Welcome to 2024, ringing in the New Year with sports car racing. 33 cars for the VP Challenge, the largest field for one of these events. Welcome, everyone, to "The World Center of Racing", Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida, and the kickoff to the second season of IMSA's sprint championship, the VP Racing Fuels Sports Car Challenge, for LMP3 and production based GSX (GT4) race cars. We have an even numbered field of 22 entries for this first weekend of the second season of the championship, and 45 minutes of racing to get through for the first race of the weekend. Stay tuned. Believe me, as brief as this race is, don't blink, or run to the fridge for a snack, too soon. You could very well miss something. On the pole in the LMP3 class, it is
In the GSX (Grand Sport X) class, for GT4 production-based cars it will be the #55 Baby Bull Racing Porsche Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport with Michael Cooper driving. The LMP3 field is made up mostly of the Ligier JS P320 chassis with a sole Duqueine M30-D08 for the #87 team of FastMD Racing with Remstar. We know this circuit here at Daytona, 2.5 mile oval, and the ifield road course. Cool temperatures, blue skies, and we have the Scouts here, to check out the racing. Brian Till and Jeremy Shaw will call the races today and tomorrow. We have new, young drivers. Steven Agakhani is back in racing after a year away focusing on business, at MLT MOTORSPORTS. Marco Kacic on the outside pole in the #87 FastMD Racing with Remstar Duqueine.
A lot of drivers are returning to racing after being away for a short while or for many years. GSX are GT4 cars of course, which we will see in Michelin Pilot Challenge this year and they begin their season here at Daytona, next Friday. Michael Cooper has lots of experience in the Baby Bull Racing Porsche and Marc Miller for Thaze Competition in a last-minute entry in the #37 Mercedes-AMG GT4. We have Jackson Lee in the #66 Porsche Cayman for Czabok-Simpson Motorsports. Green flag and away we go! We've got rookies on the front row.
Stephen Agakhani goes to the lead and both classes get away cleanly, well, not so much. Two cars spin. The #51 LMP3 of Cody Ware, spins. Cody Ware, a NASCAR driver. He is racing an LMP3 car for the first time. Cold tires, a cold track. He has raced here at Daytona before in the Rolex 24. Maybe he got an assist. Not so much. I think he locked the brakes on the downshift. Meanwhile, he is going to move through the field. Ware has raced LMP2 cars and won in the Asian Le Mans Seriea handful of years ago. Agakhani squirming all over the place and now, Alex Kirby has taken the lead of the mtoor race. Marco Kacic also wants a bite of the cherry. The young lions are charging.
The LMP3 cars do not draft well but this is still competitive and poor old Kirby almost loses it. He has raced in the WeatherTech Championship in LMP3 and in VP Challenge, for five of the six races last year in 2023. Kacic running wide into the west horseshoe. Steven Cameron, owner of two GSX BMW M4 GT4's says it was colder in qualifying than it is now. Daytona Beach in January can be warm or cold. Kacic now makes his move on Kirby as Agakhani drops to third. He did a great job in qualifying this morning but is having a harder time here, early doors.
It is a three-way fight in GSX. Michael Cooper has the lead and now, Marc Miller gets dropped back to third and there's Greg Liefooghe as well. These three are all experienced. Miller wanted to shake down the Mercedes-AMG. He had the chance to race. He ran one race in the WeatherTech Championship, excuse me, Michelin Pilot Challenge, last year. A spin there for Kacic! Yikes! Way too deep on the brakes into turn one. Holy smokes! Oy yoy yoy!
The GT4 cars have better drafting capabilities than the LMP3 prototypes. Marc Miller had licensing woes. Eddie Kileen was supposed to drive this automobile. Kileen needed to be licensed. So, Marc Miller, from Holland, Michigan, is in the car. Thaze Competition wanted to race two cars along with Canadian driver Jonathan Woolridge, but that entry did not work out well. Maybe it will be back later in the year. Michael Cooper in the rainbow-colored Porsche followed by Greg Liefooghe, Marc Miller, and Patrick Wilmot in the Split Decision Motorsports BMW M4 GT4. That is the #88, from Tennessee.
They race in memory of their friend Rob Farley killed in a road car accident a decade ago. God Bless You, Rob. Meanwhile, Michael Cooper is going for it and now, Jackson Lee is beginning to motor. This is one of his first races, maybe second or third, in a closed cockpit sports car. Stephen Simpson, the South African driver based in Indianapolis, Indiana, he is now a team owner in addition to driving and they will race two cars in the Pilot Challenge event this coming Friday which you will hear about right here on the blog.
