Saturday, August 24, 2024

Winner & Highlights of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Virginia is For Racing Lovers Grand Prix

Time is of the essence in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge in 2024.  After today's contest on the fabled pavement of Virginia International Raceway, we will have just two races left to run.  On the pole today once again is the dominant RS1 Porsche Cayman in the hands of Stevan McAleer and Trent Hindman, car #28.  The TCR touring car class pole goes to another dominant team.  It is actually a top three lockout for the Bryan Herta Autosport Hyundai Elantra team.  Bryson Morris is the polesitter in the #77 Hyundai he shares with Taylor Hagler.  Of course, last weekend, we saw Bryson Morris dominate with his teammate Bryan Sellers in a 1-2 sweep of GT World Challenge America SRO competition in GT3 Corvette's at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.  

Not a lot of sporting venues have the history Virginia International Raceway has, opened in the mid 1950s, closed for a while, and then, reopened in the year 2000.  It is the Michelin Pilot Challenge Virginia Is For Racing Lvers Grand Prix.  80 degrees, low humidity.  Grab a lawn chair and some shade as we have Brian Till and Calvin Fish in the broadcast booth with Matt Yocum reporting from pit lane.  RS1 and the Porsche Cayman of Stevan McAleer and Trent Hindman are in the pound seats.  Rory van der Steur in third in points is going to be on the charge with teammate Scott Andrews.  

They are looking to control their own destiny today.  Rory van der Steur has had five co-drivers in 2024.  In TCR, the championship fight has been dominated by the Unitronic JDC-Miller Motorsports Audi RS3 LMS TCR.  The past couple races have not been the best but the team still leads in the championship by 220 points and it is even closer the rest of the way back.  In the TCR class, the Hyundai's are always contenders.  They have a 20 point lead in the manufacturer's cup as well.  Robert Wickens was one of about two dozen drivers who went off the road, and holed the radiator.

The team had to do an engine change and Robert Wickens and Harry Gottsacker start shotgun on the field.  3 and a quarter miles here at VIR.  Flat out, on the limit expecially the backstretch, Madison Avenue.  150 miles an hour to 60 miles an hour in turn one.  Look at Oak Tree corner in turn 12.  The Rollercoaster at turn 14 and Hog Pen at turn 17 are also crucial corners.  From the mid 1970s to the 1990s the place was a corn field.  We will go onboard with the #16 Skip Barber Racing School Aston Martin of Ken Fukuda and Will Lambros.

Trouble in paradise for the #39 CarBahn Racing BMW M4 GT4 of Jeff Westphal and Sean McAlister.  The car just won't start.  The team under the hood with the laptop computer and looking for loose connections and so on.  The enigne, is cranking but there's trouble.  So, the cars are on their formation lap and shortly, we'll have a start.  McLaren and Porsche on the front row of the grid.  Stevan McAleer and Trent Hindman have been solid all weekend so far.

OK.  It is time to go racing!  Green flag!  Away we go!  Paul Holton in the #46 Team TGM Aston Martin with Matt Plumb are the championship leaders.  Porsche, McLaren, Porsche the top three.  I wonder if the McLaren changed columns before the start/finish line.  The TCR class starts and steams down to turn one as Robert Wickens is beginning to motor.  Bryson Morris leads from pole in one of the sister Hyundai's.  Stevan McAleer eking out a gap over everyone else so far on stone cold Michelin tires.  

He timed the start perfectly as they go through the climbing esses.  Jenson Altzman has moved up in the #13 Ford Mustang GT4, the McCumbee McAleer Racing car.  McAleer has taken off and now, Jesse Lazare, MIA and co-driver Michael de Quesada have been through the ringer already this weekend.  Remain in your column until you cross the line.  The MIA team races a McLaren in VP Sports Car Challenge and both were crashed.  The VP Challenge car had to be cannibalized to get this one together.  ,McAleer has the lead and now, Michael McCarthy and Jenson Altzman chasing and making contact through Oak Tree corner.

