Aghakhani, Mars Double Up With Daytona Wins on Sunday

Steven Aghakhani and Luca Mars duplicated their IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge wins from a day earlier on Sunday, staking early claims in their bids for the season class championships.

Aghakhani was the Race 2 overall winner and LMP3 class victor in the No. 6 MLT Motorsports Ligier JS P320 Nissan.

Aghakhani had a spirited battle throughout with Cody Ware (No. 51 Rick Ware Racing with Ave Motorsports Ligier), even though Ware was facing a 10-second post-race penalty for an incident with another prototype on the first lap of the 45-minute race.

Ware passed pole-sitter Aghakhani for the lead while the cars were working through lapped traffic with 26 minutes remaining, but Aghakhani returned the favor in the same area of the Daytona International Speedway road course’s infield section 16 minutes later.

A late full-course caution for a car stopped on track resulted in a one-lap restart dash to the checkered flag, with Aghakhani easily rebuffing Ware’s advances.

With the Ware penalty assessed, Aghakhani won by 4.036 seconds over Marco Kacic (No. 87 FastMD Racing with Remstar Duqueine D08 Nissan) and Ware wound up in eighth place.

Mars faced a polar opposite race from his experience on Saturday when he charged from last on the grid to win the GSX class in the No. 59 KohR Motorsports Ford Mustang GT4.

He started from the class pole on Sunday and faced few threats, winning by 1.322 seconds ahead of Michael Cooper in the No. 55 Baby Bull Racing Porsche 718 GT4 RS Clubsport.

The two wins builds momentum for Mars not only for the VP Racing Challenge season but for his Michelin Pilot Challenge ride with KohR that begins with Friday’s BMW M Endurance Challenge at Daytona.

RESULTS: Race 2