Skeen, Heckert Victorious in VIR Race 2

Photo: Brian Cleary/PWC

Mike Skeen and Scott Heckert claimed victory in the Pirelli World Challenge SprintX race on Sunday after a thrilling last couple of laps of Race 2 at Virginia International Raceway.

Skeen moved his Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 past Rodrigo Baptista in the closing stages before the K-PAX Racing driver went wide and into the tire barriers, denying him from taking his second overall win of the weekend.

This dropped the No. 3 Bentley Continental GT3 down to fifth at the line after Baptista and Maxime Soulet had run strongly all race, while Scott Hargrove inherited second on the final lap for Pfaff Motorsports. 

Daniel Morad had looked set to finish runner-up having passed the Bentley but ultimately came home fourth with late-race problems.

This allowed Michael Christensen to make it two Porsche 911 GT3 Rs on the podium with his Alegra Motorsports car in third ahead of the CRP Mercedes.

Lone Star’s win comes after a disappointing Race 1 on Saturday which saw the car given a three-minute stop-and-hold penalty for contact with Alvaro Parente’s K-PAX Bentley.

Fabian Schiller, co-driving the CRP car, passed Maxime Soulet for the lead on the run down to the first corner and managed to stay out front for his entire stint. 

However, the team’s race soon unravelled with a slow pit stop followed by a worsening problem with the front splitter that caused vibration on the straights. 

Morad exited the pits in second behind Baptista but soon lost a position to Skeen before the car ran out of fuel on the final lap and dropped back to fourth at the line.  

Toni Vilander and Miguel Molina had a race to forget in their R. Ferri Motorsport Ferrari 488 GT3 with a drive-through penalty following a short pit stop under the minimum time. 

This came after the Spaniard dropped from third to sixth on the first lap.

Baptista and Soulet managed to hold on to the Pro-Am win from fifth overall while Martin Fuentes and Caeser Bacarella took home the Am class honors in Fuentes’ sixth class win of the season.

The race had no major incidents or stoppages with green-flag running for the full 60 minutes.

RESULTS: Race 2

Jake Kilshaw

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.