We are now set to go for the second and final race of the day, and the weekend, for VP Sports Car Challenge at Lime Rock Park. This morning in the opening race we saw Bijoy Garg victorious in LMP3 and John Capestro Dubets take the checkered flag first in GSX for the GT4 cars. What will race two hold in store? Stay tuned, fans. We are all about to find out, together. Big things come in small packages, and believe you me, that is what Lime Rock Park is all about. Race two of the weekend for VP Sports Car CHallenge is about to commence here at "The Park". Just outside the city of Lakeville, Connecticut, this track is on the National Registry of Historic Places and has existed since 1957, with one, and only one left hand corner.
Two cars I don't think will start after the big crash we saw in race one earlier this morning. The Mercedes AMG GT4 of Tim Probert and the Porsche Cayman GT4 of Sebastian Carazo. Brian Till and Jeremy Shaw once again are here to guide us through this race on commentary. Dan Goldburg wore out his tires and they were totally flat spotted, taking the gamble for race one this morning and thankfully they did. He was down to the cords. Bijoy Garg on pole. Green flag! We're off and racing! Bijoy Garg leaps into the lead. Dan Goldburg in second place. Ligier vs. Duqueine. In GSX, BMW dominates with the M4 GT4's for Auto Technic who finished 1-2-3 in race one this morning.
James Walker in second and now Stephen Cugliari has passed by Francis Selldorff. Selldorff is tied for fourth in points with Sebastian Carazo but Sebastian Carazo will likely score nil points as he could not start race two after the big crash we saw in the first event for VP Challenge here at Lime Rock. 45-minute sprint races, one driver, that's it. Marco Solo. You and the car. The bright sun is heating the track up. Sebastian Carazo is in the pit lane. His car is back on track but he will be a start and park for points today to minimze points loss. Poor old Sebastian Carazo was caught out at the wrong place at the wrong time.
He is none too happy about that I am sure and will collect points in this race before parking his severely damaged automobile. Meanwhile, Francis Selldorff is moving forward and finished fourth in race one this morning. Selldorff will get a box full of points. Manna from heaven for Selldorff. He wants a win but will have to see if he can get by the Auto Technic BMW juggernaut. Francis Selldorff is happy though as many fans, family and friends from Boston, Massachusetts, his hometown, are here to see him race. The championship points in LMP3 are closing up. 20 points between Goldburg and Garg. 350 points to win and 320 for second. If the race ended now, Garg would be the points leader.
That being said, we still have 40 minutes on the board. So, Garg and everyone else are working for those points and earning them as this race continues even though they are only doled out after the checkered flag as it should be. Bijoy Garg has a good car but might be using up his Michelin tires. Dan Goldburg is well aware that his rival could use up his race car. Garg is pushing and Goldburg has pulled the pin and is absolutely flying in hot pursuit. Garg though is already three seconds clear of Dan Goldburg. The battle is well and truly on, look.
Seven laps completed and now they have caught the GSX traffic, the GT4 cars. Goldburg must keep up with Garg who will be scything his way through the GSX traffic like no tomorrow. Garg is whistling off into the distance as we speak. The GSX cars really motor and have more downforce than the LMP3 prototypes do with their spec Nissan V8 engines. The LMP3 cars do not have antilock brakes and the GT4/GSX cars do. Their brake zone is very, very short indeed. Bijoy Garg, through the traffic, goodness, he is already extending his lead. Goldburg knows he has to pour on the steam. Bijoy Garg celebrated his 21st birthday last weekend and can now give himself another gift if he stays in front and wins this motor race.
Patrick Wilmot in the #88 BMW M4 GT4 F82 model, he had a litany of problems in race one. But now, using the LMP3 traffic, Wilmot is able to put daylight between himself and Vincent Barletta. Barletta at the wheel of the #96 Turner Motorsports BMW M4 GT4. Goldburg is attempting to pass Francis Selldorff. Selldorff is doing what he can to hang onto the Auto Technic BMW's but it is a hard thing to do. Stephen Cugliari is doing a great job making his debut not only in VP Challenge but in GT4 competition as a whole. He is third in the GSX class behind James Wlaker and John Capestro Dubets (JCD), and is part of that three-car Auto Technic phalanx. Stephen Cugliari has driven BMW's in the past including the M240 IR in SRO competition, but this is his first time at Lime Rock for a dozen years since he went to the Skip Barber Racing School here.
This is round eight of the 2023 season and the fourth weekend of the year out of six. Mu,tiple classes, and racing them means you learn how to work traffic to your advantage. You have to eliminate lost lap time and learn to pass people and how to be passed. This VP Sports Car Challenge is so successful because it teaches them all about how multi class sports car racing works. Oh no. Adrian Kunzle has stuffed it into the tire barriers again. He had a boatload of trouble in race one. Kunzle has fresh carbon fiber bodywork in the black primer finish, on the car from the race one incident.