Tire degradation can be troublesome here at VIR.  Rear tire grip through accelerating and turning at the same time is the part everyone will be watching out for with a minimum drive time of 40 minutes and a maximum of 50 in GS and an hour as normal in TCR.  In TCR, it is Hyundai, Hyundai, Audi.  Mikey Taylor and Chris Miller are chasing down the #77 and #98.  There are exactly ten TCR cars in the field today.  Race, but don't take risks that are unnecessary.  Don't stick in no man's land.  

A penalty issued, a drive through, for the #16 car.  That is the Ken Fukuda and Will Lambros Skip Barber Racing Aston Martin.  Miller jumps out to try passing the Hyundai down Madison Avenue as Wilkins pinches Miller.  We saw Altzman in the Mustang do the same to Lazare in the McLaren.  In the #39 camp for the BMW, they changed the valve timing motor, and it is back on track, but the #39 is two to three laps down.  They had a massive accident at Mid-Ohio back in June.  Trouble it appears fot the #19 van der Steur Racing Aston Martin.

Chris Miller floating through the high speed esses but then he runs wide through Oak Tree!  Watch out because there will be more tire marbles later in the race.  You cannot afford to miss the turn in point through turn 11 before the front-end washes away from you.  I cannot afford as the title race leader to throw the car off into the weeds.  Ken Fukuda serves his drive through penalty and is back in the race.   At corner apex, he has to stay in a spot and naturally drives over to the other side but before the stripe.

Fukuda chasing Ted Giovanis in the #64 Team TGM Aston Martin sharing with Hugh Plumb.  McAleer leads the motor race by a second or so.  Getting into TCR traffic, you have no time to decide.  Split second decisions are important.  McAleer is a master of Michelin Pilot Challenge.  He knows what to do.  He started on the Michelin qualifying tires, managing things as they are currently.  We need to watch Lazare and Altzman as well.  Altzman is motoring forward in the #13 Ford Mustang GT4.  The #19 Aston Martin of Rory van der Steur will serve a drive through penalty for being on the wrong side of the grid.

Matt Plumb and Paul Holton know it.  Oh dear!  Chris Miller in the fence in the #17 Unitronic JDC-Miller Motorsports Audi!  Damage to the front fender.  Damage to the left front in Oak Tree corner.  Will he stay out?  Will he come into the pit lane?  Miller apologizes for what happened and they tell him "just drive and let us know if the steering has been damaged or not.  Do we need to replace parts?"  hHe was wide early into the turn and the corner keeps going to the right and once you are off in the dirt, you are a passenger.  If that inner fender is rubbing on the tire it could cut it down.  

Do you feel anything in the wheel?  Is there a vibration?  Is there a smell of smoke in the cockpit?  The steering is not working effectively, and his lines are all wonky.  Altzman went off the road just in front of Michael McCarthy and McCarthy goes by.  Did Jenson Altzman stuff the radiator grill with grass?  Chad McCumbee of course is his co-driver.  Paul Holton is not taking risks.  Altzman was distracted by Jesse Lazare dropping wheels off the road.  Lazare I must say, I think he was tucked up like a kipper there.  

Many cars went off the road in the support championships.  The barriers are magnets to the drivers saying, "come to me, I will rescue you."  Of course, this is a falsehood.  It is trickery of the highest order.  Drivers do not want to hit anything.  Ken Fukuda is back after it as Sam Baker has moved up to third in TCR.  Sam and Dean Baker from Canada in the Canadian TCR series, they are doing very well.  Preston Brown in the #76 Bryan Herta Autosport Hyundai runs wide and off into the grass there, going into The Rollercoaster.  

It has been dry and so the grass isn't soaked.  Brown pits the car for service.  Meanwhile, big damage on the left rear corner of the #71 Rebel Rock Racing Aston Martin Vantage of Robin Liddell and Frank DePew.  Frank DePew had a great run in VP Challenge earlier today but the race is going pear shaped in Michelin Pilot currently.  We have seen a lot of action with only 20 minutes on the board as we have seen a handful of cars off in the tooleys.  #76 being repaired and the Rebel Rock team must fix the Aston Martin in the pit lane.  

