For the first and only time in 2024, it is a standalone event in the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship for Grand Touring cars. The LMP3 competitors in the VP Sports Car Challenge races we saw earlier in the weekend, were the only prototypes on the premises this weekend. Today, here in the rolling green hills near Alton, Virginia, production-based GT3 cars take center stage as we are set to bring you coverage of the Michelin GT Challenge at VIR on Endurance... The Sports Car Racing Blog. It's live, and it's next!
On the overall pole it is Madison Snow aboard the #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 in GTD Pro sharing the car with Bryan Sellers. In the regular GT Daytona division, (remember, all these cars are GT3 spec automobiles), it is the #55 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 with Giammarco Levorato of Italy, the starting driver, sharing alongside American driver Corey Lewis. After today's GT race, the sprint races in the WeatherTech Championship are all over for another year, and the focus will be on regathering all four classes for the final two endurance events of the season, the 6-hour Battle on The Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and the season closer, the 10-hour Petit Le Mans, the endurance classic, at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia.
The late, great "Dean of auto racing journalism" Chris Economaki, called VIR one of if not the finest North American road course and one of the finest in the world. Paul Newman, actor and racer, called it "heaven on earth". This is the motorsports version of Field of Dreams. This is a GT only race with the production cars. No prototypes are entered. We'll see those spaceships soon at Indianapolis and Road Atlanta. Low humidity, a slight breeze, a warm day. On NBC Sports and Peacock, we have Brian Till and Calvin Fish calling the action in the broadcast booth with Matt Yocum the intrepid pit reporter this morning.
Paul Miller Racing won five races and a championship in 2023. Madison Snow scored pole and broke both track records. Eight years ago, Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow won their first race here at VIR from the pole. Corey Lewis and Giammarco Levorato on the pole in GTD in the #55 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3, the first global pole for the GT3 Mustang. In Dearborn, the Ford faithful went bonkers. Will they prevail today? Stay tuned and find out. The green flag is coming up. It is all about GT3 cars this weekend as we join Brian Till and Calvin Fish in the broadcast booth. We need to watch out with the #77 AO Racing Porsche with Klaus Bachler, his third co-driver of 2024.
In GT Daytona, the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes, Russell Ward and co-driver Phillip Ellis, they will have their work cut out for them. We don't do a class split in this race. This is not like when we have the prototypes this weekend, the GTPs and LMP2s. Respect the boundaries. Keep the grill clean. It is barbecue season, but don't fill the grill with grass. Do the undercut on fresh tires for leapfrogging for track position. Alright. Through Hog Pen they come. We've got a green flag and we are underway! Bibendum, Monsieur Michelin, waves the flag.
OK. Hand and others shuffling for position, and so is Harry Tincknell, a VIR rookie. Antonio Garcia in the #3 Corvette and Madison Snow in the BMW know the track. Elliott Skeer in the #120 Wright Motorsports green and yellow Porsche have the pace. Out of Oak Tree and onto Madison Avenue for the first time of asking. Kenton Koch in the #32 Korthoff Preston Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 is going for it. Five GT Daytona Pro cars lead. Back through Hog Pen again, so demanding and challenging. The tires feel good now but in a few laps, they will be squirming all over the place.
Fuel management and tire management will go hand in hand. The tires, the Michelin tires and their condition, will be the key. The tires will degrade as the temperature, the ambient and track temps go up. Through The Snake and the Climbing Esses, Oak Tree corner and Madison Avenue. The oak tree is gone but a sapling was planted for a new one. Kyle Marcelli back from injury, he got tagged through turn five in the #45 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 for Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Global. Patrick Gallagher biffed the Lamborghini in the #96 Turner Motorsports BMW M4 GT3. Marcelli, the Canadian, sharing with Danny Formal of Costa Rica.
Hard on the power back up Madison Avenue again. The Corvettes have won five races in eight years here at VIR. Tommy Milner says that they don't have the top end speed of the BMW M4 GT3 or the Ford Mustang GT3. Corvette is a 5.5-liter V8, naturally aspirated. Mustang is a naturally aspirated 5.4 -liter V8. BMW, a 3-liter twin turbo V6. Madison Snow leads the motor race so far and there's more to come. We may not have the prototype classes here, but we've got exciting racing. If you follow my coverage of SRO competition globally, you will know about all GT3 grids. Same thing in the FIA World Endurance Championship.
Most of the top sports car racing championships globally are embracing GT3 cars. Virginia International Raceway is a gorgeous motorsport resort built in 1957. 17 corners in 3 and 1/4 miles. The climbing esses are flat out. Down to turn 1, 165 miles an hour into a heavy braking zone. Watch the low speed in Oak Tree corner, traction is key. Then, down Madison Avenue and into The Rollercoaster, hit the gates like a slalom skier. Then fly through Hog Pen to complete the lap. Alright. Harry Tincknell in the roaring V8 Ford Mustang GT3 factory car is chasing the Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3. Will teams go for a two-stop strategy or a three stop? There's more than one way to skin a cat, or fling a ball here or whatever idiom you think of.
