We are set for the second Blancpain GT World Challenge America race of the weekend at Virginia International Raceway in Alton, Virginia. The cars are on track, on their formation lap. Remember now, this race will be an hour and a half, and for ten minutes at the halfway mark, the pit stop window will open for tires and a driver change. In some of the Am class cars, the starting drivers are very, very competitive. Dane Cameron, Ryan Dalziel, Colin Braun, Kyle Marcelli, Matt Plumb... there are some great drivers ready to race. 60 seconds is the minimum time you spend in the pit lane. You've got to be quick! No margin for error.
Lots of power and massive downforce in GT3 cars as we know and it's demanding here on a track like Virginia International Raceway. The Oak Tree corner is a major part of the course. The oak tree it was named for may be gone, but the corner itself is still very daunting. Don't burn the tires off too early. There is a secondary pit lane but it won't be anything but a second grandstand today. We are set for round four of the 2019 Blancpain GT World Challenge America championship. The field is set. The safety car eases toward pit lane. Andy Soucek and Toni Vilander on the front row. Drop the hammer! It's go time! Green flag! Round four underway!
Vilander tires for the lead, look, but Soucek goes for it almost immediately and here comes Ryan Dalziel and Scott Hargrove flies into the race lead still on cold tires. Vilander has dropped like a stone already. Through the esses for the first time climbing uphill. Tire pressures are not up just yet. Scott Hargrove leads the motor race. Down the backstretch they go for the first time. Track position is critrical after nil points on Saturday. Acura leads Pro Am, Dane Cameron at the wheel of it. Recall on Saturday, Bret Curtis was penalized by the stewards after contact with Martin Barkey in the Racer's Edge Acura. Now, Toni Vilander is pressing hard. Points are scored based on overall finishing positions, and not the position in class.
Vilander will be fighting. Both these blokes are experienced and they are fighters. Now, Andy Soucek is working to reel in the Porsche. R. Ferri does not have an overall win at VIR. They want a win here, as the other tracks on the schedule, they've won at. The reason there is no longer a tree at the Oak Tree corner, is because it was felled several years ago during a major storm. The throttle is matted on the back straight and Ryan Dalziel is definitely on form as we watch ahead from the onboard camera in the Ferrari, down the Rollercoaster, and through Hog Pen. Like the Oak Tree corner, there used to be a farm and a pigpen off to the side of the road. Vilander is pressing hard. Oh man, they almost touch, look!
Vilander tries the undercut. Last year, Mike Skeen passed Daniel Morad in this same turn. Maxime Soulet has passed Colin Braun as well. Kyle Marcelli is looking racy in the #80 Racer's Edge Acura NSX GT3 as well. It's settling down at the sharp end now. Maxime Soulet is also a very competitive driver. Rodrigo Baptista, the Brazilian, is his co-driver. Baptista and Soulet as a Pro Am pairing, won race one at VIR last year. Colin Braun and Kyle Marcelli are chasing and so is Matt Plumb. Matt Campbell is in the #91 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R. Campbell, the Aussie, is a hot shoe as well and you know that if you follow worldwide GT3 racing.
The R. Ferri team's strategy with the tires seem to work really well. Maxime Soulet continues harrying Ryan Dalziel, look. Rain on Friday made it harder for Bentley's rivals to catch them. Vilander is clear of Dalziel. Soulet is putting daylight between himself and Colin Braun. RealTime Racing, legends of World Challenge competition, are back in the 1990s. Dane Cameron's uncle, Steve Cameron, was an Acura driver in the 1990s. Scott Hargrove has a 1.4 second lead over Andy Soucek as we watch Toni Vilander pushing, pushing, pushing.
Scott Hargrove makes a move around the outside. Soucek and Vilander may have brushed each other buit it is hard to say. Vilander is in hot pursuit of Dane Cameron. Scott Hargrove had a very knackered race car, and a couple crew members were able to send parts from Black Swan Racing to help their fellow Porsche team who had to drive 400 miles south to Savannah, Georgia. Scott Hargrove has the ability and confidence to drive a race car. That's for sure. The Canadian is becoming quite the driver. His margin has blossomed a little bit, over the Bentley. Hargrove had to be dreaming about how this race was going to work out while asleep the night before. Track limits are hard to figure out at a track like this.
