Jones Picks Up Sixth Victory of Season in First VIR Race

Jagger Jones carried his torrid form in the LMP3 class of the VP Racing SportsCar Challenge to Virginia International Raceway. The 22-year-old grandson of motorsports legend Parnelli Jones claimed his sixth win in seven starts in Saturday’s 45-minute race, part of the Michelin GT Challenge at VIR weekend.

Jones’ No. 87 FastMD Racing with Remstar Duqueine D08 Nissan emerged unscathed from a mid-race bump that sent two GSX competitors spinning. That near miss allowed P3 championship leader Steven Aghakhani (No. 6 MLT Motorsports Ligier JS P320 Nissan) to briefly challenge Jones for the lead as they continued to navigate through lapped GSX traffic.

But Jones recovered from the scare and rebuilt the 1.5-second buffer over Aghakhani that he enjoyed through the event’s first 20 minutes.

Mindful of his comfortable championship lead, Aghakhani eased off in the closing laps and finished 4.551 seconds behind Jones. Miguel Villagomez claimed third place and Bronze Cup driver honors in the No. 23 Escuderia ABRO Ligier.

Aghakhani leads the P3 standings by 560 points over Brian Thienes (No. 77 Forte Racing Ligier), who finished fifth on Saturday. Jones is 570 points off the lead, his deficit due to not competing in the opening two races of the championship at Daytona International Speedway.

Luca Mars could have been disappointed when a brief full-course caution negated the nine-second GSX lead he earned in the first ten minutes of Saturday’s race.

Instead, Mars went back to work. He pushed the No. 59 KohR Motorsports Ford Mustang GT4 to a 45-second margin over the GSX field, with the timing of the finish scoring him a full lap ahead of Mark Brummond (No. 25 Auto Technic Racing BMW M4 GT4), who earned GSX Bronze Cup driver honors.

Mars entered the weekend leading Jesse Lazare by 190 points in the GSX standings. The victory nearly tripled the 18-year-old Pennsylvanian’s points advantage, after Lazare crashed the No. 21 Motorsports In Action McLaren Artura GT4 in practice on Friday and did not start Saturday’s race.

Mars now has a 520-point advantage over Patrick Wilmot, who finished third Saturday in the No. 88 Split Decision Motorsports BMW. Lazare is 540 points back.

Sunday’s race starts at 8:40 a.m. ET with a livestream on Peacock in the U.S. as well as IMSA.tv and YouTube.com/IMSAOfficial outside the U.S.

RESULTS: Race 1