The Aston Martin is the only Evo spec GT4 car from the Gaydon, Warwickshire, England company.  They won back at Sebring in March.  He went off at turn ten on the way to 11 and he is off again and  in the exact same corner.  The splitter is totally gone.  The car will handle and steer like a pig.  DePew has no clue the car has all the bodywork gone.  There is zero downforce on the front of the car.  Pit lane and he enters.  This car has been thoroughly trashed.  They add fuel to the car and are bungee cording the rail into place and tearing the bodywork off the car.  Thousands of dollars being tossed in the trash.

Preston Brown in the pit lane working on the left front.  Denis Dupont, the co-driver says they have a wheel sensor problem with just two races to go after today at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Road Atlanta.  ABS failure on that Hyundai.  Bryson Morris leading the TCR class in the other BHA Hyundai Elantra, car #77.  Bryson Morris, Mark Wilkins, Sam Baker, Dai Yoshihara, and Morgan Burkhard, the top five.

Bryson Morris is driving the TCR car here and a GT3 Corvette in SRO GT World Challenge competition.  Baker, Yoshihara, Burkhard, all in the battle.  Audi, Honda, Hyundai.  The Canadian TCR championship north of the border has some serious talent.  Sam Baker, the father, laying the groundwork for the son to take over driving in the second stint, Dean Baker.  Trent Hindman says discipline and sticking to a plan is working well for RS1 and the races are extremely unpredictable.  Car speed is never a problem for them.  

Paul Holton has dropped a spot to Francis Selldorff in the #96 Turner Motorsports BMW M4 GT4 sharing with defending GS champion in Michelin Pilot Challenge, Robby Foley as Michael McCarthy goes off and on.  Paul Holton taking over from Owen Trinkler who is recovering from burns in a fire in a testing crash in 2023.  Holton will bring the car into the pit lane with no damage and he is playing the role as a co-driver and doing very well at it.  He has been very patient and disciplined in the opening stints.  

The #76 BHA Hyundai is laps down in TCR and we see the battle with Baker, Yoshihara, Wickens, and Dr. William Tally in the #5 KMW TMR Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce TCR.  Smoke out of the tailpipe of the Hyundai.  Hyundai's always have smoke on acceleration out of the turn.  I have no idea.  Is that oil burnoff?  What's the deal there?  Yoshihara is putting the pressure on Sam Baker and gives it up through Oak Tree.  Baker resolute in his defense.  Holton in fifth place in the TGM Aston Martin.  You can't win a title in one race but you can throw it away.  You cannot practice for the unknown.  

Team TGM at Road America, Matt Plumb was swarmed on a restart and had some opportunities to salvage points, thankfully.  Still a long way to go.  An hour and 24 minutes to go.  There is a 240 point swing in the championship before we get to the finale at Road Atlanta in October.  Keep pushing.  Keep digging.  Stevan McAleer contnues leading overall and in GS and Bryson Morris leading the TCR class.  RS1 swept both practice sessions and qualified on the pole and they have led every lap thus far.  Todd Coleman off and on and the front end of the #88 Archangel Motorsports Aston Martin loaded up with grass in the radiator.

There is no air to the motor and the motor will overheat if he is not careful.  The readiator and water temperatures will skyrocket.  There is a motorcycle chicane he could pull into, hit the brakes, and lose the grass.  We are almost at the 40-minute mark.  That Aston Martin has to be getting sick.  Bryson Morris leading in TCR.  How he took the pole by half a second and now has built a seven and a half second lead up is amazing.  He is laying down a marker before handing the car off to Taylor Hagler and she will drive the second stint.