More room had to be given, according to Race Director Alain Adam. Cameron is feeling the pressure from Vilander and he botches the turn in to Oak Tree but continues. Mega move at the end of the straight as Maxime Soulet swoops past Ryan Dalziel. Dalziel has trouble with the Mercedes. He must have a Pirelli tire going down and has to make an unscheduled pit stop just 15 minutes into the motor race. Can Dane Cameron hang on over Toni Vilander? That's the question. RealTime missed the season opening event at Circuit of the Americas. Cameron gets some space over Vilander. Scott Hargrove has had a two second lead but Andy Soucek is coming in a hurry.
Turn one is an increasing radius corner. We saw Martin Barkey fly off the road on Saturday. This is the Sunday race of course, being reported on, on a Monday. Toni Vilander made that mega move on Kyle Marcelli in the Saturday race of course and he is very decisive in his overtaking. Decisive and capable, is Vilander. Vilander will score points if indeed he makes his way past Cameron. Maxime Soulet has turned on the afterburners breaking into the 1:44 bracket. Colin Braun shares the CrowdStrike/Amazon Web Services Mercedes AMG GT3 with George Kurtz, and Kyle Marcelli is sharing the Racer's Edge Acura with Martin Barkey.
Matt Plumb is running really well, too with Matt Campbell behind him. Campbell is a global Porsche factory driver. Marco Holzer is next in the #24 Alegra Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R. Racer's Edge and team boss John Morachi, are running extremely well at this time. RealTime Racing boss Peter Cunningham is a legend of World Challenge and he is confident that the Cameron/Curtis team, his drivers, can run extremely well. They are focused on the Pro Am victory. Peter Cunningham is also on the World Challenge America Board of Directors with the SRO. Dane Cameron is hanging on ahead of Vilander and Soulet, and Vilander slides wide into Oak Tree. Maxime Soulet has fastest lap of the motor race thus far.
Colin Braun is hanging on again in sixth place over Kyle Marcelli and Matt Plumb, followed by Matt Campbell. In the Am class, Martin Fuentes leads in the Squadra Corsa Garage Italia Ferrari 488 GT3 with sponsorship from Hublot watches. Next up is the #19 Ferrari of Chris Cagnazzi driving for One11 Competition sharing with Brian Kaminsky. They are in line for the Kavana Cup at the end of the year. Fuentes with co-driver Cesar Bacarella, are really improving. Scott Hargrove leads, heading down through the bottom of The Rollercoaster. Andy Soucek has set his fastest lap of the day in the Bentley at 1:45.1. Pit stop time is near. Through The Snake, they go, turns five and six. Then, the blast back uphill through the esses.
Toni Vilander is all over Dane Cameron like the proverbial el cheapo suito here, look. GT3 cars are so aerodynamically sensitive. You need the power and the aero grip to work together. High speed corners through the esses. This is a stout scrap between Dane Cameron, Toni Vilander, and Maxime Soulet. GT3 racing is so, so competitive. Just incredible. Vilander and Molina are defending champions in this series which was titled Pirelli World Challenge GT last year. Dane Cameron is giving Vilander a tow, much like the DRS unit in Formula 1. Soulet is right up on Vilander. K-PAX has had a much better start to 2019 than they did to the '18 campaign, going through chassis' like we go through cookies, just eating them up.
But, the 2019 campaign for these boys has gone very well so far. Maxime Soulet is closing in on the Ferrari and the Acura, and you can hear a harmonic between the different engines. V8, V6, flat six. That's why we love sports car racing. Deary me! There's a big off course moment as Andy Soucek has spun the sister Bentley, fortunately not hitting anything, and parking nicely on the grass. No time for parking, sunshine. This is a raceway, not a car park. Try to start it and get back into the race. Maybe he's beached it. Oh, well, it looks like he can get going, but the Spaniard has been under real pressure to perform. He didn't have a good race at the Bathurst 12 Hours to open the Intercontinental GT Challenge, and was benched by Bentley for the California 8 Hours in favor of another driver. So, he needs to prove himself.
