Reduced 36-Car Entry for VIR

Photo: Brian Cleary/SRO

This weekend’s Pirelli GT4 America rounds at Virginia International Raceway will feature a reduced 36-car entry for the pair of 60-minute races.

The entry list, released late last week, is down from the low-40 car count seen in the opening rounds of the season at Sonoma Raceway, NOLA Motorsports Park and Circuit of The Americas.

Among the absences include Black Swan Racing’s McLaren Artura GT4 as well as the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsports fielded by Valkyrie Velocity and OGH Motorsports, plus the No. 2 Flying Lizard Motorsports Aston Martin of Jason Bell and Michael Cooper, which made its first start of the season last time out.

Archangel Motorsports’ Aston Martin Vantage GT4 is also not present after withdrawing from the series at the COTA weekend due to the enforcement of a weight increase for cars featuring Gold-rated drivers.

Black Swan and Valkyrie Velocity fielded the only other lineups with Gold drivers in Jeroen Bleekemolen and Will Owen and are not present in VIR either.

Rooster Hall Racing, however, is set for its first start of the season with its BMW M4 GT4 for the Am class pairing of Michael Dayton and Austin Krainz, while van der Steur Racing will expand into a two-car effort with Rory van der Steur and Jamie Day in the Silver class with its Aston Martin.

After missing the last two rounds due to an injury, Isabella Rubusto is slated to make her return to the No. 68 Smooge Racing Toyota GR Supra GT4.

GT4 America cars will take to VIR for a pair of practice sessions on Friday, followed by qualifying on Saturday morning ahead of the first race of the weekend later that afternoon. Race 2 is set for Sunday, with both contests set to be streamed live on SRO’s GT World YouTube page.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John