Weekend Sweep for Jones, Lazare Sweep in St. Pete

Jagger Jones and Jesse Lazare completed the sweep of Rounds 3 and 4 in the LMP3 and GSX classes of the VP Racing SportsCar Challenge at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on Saturday.

Jones made it a priority for the No. 87 FastMD Racing with Remstar Duqueine D08 Nsisan to open a comfortable gap on the field at the start of the second race of the day, and with each of the two restarts from full-course caution, to make things as easy on himself as possible.

It worked following the final restart with just over eight minutes to go in the 45-minute sprint as he finished 3.815 seconds ahead of P3 Bronze Cup winner Miguel Villagomez in the No. 23 Escuderia ABRO Ligier JS P320 Nissan and 14.764 seconds ahead of third-place finisher Brian Thienes in the No. 77 Forte Racing Ligier.

While Jones once again proved dominant, Lazare had to work a bit harder behind the wheel of the No. 21 Motorsports in Action McLaren Artura GT4 in the second race.

Earning the GSX pole after his win in the first race, Lazare was passed by Jackson Lee in the No. 82 van der Steur Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4 at the start of Race 2.

Lee led the first 24 laps but Lazare stayed close, stalking Lee, remaining patient but relentless, frequently stepping out of line to remind Lee he was there. He wasn’t able to complete the pass until the final restart when Lee hung back from the P3 class and Lazare got a great start, darting to the lead and then pulling away to win by 3.211 seconds.

Gregory Liefooghe overcame an anti-lock brake system issue that had plagued the No. 19 Stephen Cameron Racing BMW M4 GT4 (G82) all weekend and rounded out the top three. Michael Dayton repeated his Race 1 effort as GSX Bronze Cup winner.

Steven Aghakhani (No. 6 MLT Motorsports Ligier), who swept the P3 races at Daytona in January, retained the class lead after Saturday, 190 points ahead of Villagomez and Thienes. In GSX, Luca Mars (No. 59 KohR Motorsports Ford Mustang GT4) – also a double winner at Daytona – kept the class lead following his finishes of third and fifth on Saturday. He is 120 points ahead of Lazare.

RESULTS: Race 2