He's headed for the lane, look. He's got no left rear tire! Apologies to Andy, with a tech issue that has caused him to fly off the road. No tire on the left rear, look. Quite the bugaboo, and he was way off the road rarly into the corner and was jolly lucky to not hit the guardrail or run smack into a tree. Where was the damage created on the Pirelli tire? More tire engineers from Pirelli are on site to study it. Scott Hargrove has a tremendous amount of daylight over Dane Cameron right now. K-PAX team boss Darren Law is not sure why the tire blew on the Bentley. The sister car is still running and so is Soucek who is 16th overall. He needs a yellow to get back in the game. Hargrove, Cameron, Vilander, and Soulet are your top four so far.
Scott Hargrove still has a buffer but he ran a bad last lap. His lead has shrunk a little bit. Maxime Soulet will have to watch out for the curbs as this race continues. Five or so minutes from now, we will see the pit window open at 50 minutes to go. By the time 40 minutes appears, you should be in the lane, or, have already made a pit stop. 60 seconds is the delta time you must meet. You have to wonder if Toni Vilander is being annoyed by the Acura orange and white livery. Toni Vilander doesn't mince words. He tells it like it is. Maxime Soulet has probably backed it down and is running at 8/10ths or 9/10ths instead of 10/10ths.
The margin between Hargrove and Cameron is still shrinking. Cameron is closing up and is under pressure from Vilander as we go for a ride with Toni Vilander around VIR. Pictures show the car racing around the track, but with the scream of the Ferrari V8 in the background. We are not riding directly with Toni, from the onboard camera. Vilander is catching the Porsche, and well, so is Dane Cameron. Cameron will extend his run before pitting and turning the car over to Bret Curtis. Cameron lays down his fastest lap of the motor race, his personal best. Pit stop time coming for Hargrove. 60 seconds minimum time in the lane. K-PAX and Wright were on the button, and other teams were 10-15 seconds over that pit margin.
Now, it is game on for Hargrove vs. Cameron. The pit window is open. Here comes Cameron, looking into the corner, and Hargrove slams the door in his face. Pit window open. Here he goes. Hargrove in the lane. Cameron into the lead with Vilander now second. Great stint for Hargrove. Her will hand the car over to Patrick Long. 60.6 seconds in the lane. Good stop! Michael de Quesada brings the #22 Alegra Motorsports Porsche to the pit lane, handing the car over to Daniel Morad. Ryan Eversley hands over to Till Bechtelsheimer. They are long on their stop, too. Keep the fast guy in the car until the last possible moment as Vilander and Soulet are catching Cameron hand over fist!
How hard does Toni Vilander push as Patrick Long will have fresh tires? Daniel Morad had a 71.8 second stop. They were slow! Dear me! That's not good. The Gradient Acura, car #5 had a 75 second stop! That's the Bechtelsheimer/Eversley duo. Vilander in the lane, to hand over to Miguel Molina, as they want to leapfrog Patrick Long. Enrico Deanno, team manager is also the lollipop man. Now, Molina will have to push just as hard as Vilander did. That stop may have took longer than they wanted. 62.1 seconds. They should have dropped the car off the air jacks just a tad earlier. Now, Patrick Long is right on Molina's six, and Molina tries slamming the door in his face, but will Long have it? Hot tires for Molina, and the Spaniard isn't just going to roll over and play dead.
Molina runs wide into the grass! Long is pressing hard through The Snake and the esses. Jeepers creepers! Long needs the setup through Oak Tree. The Roller Coaster is crucial. This is hot and heavy stuff, chaps. How close do you like it? Pit stop time for the #3 Bentley as Maxime Soulet hands over to Rodrigo Baptista. They have a good stop, and they had a 60.2 second stop! That was close! Baptista has a margin. Dane Cameron leads the motor race extending the run. The pit window will close soon. Cameron has to hurry. Patrick Long has settled down just a bit. He still has cold tires.