In the #17 Unitronic JDC-Miller Motorsports Audi RS3 LMS TCR, Mikey Taylor will take over the car for the second stint.  The added weight for the Audi is not as noticeable but the ride height adjustments have changed their setups completely because so much air goes under the nose making them lose aerodynamic grip like from a sports car to a station wagon on a dirt road.  Points as they run in TCR are as follows:

1. #17 Miller/Taylor               Unitronic JDC-Miller Motorsports Audi RS3 LMS TCR    2,430 points
2. #33 Gottsacker/Wickens    BHA Hyundai Elantra N TCR                      2,240 points    -190
3. #98 Filippi/Wilkins            BHA Hyundai Elantra N TCR                      2,230 points    -200

Obviously, the points will change.  On full suspension compression through Hog Pen, something is rubbing.  Hopefully the tire doesn't get cut down.  It may be best to just throw some tape on the fender and throw new tires at it.  Pit stop time for the #28 Porsche Cayman, a driver change to Trent Hindman and tires and fuel as well.  Trent Hindman of course raced with Alan Brynjolfsson, and now, he has the same rapport with Stevan McAleer.  We are closing in on the halfway mark in the race in about 15 minutes.

A full fuel load on a GS car is 48-50 seconds.  Jesse Lazare now hitting the pit lane as well.  This is the #69 Motorsports in Action McLaren and there's pit stops too for the #17 Audi with Mikey Taylor now at the wheel of it.  In Michelin Pilot Challenge there are weekend warriors on most of the pit crews.  Not necessarily full-time team members.  Other people on the team have day jobs.  The TCR cars are far more agile.  The GS/GT4 cars have more power and are beasts.  Rory van der Steur finishes his stint and turns over the #19 Aston Martin to Scott Andrews.  

Andrews will not be back with the team later this season.  It is a team deal and of course, you and your co-driver must have chemistry, completely.  Rory van der Steur has worked with a lot of different co-drivers and now, Matt Plumb takes over the #46 Team TGM Aston Martin.  Bryson Morris continues leading in the TCR division.  Morris leads teammate Mark Wilkins by just over ten and a half seconds.  Don't have egos with your teammates, cooperate as best as possible.  Moisey Uretsky in the #44 Baby Bull Racing Porsche Cayman, sharing with Michael Cooper.  Thomas Collingwood in the #38 BGB Motorsports Porsche Cayman is running well.

Will Lambros now at the wheel of the #16 Skip Barber Racing School Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4.  Moisey Uretsky is now the overall leader by 37 seconds.  The Aston Martin, powered by a 4-liter turbocharged V8 growling and rumbling around the circuit.  Lambros hanging on for dear life with the tires squirming around.  The #39 CarBahn BMW is back on track but laps down after their electornics issues.  A new race car is never quite the same as an older one that maybe was wrecked.  Steve Dinan, renowned BMW tuner, is an engineer at CarBahn and now, Moisey Uretsky is stopping in The Snake!  He is out of gas!

This is after The Snake and in the middle of the esses.  Full Course Yellow.  We are under Full Course Yellow.  I wonder if the team had radio trouble. Michael Cooper will be disappointed if he cannot race but now, Uretsky is back underway.  Uretsky still having fuel starvation woes.  Put it in neutral and let gravity do the work.  He could roll down the frontstretch but don't touch the brakes.  It is uphill from turn 17 onto the pit lane, out of Hog Pen.

His trouble now is pitting in a closed pit lane and he can take just five seconds of fuel for emergency service and Uretsky will cop a penalty and need to come back down for full service as we are halfway through the race.  How willing are you to gamble?  Is there air in the fuel system?  Does the car have a vapor lock?  Bryson Morris was pitting that lap and couldn't.  The #77 and #33 need to change their strategies.  GS pit stops underway for the leaders to come in and top off.  Someone has lost a wheel.  Where did this wheel and tire come from?

