Noaker Makes It Perfect Weekend at VIR

Photo: Wes Duenkel/Ford

Robert Noaker made it a clean sweep of the Mustang Challenge weekend at Virginia International Raceway, taking victory in Race 2 on Sunday.

The Ford Performance Junior Team driver, in the No. 13 Robert Noaker Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse R, took top honors while under a race-ending full course caution over the No. 21 TechSport entry of Colin Harrison in second.

Noaker held a 23-plus second lead at the time prior to the first caution. The race restarted with less than five minutes to go, which saw the No. 18 McCumbee McAleer Racing entry of Marcos Vento pressure Noaker but run off-course.

The race, however, ended with less than three minutes remaining when the DHL class-leading No. 48 McCumbee McAleer Racing Mustang of Zachry Lee was taken out by the DH class No. 98 Automatic Racing entry of Tate Pritt.

The No. 22 TechSport entry of Devin Anderson, meanwhile, retired in the support pit lane in the final 15 minutes of the race after running second overall in the race.

Both the Dark Horse Legends championship-leading No. 33 Spark Performance Mustang of Alex Bachoura and the No. 87 Peterson Racing entry of Doug Peterson had incidents at the drop of the green flag, ending with both cars’ hoods coming loose.

It resulted in a nine-minute caution period, with the start set to be reviewed by officials post-race.

The No. 84 Torre Racing Mustang of Paulo Salvatore, who is due to get married immediately following the race, then had an off-course excursion on Lap 6 following the restart, resulting in diffuser damage to his DHL entry.

His car was later given a mechanical black flag due to the rear-end damage.

Vento, meanwhile, had an early race battle with RNR’s Sandy Satullo, who had an off-course moment in Turn 5 on Lap 8.

Satullo, who initially dropped to eighth overall, rebounded to finish third in class after the series of late-race incidents.

DHL class honors went to to Tom Tait after the impact between Lee and Pritt, which will be reviewed post-race by officials.

It came after the then class-leading No. 15 TechSport entry of Alfonso Diaz went off in Turn 11 to cause the first full-course caution with ten minutes to go.

The late-race chaos in DHL promoted Stephen Vajda to second in the No. 10 NV Autosport entry, with Joseph Dederichs completing the class podium in the No. 63 RNR machine.

RESULTS: Race 2

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