Bret Curtis is waiting to take over the Acura and he will have veteran drivers breathing dsown his neck. Bad stop for Cameron/Curtis and RealTime! Dear me! Baptista makes a pass and RealTime loses the overall lead but might still have the lead in Pro Am. Andy Soucek is in the lane, and we have a fire in the Bentley pit! This is a race team's worst nightmare. Fire in the pit lane. Andy Soucek dove out of the car. The fuel spilled and ignited out of the hose. The fire is extinguished. There was a major fireball, but the situation is resolved. Fire is the worst enemy of a racing driver. However, the sister K-PAX Bentley #3 of Rodrigo Baptista has the lead of this motor race with less than 40 minutes to go.
Baptista is catching David Askew in the #63 DXDT Mercedes AMG GT3 Pro Am car. Askew is going to block Baptista. Baptista is the minnow. Molina is the shark. He's coming in a hurry. Rodrigo clears the David Askew Mercedes. Molina is still in attack mode. But he too, gets balked by the Mercedes. Baptista, Molina, Askew, Long. Once again, these are the four drivers in the battle for position. Kevin Milstein for K2R Motorsports in the Porsche 911 GT3R and here comes Anthony Imperato in the #91 Porsche 911 GT3R, the Pro Am entry for Wright Motorsports, who spins the car he shares with Matt Campbell and keeps on trucking.
Anthony Imperato picks up a place after his spin. He has been passed by George Kurtz and Bret Curtis still leads Pro Am. The #80 Racer's Edge Acura NSX GT3 had a terribly long stop when Martin Barkey took over the car. Barkey will have pull the rabbit out of the hat to get back into contention, after winning Pro Am in the Saturday race and finishing fourth in the overall. Kyle Marcelli is also the real deal. He is a great driver. Stefan Johansson is Marcelli's manager, and so, with the backing of a great like Johansson, you know you are going places as a racing driver. Martin Barkey lets Miguel Molina go past. Patrick Long will also try clearing Barkey.
No worries for Pro Am. They are scored as they finish, not in the overall running order. The lead trio has some clear track so we can start seeing their pace again. Long has an idea of how his co-driver Hargrove did, and well, Patrick Long is recovering after tire degradation got in Hargrove's way, as Rodrigo Baptista continues to lead the motor race, and Miguel Molina and Patrick Long are still giving chase. The championship points will reshuffle after this race as Baptista is pressing hard into turn ten. Cesar Bacarella opened the door, but Baptista nearly went off the road. Patrick Long also passes Cesar Bacarella, leader in the Am category. Again, half an hour to go.
Molina is running really smoothly as he climbs through the esses again. Rodrigo Baptista has 1.4 seconds in hand over the Ferrari, but Molina is running quicker. Patrick Long is catching up as well. The car is running real well, and they had qualifying tires on the car of course, before their pit stop. As you come into the weekend, a team is allotted only so many new Pirelli tires. You have to decide how to manage them. Wet tires don't factor into the tire allocation necessarily. The qualifying session was wet though. Nothing in it in terms of the speed of the top three as we watch Daniel Morad being chased by George Kurtz. Morad, like Hargrove, is a Canadian driver. Kurtz is sharing the Mercedes with Colin Braun of course.
Morad had his breakout race here at Virginia International Raceway. Morad, headed for Hog Pen, the pit stop exchange for him and Michael de Quesada, went long, and they are trying hard to push and catch up. Another stop, too, for David Askew in the DXDT Mercedes. Drive through penalty for #63 and maybe it was an equipment infraction. Miguel Molina is now in the lane for a completely unscheduled pit stop! Oh dear. What's going on? Maybe there is a tire issue. Ah yes. The left rear Pirelli is being changd. These blokes were running real well, but this has perhaps ruined their race with just over 20 minutes remaining. Molina works his way back through The Snake and the esses. The sensors on the car save you from catastrophe, but this is not according to the R. Ferri team's plans.
Molina is now applying the pressure again to Daniel Morad before this race ends. Rodrigo Baptista still leads, with a margin that has ballooned to four seconds. But, what about the pit fire? Everyone is OK according to Darren Law. The fuel probe spilled and lit off the red hot headers. K-PAX have been practicing pit stops over and over again and their strategist, Thomas Blam has to be one of the best race tacticians out there. We see a replay of Baptista's shunt from Saturday's race which was heavy contact with the tire barriers. The Bentley's have the driver on the opposite side of the car since they are right hand drive. Pit lane is crucial on entry in that case and Soucek bumped the fueler when he dove out of the car.