One of the cars in GSX is sponsored by a cancer research center. I cannot remember the name. But another noble cause in motor racing. Jackson Lee is a tall bloke, at 6"4'. He is still a youngster at 21 years old. He was a baseball player in high school and got the racing bug. We have drivers of all different experience levels. Both classes are full of experienced and young drivers alike. These folks might just be in the WeatherTech Sports Car Championship in the very near future. So, Alex Kirby leading for Performance Tech Motorsports really going for it and Steven Agakhani is next up uncorking fastest lap at 1:58.432. Last year's LMP3 champ in VP Challenge. Bijoy Garg is now in LMP2 in the WeatherTech Championship.
Alex Kirby leading the motor race has more experience in a prototype than does Agakhani. We have seen Agakhani in a GT3 car in SRO competition in years past. Jackson Lee is now fifth followed by Jesse Lazare in the #21 MIA McLaren Artura GT4. He is uncorking a string of fast laps in the white and blue McLaren Artura in the second year of racing for it. They won in the Michelin Pilot Challenge finale at Road Atlanta last fall to cap off 2023. Whoops. Greg Liefooghe running right up to the wall! Holy cow! Jesse Lazare also has a win at the Rolex 24, he has a Rolex watch. Sean Quinlan in the second of the Steven Cameron BMW's and Eric Thompson making his debut in the #67 BSI Racing Toyota Supra GT4, from Daytona Beach.
He battles with the #25 BMW M4 GT4 in the hands of Marc Brummond in the Auto Technic BMW M4 GT4. Half an hour to go. Make a decision about how to negotiate traffic and before long, Kirby will have a whole knot of traffic to unravel. Half an hour remaining. 1/3rd distance. Rememebr what I said. Don't blink. You will miss something. In GSX, another lap is on the board and we still have Liefooghe leading Cooper and Wilmot as well as Marc Miller. He knows he does not have the straight-line speed.
More woe for the Auto TechnicBMW team, the #26 of rookie driver Chris Tasca who raced Lamborghini Super Trofeo last year. Slow down, mate. Don't hurt the car. #25 has some argy bargy owith the #45 car of Scott Blind, the Aston Martin Vantage GT4 for Ruckus Racing being tagged by Marc Brummond. Agakhani is watching Alex Kirby. Agakhani has raced in Lamborghini Super Trofeo, SRO GT3, and in Italian GT. I do not know the structure class wise of the Italian GT series, so I could not tell you about that.
Ten laps in the bag already as the gap is just two tenths of a second between Kirby and Agakhani. LMP3 cars have traction control but they use it sparingly and turn it off. No antilock brakes either. Release brake pressure as the downforce goes away on the LMP3. The GSX cars also have far less downforce in GT4 than their big brothers in GT3 that we see in the WeatherTech Championship. Kirby slows the pace into the Le Mans chicane to pass the GT4 car. His experience shows. Back off in a space where my competition cannot do anything, and I can have a head of steam to pass the GSX cars.
In the meantime, Luca Mars is coming fast in the #59 KohR Motorsports Ford Mustang GT4, a brand new Ford Mustang GT4 just the same as the GT3 car being introduced in the WeatherTech Championship. Mars raced last year in Michelin Pilot Challenge and will do so again this year. Dean Martin, the team boss, there was no lap time for Luca Mars, and Martin said the car was eight pounds underweight. The two leaders, head-to-head towards the stripe. Kirby making Agakhani work for it. Halfway home. They pass Jesse Lazare in the McLaren. He holds up Agakhani just a fraction. But in the meantime, the Mustang is catching Patrick Wilmot in the BMW M4 GT4.
Kirby moving in to lap Luca Mars in the Mustang in fifth in GSX. Liefooghe takes a high line, high, wide, and handsome, at the top of the track. GT4 cars are very different from NASCAR stock cars even though the new generation Cup car has lots of sports car racing DNA in it. Agakhani balks the GSX car of Liefooghe. Kirby slams the door in Agakhani's face. Only 21 minutes to go. The draft is not as strong with the LMP3 cars as say an LMP2 or a GTP car in the WeatherTech Championship. We will see them qualify for the Rolex 24 tomorrow and you will hear about it.
Meantime, Michael Cooper down low as Liefooghe again, high wide and handsome on the banking. Brian Thienes is bringing Cody Ware with him. Ware is back into the top five after spinning and locking rhe brakes. One kilogram is 2.2 pounds of course. Whoa! Brian Thienes outbrakes himself and Cody Ware says, "thanks, mate" and makes the pass. Trouble again for poor old Mark Brummond. He is off the road and so is Robby McWilliams making contact with the tire wall. Did he spin before headingminto the chicane?
Everything behind the chicane used to be grass. The #23 LMP3 car is also off track. That is Miguel Villagomez in the Escuderia ABRO Ligier, from Ecuador. The #22 Aston Martin is from Archangel Motorsports, Robbie McWilliams' car. Lance Willsey fifth in the #33 Sean Creech Motorsports Ligier and now, Michael Cooper slides wide in GSX and it gets very busy in the road course segment of the circuit here at Daytona. Lance Willsey, Mirco Schultis and Marco Kasic, all three of them are scrapping with each other. Kasic, the rookie, is doing everything he can. Full Course Yellow. Mirco Schultis, a driver from the old LMP Challenge series, won races and we have seen him in GT3 Corvette's, Callaway Corvette's in SRO racing.