But this is going to be a day fo motor race he and his team will want to forget immediately. Tear out the page from the notebook and toss it in the trash. MLT Motorsports have been busy indeed. He locks up just before the corner, sails off the road and across the grass, exit stage left, fortunately not thudding the tire barriers. He stopped just before the nose hit, boom, into the barriers. The grass is still damp down there but we are under Full Course Yellow. No fire in the hole to get the engine cranked up again. OK. He does have it started. That is always the bugaboo for Race Control. The marshals call a Full Course Yellow and then the car with the trouble gets underway again just as you call yellow.
Poor old Adrian Kunzle is still sorting things out. Thankfully, we can catch our breath here. What a thrilling race we just saw with the IMSA WeatherTech Championship! That was good! Later this evening we have one more race with the TCR touring cars in Michelin Pilot Challenge. So, don't go away. Kunzle now lives in New York City but is from Hampshire in England, originally. It is so hard in a car like an LMP3 where there are now antilock brakes. It is hard to read the front brake bias. You are not in an open wheel car where you can see the tire moving.
He locked the right front, lost control, skidding into the grass before bonking the wall. It is coming to grips with a car you've not driven before. Thank goodness Adrian Kunzle did not hit the tire barriers. They had a lot of damage to repair from race one this morning. It is warm at Lime Rock today. MLT Motorsports knows how to field winning cars in LMP3. He has a good team behind him. They have a good setup notebook as well. Dr. Mike Thompson, the team owner, they won the Prototype Challenge championship with driver Dakota Dickerson a handful of years ago, the forerunner of VP Challenge as we go back to green flag action.
Bijoy Garg leaps away from the field and now what will he do? Goldburg has a better understanding of his car as we are 1/3rd of the way through race two. Can Dan Goldburg work with his car better than he did in race one? No wave by in VP Challenge racing. Brian Thienes in the #77 and Courtney Crone in the #99 will have to work their way through traffic and Denis Dupont wants a bite of the cherry as well, look. Dupont is beginning to push hard. The Duqueine chassis vs. the Ligier chassis of course. They have different performance envelopes in Prototype Challenge and in LMP3 in the WeatherTech Championship which will be exclusively in this series beginning next year.
The grid for VP Challenge may very well grow. We'll have to find out. Dan Goldurg running a second or so behind Bijoy Garg and now, there is a good GSX battle brewing right at the tail end of the field. Frank DePew in the #72 Rebel Rock Racing Chevrolet Camaro GT4.R is being pursued hotly by both Rob Ecklin in the #09 Automatic Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4 and by Angus Rogers in the #5 KMW Motorsports with TMR Engineering Porsche Cayman. Rob Ecklin the meat in this sandwich. Ecklin wants by on the inside. Down through Big Bend they go.
You will find all the cool sports cars you want to drive in the IMSA paddock. Believe me. The drivers are competing, sure. But, they are have loads of fun driving these cars. Rob Ecklin is making is VP Challenge debut for Automatic Racing run by team boss David Russell. He was an instructor here at Lime Rock Park as a driving instructor for Skip Barber Racing School. The battle rages as DePew hits his marks and says "if you are going to go by, you have to find your own way, mate. I'm not giving it to you."
In VP Challenge you cannot be higher than Silver. Bronze and Silver only I believe. Vincent Barletta by winning this morning's race he is the Bronze class winner and Bronze championship leader. Bijoy Garg running in the lead of the motor race is catching the pack in GSX at the tail end of the field. The battle for third between two of the new generation GT4 spec BMW M4's continues. Francis Selldorff doing all he can to find a way around Stephen Cugliari. Cugliari and Jake Walker being coached by John Capestro Dubets. Buddy Rice is also under that tent, managing and coaching Jake Walker. Jake Walker also racing Lamborghini Super Trofeo. Walker is 17 years old and getting his sports car racing career off on the right foot.
Bijoy Garg leads from pole at around halfway through the race. Cugliari followed by Selldorff. Also coming through, the overall LMP3 leaders as Bijoy Garg is being harried by Dan Goldburg in a huge way. Garg is losing time with the lapped traffic. This is fascinating how the traffic is working out. Meanwhile, Brian Thienes has also been caught and run down by both Courtney Crone and Denis Dupont. Bijoy Garg has more of a challenge here. You hope the GSX (GT4) traffic is paying attention and Jake Walker plays it smart and says, "OK, chaps, I will let you by because I don't want any of this craziness."
Bijoy, king of pressure, he is feeling it as Goldburg is reeling him in hand over fist. Garg has to check up in the downhill. This scrap through West Bend is gettig more and more interesting through the downhill. If Bijoy Garg has a better car now is the time to push it, push it, push it. Denis Dupont, meanwhile, is side by side with Brian Thienes as well. I think there was contact and now, Dupont has damage to his car. Oh dear. Courtney Crone has now gone around both Brian Thienes and Denis Dupont at the same time! Wow! Dupont got wrongfooted on the outside. Deja vu all over again for #99 and #77 and of course Thienes in the first race slammed the door in Crone's face.
He isn't going to make the same mistake twice. The GSX cars are not obligated to get out of the way of the prototypes. You don't have carte blanche to biff and barge your way through the pack just because you are faster. Denis Dupont in the Muehlner Motorsports Duqueine in fifth, car #18, making his LMP3 debut. Dupont will also feature in the Michelin Pilot Challenge race for the TCR cars that we will have for you very soon after this one is done and dusted. So, stay tuned. I told you there was a full day of motor racing from here at Lime Rock Park. No kidding!