I think that is from Turner Motorsports.  Did it come off the car?  Or did someone hit an extra tire?  We don't know.  Both Turner Motorsports BMW M4 GT4's may have clattered into each other on pit exit.  That's an odd situation.  Was the tire in a place where it wasn't supposed to be?  If you hit equipment in pit lane, that is a penalty.  Turner Motorsports have been extremely successful in GT3 based championships in 2024.  But their GT4 program has not been firing on all cylinders.  So, the TCR pit stops are set to get underway from behind the safety car.

#77 to the pit lane.  There will be a driver change over to Taylor Hagler.  Tires being changed.  The #33 sister car is in.  Robert Wickens is out, and Harry Gottsacker is in.  Gottsacker needs a pit exit, or room to exit the lane as the team cars need to both be pushed back and the stops couldn't be staggered.  Excuse me, we were looking at #98.  There is a minimum fuel flow drop rate, have more length on the fuel hose for the gravity fed refueling units.  52 minutes of racing remaining.  Robert Wickens had the whole BHA Hyundai team on deck for the #33 to change a motor and the front splitter.  

50 minutes to go.  We are about to see a sprint to the bitter end here at VIR.  Hugh Plumb is now fourth and Trent Hindman at the controls of the #28 RS1 Porsche Cayman, the polesitter.  Michael De Quesada, Will Lambros, and Spencer Pumpelly, they will all need to do massive fuel save.  Pumpelly and BGB Motorsports along with team boss John Tecce, they can gamble.  Green flag.  It is the restart, ad there goes Pumpelly passing Lambros! Trent Hindman gets the jump on Matt Plumb and the championship leader is around collecting the van der Steur Aston Martin!  Pit penalties handed down to a couple of GS teams.  

Three Porsche's at the front.  Spencer Pumpelly, Riley Dickinson, and Trent Hindman.  Will Lambros gets into the sicde of Matt Plumb, and he had to open his hands up and right front to left rear, and the left front tags the other Aston Martin.  A car is off in turn 14, the #19 of Scott Andrews.  Full Course Yellow.  We are under Full Course Yellow.  There is toe in on the #46 and the left front steering rod has been bent.  Plumb had no place to go and moved too far to make conttact with Lambros.  Andrews wanted to stay out of the way.

With this accident the points situation changes.

1. #46 Matt Plumb                Team TGM Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4            2,160 points
2. #28 Hindman/McAleer     RS1 Porsche Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport                   2,120 points -40
3. #19 Rory van der Steur     van der Steur Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 1,920 points -240

Skip Barber Racing School has a huge, 60,000 square foot facility to hold their racing school here.  Ken Fukuda and Will Lambros are now in seventh place.  We are headed back to green flag racing now.  37 minutes to go.  Hindman to the inside of Pumpelly!  Spencer Pumpelly leads the motor race.  Look out for Riley Dickinson in the #91 Kellymoss Racing Porsche Cayman,  He s in the fight.  Luca Mars in the Ford Mustang GT4 is also in this pack in the #59 car sharing with Bob Michaelian as Daniel Morad is side by side with Will Lambros through Oak Tree and down Madison Avenue.  The Mercedes hasn't got the straight line speed compared to the Aston Martin's.  How on earth did Morad wedge himself in front of the Aston Martin?!  

Both of the #95 and #96 Turner Motorsports BMW M4 GT4's being penalized for hitting tires.  35 minutes to go.  It is feisty with Morad in a war zone currently.  Pumpelly, Hindman, and Dickinson in the top three.  Trouble for the #46 Aston Martin of course.  Paul Holton says the left front tie rod is broken and that's it.  So maybe they can come back into the picture.  They have used their mulligan.  At Indianapolis and Road Atlanta, they are going to have to push.  A win for BGB Motorsports might just be possible.

They have gambled a lot and played their strategy perfectly.  Robin Liddell is seventh after that #71 Aston Martin looked like it needed to go to the breaker's yard.  Yikes!  #46 is back on track but Rory van der Steur says there was nothing Scott Andrews could do in that earlier shemozzle.  Half an hour to go.  Troubles too for the #52 Baker Racing Audi out of Oak Tree and into the south pit lane.  Half an hour of racing to go.  Luca Mars has pace and must do all he can to try and scrap with Dickinson, Hindman, and Pumpelly.

