Catalano Scores First Pole of Season at VIR

Valentino Catalano already had fond memories from his first visit to Virginia International Raceway when he swept all three races of an IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge triple-header last August.

He added another one in Saturday’s 15-minute qualifying session by securing the pole position for Sunday’s two-hour IMSA Airbnb Endurance Challenge race at the 3.4-mile circuit on the Virginia-North Carolina border.

Driving the No. 1 Gebhardt Motorsport USA, Duqueine D09 Toyota, Catalano claimed his first pole position of the season with a best lap of 1:42.626 in the car he shares with co-driver Oscar Tunjo.

It should be noted that this also was the first qualifying session of the season for Catalano, the 2025 VP Racing Challenge LMP3 champion who is only competing in the Airbnb Endurance Challenge races this season.

Tunjo qualified the car on pole for the first two endurance races of the season to go with three additional poles from the sprint race portion of the VP Racing Challenge season.

It will be a familiar view out of the windscreen for Catalano. He started all three of last year’s races at VIR from the pole position, including one that served as a makeup for a weather cancellation at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park a month earlier.

Catalano and Tunjo are looking for their second victory of the Airbnb Endurance Challenge season after taking the season opener at Sebring International Raceway in March prior to a third-place showing at Circuit of The Americas last month.

They enter Sunday’s race with a ten-point lead in the Airbnb Endurance Challenge standings over No. 77 Forte Racing Ligier JS P325 Toyota co-drivers Brian Thienes and Patrick Kujala.

Kujala posted the second-quickest time in Saturday’s qualifying session but had his times disallowed as the team was penalized for working on the car during qualifying.

The No. 77 co-drivers will have two hours to match or exceed the second-place results they achieved in both of the season’s Airbnb Endurance Challenge races thus far.

The penalty to Kujala moved Farhan Siddiqi to the outside of the front row in the No. 87 FastMD with Remstar Duqueine D08 Nissan. Siddiqi posted a best lap of 1:43.468 in the car he shares with Jagger Jones.

Lincoln Day rounded out the top three with a best lap of 1:44.127 aboard the No. 95 Toney Driver Development Ligier JS P325 Toyota he shares with Wyatt Brichacek.

The top-three qualifying performance was a nice rebound for the team after Brichacek crashed in Turn 1 just after taking the checkered flag in Friday’s lone practice session.

Sunday’s two-hour race takes the green flag at 10:35 a.m. EST and will be streamed live on the IMSA’s YouTube channel.

RESULTS: Qualifying