Anthony Imperato chases George Kurtz in the Am class. He is in hot pursuit of David Askew. Bret Curtis is running really well as Martin Barkey spins out of the exit of Hog Pen onto the front straight. That was a driver error. A slight wiggle onto the curb, and... screech! He spins out. No harm no foul. He's back after it. No margin for error here at VIR though. We have less than 15 minutes to go now. Caesar Bacarella continues to lead in Am, putting a pass on Kevin Milstein in the K2R Porsche 911 GT3R #38. Bacarella will lap the #19 Ferrari. Bacarella/Fuentes, these two have dominated Am class competition at VIR.
Brian Kaminskey is fighting hard but has to give it up. TR3 runs Squadra Cosra Garage Italia. Meanwhile, Bret Curtis has been running extremely well today in the #43 Acura NSX GT3, staying close to the #24 Alegra Motorsports Porsche in the hands of Wolf Henzler. Watch the outside of the circuit as the grip is just not there. Just over ten minutes to go now. Anthony Imperato is off the road another time, and gets back on course after being in the grass. Watch out for running wide over the curbs, and that's echactly what he did. He slammed the curbs, going to the throttle and spun out, fortunately not hitting anything.
Till Bechtolsheimer has run very well in the Gradient Acura. He is a historic racer in Europe and he's surely a wheel man. A scrap for fifth, as Miguel Molina is closing on Daniel Morad. Morad and Molina get caught in lapped traffic and Molina nearly gets chopped by Kaminsky! Yikes! R. Ferri needs any points they can get after the delaminated tire earlier in this race. Molina is nearly on the rev limiter. They sweep out of Oak Tree and down the back straightaway. When the rev limiter kicks in, it has to do so gently, and cuts the power, affecting the balance of the car. Molina is chasing Morad who hangs onto the spot. Molina is really applying the blowtorch.
Bret Curtis is third followed by Morad and Molina. Molina has a run on Morad, and tries inside but no dice. Vilander made a move like that on Marcelli on Saturday. Under five minutes left in round four of Blancpain GT World Challenge America. Bret Curtis just has to let Morad and Molina go. Curtis is looking for a win in Pro Am as we've talked about, with George Kurtz 22 seconds behind. Curtis goes way to the inside and Molina goes with him, chasing the Porsche. Morad is foruth and Molina is now fifth. Molina has a run on Daniel Morad, and Morad in the Porsche protects the line,m look.
Molina wants to press his nose into this scrap and try to pass Daniel Morad. The Canadian continues holding off the Spaniard. Daniel Morad is staying with it, not cracking under pressure. Two years ago here at VIR, Morad had Jeroen Bleekemolen all over him. Meanwhile, Bret Curtis still leads Pro Am. You haven't missed anything there. Patrick Long will rebound after nil points on Saturday buit the #3 Bentley's lead has ballooned outwards once again. The #3 Bentley will continue to be in play for the championship. Rodrigo Baptista on his final lap around VIR. Time has now elapsed and Baptista is up through Oak Tree for the last time as Bechtolsheimer runs off the road. David Askew in the Mercedes has pulled off.
But, no worries for Baptista into the Rollercoaster one more time. He weaves down through the final turns, throuhgh Hog Pen, and it's a Bentley sweep at VIR for each car, earning a win! K-PAX can celebrate! Congratulations to Rodrigo Baptista and Maxime Soulet, who have now gone back-to-back in successive wins at VIR! Dane Cameron and Bret Curtis win Pro Am, and Caesar Bacarella and Martin Fuentes win Am.
Overall/Pro: #3 Baptista/Soulet K-PAX Racing Bentley Continental GT3
Pro Am: #43 Cameron/Curtis RealTime Racing Acura NSX GT3
Am: #7 Bacarella/Fuentes Squadra Corsa Garage Italia Ferrari 488 GT3
The next event on the Blancpain World Challenge America schedule is north of the border in Canada at the legendary Canadian Tire Motorsports Park (Mosport Park), in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada, in three weeks.
No comments:
Post a Comment