Milner, Udell Win Caution-Filled Race 1 at VIR

Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO

Tommy Milner and Alec Udell picked up their third consecutive Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS victory in Saturday’s caution-filled round at Virginia International Raceway.

Milner drove his No. 63 DXDT Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R to a 1.654-second win over the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Elliott Skeer following an eight-minute shootout to the finish.

Trent Hindman came home third in the No. 85 RS1 Porsche that he shared with Spencer Pumpelly, followed by the No. 93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 of Zach Veach and Luca Mars in fourth.

Pro-Am class honors went to the No. 32 GMG Racing Porsche of Tom Sargent and Kyle Washington, which survived a race of attrition in the category that saw all cars except for the winners hit trouble.

A clash between BMW factory drivers Neil Verhagen and Robby Foley, while battling for second in Pro-Am at the time, resulted in Foley’s No. 29 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 suffering a heavy accident in Turn 3.

It brought out the race’s fourth full-course caution and saw Verhagen pit while under the yellow for loose right-rear wheel.

Verhagen was later forced to serve a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility with Foley, handing the class lead to GMG’s Sargent, who held off Verhagen for the class win following his comeback drive.

A fifth yellow came out moments after the restart for the No. 29 ST Racing BMW of Varun Choksey, which cut a tire and stopped on track, setting up the sub-ten minute dash to the checkered flag.

The pole-sitting No. 91 Regulator Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Jeff Burton, which led early in the hands of Philip Ellis, meanwhile, spun just moments after Choksey’s incident. Burton recovered to finish third in class.

The first two cautions were for the No. 08 DXDT Corvette of Scott Smithson, who initially got stuck after an off-course excursion at the Esses prior to suffering suspected ABS failure to crash on the restart.

The No. 8 Flying Lizard Motorsports Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Elias Sabo, meanwhile, also got stuck in the wet grass to bring out another yellow.

There was suspension-related issues for the No. 19 Esses Racing Mercedes-AMG, which saw Will Hardeman make an early pit stop, while the No. 50 Chouest Povoledo Racing Mercedes-AMG didn’t make the race start due to an electrical problem.

Race 2 takes the green at 2:15 p.m. EDT with live coverage on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel and on Twitch.

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