Aghakhani Claims Overall Win in Series Debut

It’s the second season for the IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge, but Saturday was a day of firsts at Daytona International Speedway.

Steven Aghakhani made his first series start and first-ever race in a prototype memorable, taking the overall and LMP3 class win in the season-opening 45-minute sprint race.

Luca Mars charged from last on the grid to win the GSX class in the global racing debut for the new Ford Mustang GT4.

Driving the No. 6 MLT Motorsports Ligier JS P320 Nissan, Aghakhani started from the pole position but lost the lead on the opening lap when Alex Kirby (No. 7 Performance Tech Motorsports Ligier) bolted from third place to first.

Aghakhani blamed his lack of prototype experience warming up the Michelin tires for the faulty start, but he slotted in behind Kirby and hawked the leader the rest of the race.

Aghakhani bided his time until making the winning move with just more than two minutes remaining.

He used an outside-inside passing maneuver around Kirby heading into the infield section of the 3.56-mile road course. The cars made side-to-side contact at the exit of Turn 2 but Aghakhani held on for the lead, crossing the finish line 1.238 seconds ahead.

It also provided quite the return to racing for Aghakhani, the former Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America driver who took the 2023 season off from the sport.

Mars qualified third in GSX but his No. 59 KohR Motorsports Mustang GT4 was found underweight in technical inspection and moved to the rear of the field.

Starting 20th in class, Mars quickly reached the top 10 within three laps and was running fourth when the only full-course caution occurred with 16 minutes remaining.

Mars slipped into third on the restart 10 minutes later, then into second on the penultimate lap. It set up a drag race to the checkered flag with class leader Gregory Liefooghe (No. 43 Stephen Cameron Racing BMW M4 GT4) from the Daytona Turn 4 banked oval through the dogleg to the finish line.

Mars edged the Mustang ahead to win by 0.051 seconds.

Aghakhani and Mars will start on their respective class poles in Sunday’s race, which streams live on Peacock at 12:20 p.m. ET.

RESULTS: Race 1