The Stephen Cugliari vs. Francis Selldorff story is still being written. So much history here at Lime Rock Park. It's fabulous. We are going to see changes in the championships and now Adrian Kunzle has more trouble spinning again onto the grass and he's gotten back onto the circuit. Easy to spin trying to move to the outside and realizes he has no grip. He rotated as quickly as you please. So he has even more work ahead of him. Garg and Goldburg continuing to push.
Garg and Goldburg 1-2. Goldburg on better Michelin tires for this race than the last one where the tires were down to the cords on that #73 JDC Motorsports Duqueine. Garg gets boxed in by the #95 BMW of Francis Selldorff. Selldorff, that was not his fault. He is still pressing Stephen Cugliari. The gap is now increasing. Traffic giveth. Traffic taketh away. Goldburg has to pass on the outside of Stephen Cugliari, excuse me, Jake Walker. John Capestro-Dubets is down the road. We have 14 minutes of racing left to go.
This is such an effective ladder system. Bijoy Garg racing in Europe and the United States in sports cars and in the U.S. Formula 2000 championship. JR III is a great team and are doing a lot. Bijoy Garg is gaining more and more experience and learning from his mistakes. He has really, really improved. Jonathan Woolridge won one of the races last time out at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, not here this weekend at Lime Rock. Seat time is massively important but you also have to analyze mistakes and don't make them again. John Capestro-Dubets has plied his trade and has gotten noticed. He is an instructor, and a driver, both.
Uh oh. Trouble in the uphill. The #25 of Stephen Cugliari was off the road and big, big trouble for Brian Thienes with damage to the left front corner. Oy yoy yoy. Three wheels on me wagon. Ithink he has gotten it out of the way as there is debris on the road. The inner fender from the GSX BMW is gone. In replay, Thienes spun, and then tagged the BMW and spun him out. Thienes spun all by his lonesome and was a moving target for poor old Stephen Cugliari. Left front to right rear contact. Visibility out the side of the LMP3 cars is not good. If you don't know, don't go. Stay where you are. Look for the corner workers to signal you it is safe to rejoin. He has a bunch of experience, and shouldn't have moved. Cugliari also should have known Thienes was sthere and should have given him his space.
Easy for me to say because I am going zero miles an hour sitting in this chair, typing like mad on the computer to bring you all this race report. Game over for Brian Thienes who was fastest of all in VP Challenge Free Practice 2. Thienes is a pilot and a racing driver. He had a lot of success in Lamborghini Super Trofeo and in Formula Atlantic. In IMSA, there are many, many good people here. It is not like you found in the earlier days with a handful of folks who you wondered who they were and what on earth they were up to outside of racing. Racing drivers are good people for the most part. Game over for Stephen Cugliari in car #25. Stout contact between those two with five minutes to go. Garg buries his foot in the firewall and the race is back on with less than four minutes to go.
The tire clag being pulled up through the open fender wells on the LMP3 cars is unreal. Courtney Crone being harried by Denis Dupont and Crone again, slams the door in his face. Dupont decides discretion is the better part of valor. Crone has a little breathing room and Dupont is still right on her six. Just within a car length now. You have to be decisive to make a good pass and you atre trying to beat your rival into the corner so they cannot pass you. Two minutes left on the board, so just a couple laps remaining. Crone has Dan Goldburg ahead by a couple seconds. For Bijoy Garg, he just has come to life earlier than everyone else.
Goldburg three seconds in-arrears. Crone fending off Dupont's challenge. Courtney Crone wants another podium after scoring one at Daytona and one at CTMP last time out. White flag next time by. In the minor GSX placings there are great batles. Walker, Selldorff, and Ecklin are right together. Dan Goldburg did the double at Daytona and Garg could double up here at Lime Rock. I believe he did so at Sebring as well. The #3 JR III Ligier and Bijoy Garg win! Number four on the year to move him to the top of the shop in the championship. GSX not done and dusted yet.
John Capestro Dubets put on a clinic in race one and has a good four second lead now over Jake Walker. Auto Technic will not score another 1-2-3 but JCD is two for two at Lime Rock and in VP Challenge. Selldorff and Ecklin come home in third and fourth place. That was a great race! Bijoy Garg answered the questions, and answered the bell, earning yet another victory for JR III Racing.
Overall/LMP3: #3 Bijoy Garg JR III Racing Ligier JS P320 Nissan
GSX: #26 John Capestro Dubets Auto Technic Racing BMW M4 GT4 (G82)
Sebastian Carazo will be credited with tenth place and therefore, lose his GSX championship lead to Francis Selldorff who finishes in third place, on the podium in GSX. Carazo is now 140 points down going into the final four rounds of the championship. He will be able to make up ground. The penultimate races of the season for VP Challenge will be held in conjunction with another all-GT class event for IMSA at Virginia International Raceway in Alton, Virginia, the final weekend of August. Join us there for more VP Challenge thrills and spills. Bye for now.
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