Robbie McWilliams does have damage. Deary me. McWilliams coached by Matt Bell, the American racer, not to be confused with Matthew Bell, the British racing driver. McWilliams is very process oriented being a military contractor. Game over for him today and also for Miguel Villagomez. Both of themnwill e back for race two tomorrow. This is the first IMSA race of the year. Robby McWilliams walks to the medical car under his own steam. The scout troops are here this weekend for Scout Days from Florida and elsewhere. Scouting creates a lot of future engineers which we need in motorsports especially.
Alex Kirby did not want to see a Full Course Yellow, no one did. We are going to have a ten-minute sprint with cooler Michelin tires when the green flag drops again. Keep the energy in the tire, circulating the heat in the wheel and tire by working the gas pedal against the brake pedal. Time is of the essence. Liefooghe leads GSX over Marc Miller, Michael Cooper, and Luca Mars. BMW M4 GT4, Mercedes-AMG GT4, Porsche Cayman GT4, and Ford Mustang GT4. It is crunch time. We will have four, five, six laps to go at the green. Liefooghe, Miller, Cooper, all three are veterans in sports car racing. Luca Mars, he is still learning to race, and get to the front.
He has had strong results in a GT4 car, but he is learning a brand-new Mustang for 2024. Alex Kirby leads voer Steven Agakhani, Cody Ware, Brian Thienes, Dr. Lance Willsey, Mirco Schultis, and Marco Kasic. George Staikos and Scott Locke complete the top ten as the #23 car needs a flat tow to the garage. So the tow truck is towing him back to the garage hopefully through the entrance because you always pull to the left at Daytona. If you are on the right side, you are on an island where nobody can get to you. That's not good.
Every point counts. Don't waste them by going for a gap that isn't there. Green flag. Just under six minutes to go. Kirby has a good run on the GSX cars. Brian Thienes or Cody Ware went down on the grass, and it is Thienes. Willsey jumped the start. Will the stewards have something to say? We'll see. Marc Miller though has rocketed past Greg Liefooghe! Oh man! That was unbelievable! As soon as the green flag comes out, go for it. Poor old Liefooghe got snookered! Meanwhile, the Ford Mustang of Luca Mars passes the Porsche Cayman of Michael Cooper. Criminy! This is good stuff here! The Mercedes just does not have the top speed does it.
Kirby runs a wee bit wide through turn one. Agakhani has a chance. This is a motor race, ladies and gentlemen. Believe me. Of course, we have a timed race of 45 minutes. George Staikos falling into the clutches of the GSX scrap. The Porsche Cayman is 100 kilograms lighter than the Ford Mustang which has the horsepower and the straightaway speed. 4 liter flat six in the Porsche Cayman, 5 liter naturally aspirated V8 in the Mustang. Agakhani tries Kirby and now they are side by side, they touch! Agakhani makes his move for the lead. #6 vs. #7! Again in replay, Kirby has the head of stema but gets loose and Agakhani fills the hole.
The cheese wedge is busted on Agakhani's car on the right rear. Hopefully that doesn't get into the aerodynamics. Watch out for that right rear Michelin tire. That front splitter is like a knife, and is extremely sharp. White flag. One lap to go. Agakhani went to school and then went to work in his family's business and he wanted to come back and go for prototype racing. That is what he is doing. The Mustang is shwoing pace as Mars is now second catching Liefooghe passing Marc Miller. So, it is mano e mano between Liefooghe and Mars. Interesting to watch these different cars from different manufacturers. The Mercedes is good and so is the BMW in slow corners, but in mid-speed turns and on the straightaway, the Mustang has the power.
Agakhani headed for the checkered flag, and he will win race one of VP Sports Car Challenge! A triumphant return to racing! He wins on debut at Daytona International Speedway! It is a drag race in GSX! BMW vs. Mustang. Here comes Mars! Liefooghe high, Mars, low. Mars is going to win this motor race from last to first! Wow! Holy mackerel! That was brute V8 Ford horsepower!
Overall/LMP3: #6 Steve Agakhani MLT Motorsports Ligier JS P320 Nissan
GSX: #59 Luca Mars KOHR Motorsports Ford Mustang GT4
Half a car length in it at the end. Poor old Liefooghe was damned if you do, damned if you don't. He couldn't make it work for the victory. But there is another race tomorrow. The yellow definitely helped the Mustang team under the ownership of driver, owner, and driver coach, Dean Martin. Awesome racing through both classes! 33 cars in total! We'll do it all again tomorrow for race two at 12:20 P.M. Eastern Time, 11:20 A.M. Central Time. We'll see you tomorrow, everybody. Bye bye, for now.
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