VIR to Feature Season-High Pro Class Field With RS1 Return

Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO

The Pro category of Fanatec GT World Challenge America will feature a season-high five entries, with DXDT Racing facing increased competition in the class return of RS1’s Porsche 911 GT3 R this weekend at Virginia International Raceway.

A total of 14 GT3 cars are set for action in the pair of 90-minute races for Rounds 7 and 8 of the season, which will see the No. 85 RS1 Porsche back in the top class with Spencer Pumpelly again subbing for Jake Pedersen.

Pumpelly and season-long co-driver Trent Hindman swept the weekend at Sebring International Raceway in their first outings of the year and are now set to go head-to-head with DXDT’s Tommy Milner and Alec Udell for top class and overall honors.

Milner and Udell gave the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R its first victory in global competition at Circuit of The Americas, with the driver pairing winning both 90-minute races in the No. 63 entry.

VIR will mark the first time the year that the two powerhouse entries will go up against each other in the same class.

Other Pro class entries include the No. 28 ST Racing BMW M4 GT3 of Bill Auberlen and Varun Choksey, Racers Edge Motorsports’ Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 for Zach Veach and Luca Mars and the points-leading duo of Elliott Skeer and Adam Adelson for Wright Motorsports.

Pro-Am, which is made up of nine cars this weekend, will see Adam Carroll back in the No. 19 Esses Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

ST’s Samantha Tan and Neil Verhagen lead the class standings, 18 points ahead of the CrowdStrike by Riley duo of Colin Braun and George Kurtz, who are coming off Pro-Am class honors in last month’s CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa.

The Turner Motorsport BMW of Robby Foley and Justin Rothberg sit third in the class standings, ahead of Regulator Racing’s Philip Ellis and Jeff Burton and the No. 08 DXDT Corvette of Bryan Sellers and Scott Smithson.

Fanatec GT America competitors will take to the 3.27-mile circuit for testing on Thursday, with practice taking place on Friday, ahead of qualifying on Saturday morning and the first race of the weekend at 3:10 p.m. EDT on Saturday.

Race 2 takes the green flag Sunday at 2:15 p.m., with both rounds to be streamed live on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel and on Twitch.

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