run Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3s and the championship-leading AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R, among others.

***Laurin Heinrich will have his third co-driver in as many races, with the AO driver joined by Klaus Bachler in an expected one-off appearance for the Austrian. Julien Andlauer, who was the first to step into Seb Priaulx’s vacated seat last time out at Road America, is racing for Proton Competition in this weekend’s European Le Mans Series race.

***Bachler, meanwhile, has a Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup conflict for the next round at Indianapolis, where he was initially set to race the No. 86 MDK Motorsports Porsche as the team’s third driver. It was announced on Thursday that Brendon Leitch will take that seat for Indy.

***AO, meanwhile, has yet to confirm Heinrich’s co-driver for the final two races. Michael Christensen, who drove for the team at both the Rolex 24 at Daytona and Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring is expected to rejoin the program for the season-ending Motul Petit Le Mans.

***Bachler said on his AO drive: “I am really looking forward to joining AO Racing together with Laurin for VIR. It is the first time for me driving Roxy and I cannot wait for it. VIR is one of my favorite tracks in North America and I will give everything to help the team for their championship run.”

***Of note, this weekend marks the VIR debut for Ford Multimatic Motorsports driver Harry Tincknell, who got his first laps of the circuit in a test that was attended by multiple GT teams last week.

***Tincknell said: “VIR is a new circuit for me. It’s always fun going to a new track when you’ve been driving cars for 16 years or so. It’s undulating, it’s high speed and it has a few long straights with some good passing opportunities. You can see why it scores high on the ‘favorite circuits’ lists but it’s also fairly treacherous with little room for error, which means having a clean race is very important.”

***The factory Mustang GT3 squad is still seeking its first GTD Pro class podium finish with the car.

***A number of WeatherTech Championship prototype teams were testing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway earlier this week, in preparation fro next month’s six-hour Battle on the Bricks enduro, which will count towards the Michelin Endurance Cup for the first time.

***AF Corse has become the second team to officially be locked into the full 2025 WeatherTech Championship with its Oreca 07 Gibson LMP2 car. The No. 88 entry claimed top class honors at the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen with Nicklas Nielsen, Luis Perez Companc and Lilou Wadoux. Drivers for next year’s program have yet to be announced.

***Canadian Corvette squad AWA was the first to officially confirm its 2025 WeatherTech Championship program earlier this week, which will see Orey Fidani and Matt Bell return to the team’s No. 13 GTD class entry.

***AWA has not ruled out returning to a two-car operation next year according to the team’s competition director Jeff Braun, who said they continue to have both the capacity and desire to run two Corvettes.

***Fidani currently leads the Bob Akin Bronze Cup championship entering VIR, which awards an automatic invite to next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans at season’s end. Braun told Sportscar365 that the team is prepared to make the trip to France should it secure the entry, most likely by purchasing a second chassis due to logistics.

***In a change for this season, the Akin points standings makes all cars with non-Bronze rated drivers invisible, thus creating a race within a race for teams like AWA and title rivals Inception Racing and Gradient Racing. “I think of it as three classes,” Braun said, factoring in GTD Pro, GTD and GTD-B.

***Porsche Motorsport North America President and CEO Volker Holzmeyer confirmed to Sportscar365 that there will be no new teams running the Porsche 963 in the WeatherTech Championship next year, although acknowledged that both Proton Competition and JDC-Miller Motorsports are currently working on fielding second cars.

***Holzemeyer said: “It’s a very complex car. The more teams you have, it’s just multiplying the effort.”

***Former GT3 driver Luca Persiani, who made selected WeatherTech Championship appearances over the years, died earlier this week as a result of an 4×4 accident while in his native Italy. Persiani, a coach with Dream Racing in Las Vegas, prior to similar roles with Iron Lynx and Sky Tempsta Racing, was 40 years old.

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