Luca Mars knows his way around a GT4 Ford Mustang and believe me, he won race one in GSX, the GT4 class in VP Racing Fuels Sports Car Challenge earlier.  Aaron Telitz at 1:54.9 just put down his fastest lap of the race.  Mason Filippi leading TCR, not anymore, Tyler Gonzalez has just passed him.  Tim Lewis Jr. in the Alfa Romeo is also in this fight.  Hindman sticking to Pumpelly like glue.  Gonzalez not wasting any time whatsoever.  Tyler Gonzalez is the 2023 Toyota GR Cup one make series champion.  

Jeff Westphal, with all the trouble for CarBahn is a couple laps down but sticking to the McLaren #69 of de Quesada.  Tyler Gonzalez leading TCR and out of Oak Tree he had a major battle on his hands with Mason Filippi.  That was good, clean racing as Treunt Hindman tries a move on Spencer Pumpelly but does not make headway.  That was wheel to wheel racing but very clean.  No paint trading.  NASCAR Cup Series, please take note.  Luca Mars has designs of getting on the podium.  Riley Dickinson glued to Trent Hindman, right on his six, for second place.  

Trent Hindman and Spencer Pumpelly have driven together this year in other championships.  At VGRT they have changed to Hyundai and Victor Gonzalez, team boss, he credits BHA for helping them in the switch to Hyundai.  Tyler Gonzalez and Morgan Burkhart are really running well.  They have a charity to help kids who are homeless and who are up for adoption.  Wow.  Kudos to you guys.  Luca Mars is now third.  Trent Hindman will be being pushed by Mars in the Mustang.  Gonzalez now being harried by Karl Wittmer in the #93 Montreal Motorsports Group Honda Civic.  12 minutes of racing to go.  It is getting down to crunch time.

Robin Liddell against many of the younger drivers, is still fighting in sixth place.  Riley Dickinson drops a wheel.  Robin Liddell's car is missing a front splitter.   It is a tight squeeze there for the #43 Stephen Cameron Racing Ford Mustang GT4 driven by Greg Liefooghe who has Robin Liddell chasing him as we keep watching this battle for the TCR lead too between Tyler Gonzalez and Karl Wittmer.  Ten minutes to go/  Spencer Pumpelly in the lead, must stretch his fuel mileage.  Time is now of the essence.  

Trent Hindman is now closing on the Mustang.  I believe that is the lapped #43 car.  Not much traffic to encounter for the TCR leaders as this is the battle we are watching and here comes Wittmer down Madison Avenue.  Gonzalez and Wittmer really scrapping.  The #46 Team TGM Aston Martin team had major problems at Road America and here at VIR as well.  Matt Plumb's brother Hugh Plumb are still in the fight.  For the points, could team manager Joe Varde park the #64 to allow the #46 to move up?  We'll see.

The clock continues to run.  Six mninutes and change remaining.  Did Trent Hindman take the opportunity to regroup?  Will he have another run at Spencer Pumpelly?  RS1 have made up a lot of ground.  Hindman has won titles before and is a big picture thinker.  He won't let Luca Mars make a banzai move.  Wittmer is closing on Tyler Gonzalez in TCR.  BGB's last win was in 2013.  Spencer Pumpelly drove in that race.  So, they are looking to win for the first time in over a decade.  The Gou Racing Audi has made contact with the wall at Oak Tree, the exit of turn 11.  The tire bundles wrapped in conveyor belt and set out from the guardrail absorb the energy and do minimal damage to the cars.

