Jamin Dominates GTS Race 1 at VIR

Photo: Brian Cleary/BCPix.com

Nico Jamin has scored a dominant victory in his Pirelli World Challenge debut in Saturday’s GTS race at Virginia International Raceway.

The Mazda Road to Indy star took his No. 13 ANSA Motorsports KTM X-Bow GT4 to a 3.396-second win over the pole-sitting No. 99 JCR Motorsports Maserati GT4 of Jeff Courtney in second.

Taking advantage of the cornering ability of his KTM, Jamin got around Courtney in Turn 4 on the opening lap and bridged out an early lead, which was stabilized through the caution-free 50-minute race.

It came as a commanding run for the Frenchman, who is fresh off victory in last weekend’s Indy Lights race and swept the weekend in the first IMSA Prototype Challenge presented by Mazda series round at Sebring last month.

The No. 10 Blackdog Speed Shop Camaro GT4.R of Lawson Aschenbach completed the podium in third, after getting around Rodrigo Baptista in the No. 3 Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport MR with 22 minutes to go.

Baptista faded late and finished fifth, behind the No. 80 Mantella Autosport KTM of Martin Barkey.

Ian James gave the Panoz Avenzzano GT its first finish in sixth, ahead of the GTS-A class-winning No. 019 Stephen Cameron Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4 of Aristotle Balogh in 7th overall.

Anthony Mantella, who had faced a five-position grid penalty due to a Stewards’ Decision from the last round at St. Pete, came home 8th overall.

The only two incidents came from Jason Bell, who spun his Racer’s Edge Motorsports SIN R1 GT4 on the second lap prior to making contact with the No. 018 Case-It Racing Porsche of Cameron Cassels, who went off into the barriers and ended his race there.

Race 2 is set for Sunday at 11:10 a.m. ET.

RESULTS: Race 1

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