Noaker Takes Saturday VIR Win in Stop-Start Race

Photo: Wes Duenkel/Ford

Robert Noaker continued his run of victories in Mustang Challenge, surviving a stop-start Saturday race at Virginia International Raceway.

Noaker took his No. 13 Ford Mustang Dark Horse R to a 8.374-second victory over the No. 22 TechSport entry of Devin Anderson in the 45-minute race, which was interrupted by two full-course cautions.

While the Robert Noaker Racing team owner/driver dashed away at the start, debris in Turn 8 put the 14-car starting field under the first yellow on Lap 2, which saw Dark Horse class contender Sandy Satullo pit for unscheduled service.

The No. 63 RNR Mustang of Joseph Dederichs, meanwhile, was handed a mechanical black flag for damage on the nose of his car.

A second yellow came out for oil laid down in Turn 1, possibly after an incident between the No. 8 Competition Motors Mustang of Tom Tait and the No. 84 Torre Racing entry of Paolo Salvatore, which will be reviewed by officials post-race.

Noaker again took the restart with 17 minutes to go and cruised to his seventh win in seven points-paying victories this season.

The No. 18 McCumbee McAleer Racing Mustang of Marcos Vento completed the overall and DH podium in third.

Dark Horse Legends honors for the first time this season went to the No. 48 MMR entry of Zachry Lee, who finished fourth overall after the two leading class entries came together in the final ten minutes.

Contact between the No. 15 TechSport machine of Alfonso Diaz and the No. 33 Spark Performance Mustang of Alex Bachoura, who was making a come-from-behind-run, resulted in Bachoura getting turned around and sustain nose damage.

Bachoura parked his class championship-leading car in a run-off area, while Diaz was handed a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility.

Diaz managed to recover to finish second in class, with Salvatore completing the DHL podium.

A pass involving Bachoura and the No. 21 TechSport Mustang of Colin Harrison, who finished fifth overall and fourth in DH, however, will be reviewed post-race.

Race 2 of the weekend is set for a 11:45 a.m. EST start on Sunday, with live coverage on Peacock as well as Ford Performance and IMSA’s YouTube channels.

RESULTS: Race 1

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