VIR improves as a race track every single year.  The last two races, Montreal Motorsports Group have been on the podium in Michelin Pilot Challenge.  A second place at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park and a third at Road America, now battling for another podium place here in Virginia.  MMG are running a great team.  Wittmer not giving up on the chance of a win with a minute and a half of racing to go.  We will see the checkered flag next time by as the #64 Team TGM Aston Martin in the pit lane.  The Hyundai and Honda battle in TCR has been something to watch as we have the white flag.  The Wittmer family, from Canada, many in that family drive race cars.

It is a tight battle between Karl Wittmer and Tyler Gonzalez.  Off the road goes the #71 Rebel Rock Aston Martin as there is half a second now between Pumpelly and Hindman.  Side by side between Wittmer and Gonzalez.  Wittmer will go for it.  Gonzalez goes for it as there's more woe for the #69 MIA McLaren.  We will have new winners I believe and we do!  Spencer Pumpelly and Thomas Collingwood win.  Wittmer runs wide against Gonzalez in TCR!  Wittmer has to give it back.  This is a great battle.  Gonzalez hanging on trying to keep the pressure on through The Rollercoaster.

Now, Gonzalez compromises his line being super conservative.  Wittmer drives through the grass!  Gonzalez shuts the door!  Wittmer is very strong.  He has three or four car lengths.  Qualifying laps for the next three or four laps.  Wittmer should have the better car behind him, cutting the corner sharper.  Wittmer makes a move on Gonzalez and thankfully does not turn him around.  Gonzalez doing a great job being a pain.  He is hanging on for all he's worth.  Wittmer wants it and he can go take it.  Wittmer, the Canadian, running out of patience.  He tries it this time, Gonzales closes the door.

Where am I quick?  Where is he quick?  It is a chess game.  He has to set up the perfect release out of Oak Tree corner tempering his entry speed into The Rollercoaster.  Not much grip here at VIR.  Karl Wittmer cannot get the drive off.  Gonzalez has better grip.  Wittmer did not get the good run out of Oak Tree.  He needs to work out the solution to the puzzle.  How do you get Gonzalez to go where you want him to go.  I don't think he can, but he does it!  He sticks it in and drives off the corner and Wittmer makes his move!  Okie dokie.  That just might settle it.  Gonzalez has to send it if he has anything left in the locker.

Gonzalez too untidy through The Rollerocaster.  Good stuff.  Now we see Tyler Gonzalez losing steam to Wittmer.  Pumpelly must have enough gas to get to the finish and keep Hindman at bay these last two laps.  John Tecce and BGB and have made the strategy calls today and their race might play out with the best result they can hope for.  Who will it be here at VIR?  Pumpelly gapping the rest of the field.  Risk it to get the biscuit.  White flag this time by.  One lap to go.  Big points for RS1 are possible.  Luca Mars looming large in the mirrors of Trent Hindman with Riley Dickinson fourth.  Liddell and Telitz for sixth, side by side with the two Aston Martin's.

Telitz tags Robin Liddell!  Oy yoy yoy yoy!  That's not good.  Masterful drive for Pumpelly.  Know your fuel mileage immediately.  As a driver, don't get on the radio to me halfway through my stint telling me to save fuel.  Trouble as we noted for the MIA McLaren #69.  But now, into turn 14 and through The Rollercoaster for the last time of asking.  Down the hill past one of the TGM Aston Martin's.  BGB Motorsports win their sixth career race and their first in 11 years!  BGB wins at VIR! The first win for Tom Collingwood!  TCR honors go the way of the #93 MMG Honda Civic!  Karl Wittmer and Dai Yoshihara, the drift king, they do it!

Overall/Grand Sport: #38 Collingwood/Pumpelly BGB Motorsports Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS CS
            TCR: #93 Yoshihara/Wittmer                     Montreal Motorsports Group Honda Civic FL5 TCR

That was a wonderful race!  Two events now remain on the 2024 Michelin Pilot Challenge schedule.  The penultimate race will be at "The Brickyard" at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Tirerack.com Battle on The Bricks coming up in three weeks.  We'll see you at Indianapolis.  For now, so long, everybody.  Take care.



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