Madison Snow has had speed in Free Practice and qualifying. I was not sure the Ford's would be suited for this circuit but the only thing they don't have is downforce. Will the tires last on the Mustang? We'll need to see. Porsche on Porsche as Klaus Bachler is racing Elliott Skeer. "Roxy" and AO Racing vs. Wright Motorsports. Skeer in the green and yellow Porsche, he is honing in on more GT Daytona traffic. Skeer drops wheels into the grass and just barely keeps it together. If the grass is wet you are going for a ride, like a waterslide, a slip & slide.
We've seen more than one car in turn 11 have a big clonk into the tire barriers. Skeer does recover and is back in the fight. Focus forward and keep going. No worrying. No freaking out. The past means nothing. Laurin Heinrich is only getting used to this circuit. Klaus Bachler has experience here at VIR. It is lkike playing golf on a course you don't know or taking a walk at an unfamiliar park. At AO Racing, Gunnar Jeanette, team co-owner, he said that their laps got messed up in qualifying and Roxy could not begin to run. They need the speed and the balance here. They have had two consecutive wins.
Klaus Bachler, worried about braking and you don't want that at a place like VIR and the crew will tell you, "Drive, mate. We definitely don't want to hear about braking problems!" Race car drivers have an honest right to complain if the car is not working, but at the same time, the team will tell them on the radio, "focus forward. Keep going." Kenton Koch at the wheel of the #32 Korthoff Preston Mercedes-AMG GT3. This team has swapped drivers. Mike Skeen here with the team but switched to Kenton Koch. Mike Skeen will race at Indianapolis and Petit Le Mans. Koch is ahead of the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 with Jack Hawksworth at the wheel of it. They won the GTD Pro championship last year in 2023.
The only difference between these teams is the rating of the drivers behind the wheel in the precious metals system mandated by the FIA. The cars are the same, all GT3 cars from different makes and models. Kenton Koch sharing with Canadian Mikael Grenier. He clattered over the curbs but maybe no damage. The traction control can go all over the place if you hit the curbs and are between gears. Look through the corner, look ahead, be smooth and don't yank the wheel. This is how you become a good, no, a great racing driver. Stay calm. Focus. A driver's eyes are concentrated but extremely calm. It is like a Sunday drive in the country in a classic car. But Kenton Koch drives race cars more than maybe we go to the grocery store or go for a drive in a classic car.
OK. Orey Fidani in the #13 AWA Chevrolet Corvette C8 GTR.R vs. Kerong Li in the #86 MDK Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R. Orey Fidani, Matt Bell, and AWA will be back with Corvette for 2025. Madison Snow controlling the motor race. He is cruising, Snow is. We have been racing for almost half an hour. Madison Snow is now a BMW factory driver. Bryan Sellers will be in the car soon. Snow and Sellers. It is like a rock band, a business, a law office, an accounting firm. On the go kart track, maybe there was some "cheating", or "looking for an advantage", to try and pip Madison Snow in a charity karting race focusing on mental health.
Hey, that's your teammate, Bryan. Be good to the man. Tee hee. A lot of money raised by the go kart racing, for teenage mental health concerns. Race car drivers are very charitable. Be good to the kids and to all people. Show kindness. That is what the racing world does. Competition, yes. Kindness, yes. Now we watch a battle between the #66 Acura and the #57 Mercedes. VIR is 3.27 miles with 131 feet of elevation on 1,300 acres of farmland. It was repaved and widened in 2000 and is known as "America's Motorsports Resort."
It was used for cow grazing for a quarter century. Skip Barber Racing School is based here and there are racing shops here too. Corey Lewis looking on, watching Giammarco Levorato, the Italian star. Ooh. He missed his mark through Oak Tree and went off the road into the dust. If it is wet you will skate right into the barriers. Levorato said "I had a hiccup with the gearbox." There are dark pavement patches causing heat transfer. The grayish pavement is slightly cooler than the fresh asphalt patches which are like driving on ice. Eyes up. Look through the corner. Don't worry about your dashboard. Sheena Monk also running well, in the #66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 sharing with Scotsman Stevan McAleer.
Gradient Racing will swap to Ford Mustang GT3's for the 2025 IMSA season. The WeatherTech Championship is in a great place right now. Globally, the demand for these customer cars, the Corvette's, the Mustang's, you need to sign up now because they are limited build. Plan ahead. Asking for a car a month before Daytona, you will be too late. Zacharie Robichon in The Heart of Racing Aston Martin is running second in GT Daytona, dovetailing with their efforts in the FIA World Endurance Championship. We've got more FIA WEC coverage coming. Trust me on that and stay tuned for it.
Minimum tire pressure operation concerns for the #77 AO Racing Porsche. There is a minimum required tire pressure as we have talked about. Straighten that out and then go to your planned strategy. But that is a late penalty as we are already 36 minutes into the race. AO Racing might be in damage limitation mode. Klaus Bachler and Laurin Heinrich are going to be off sequence. You are serving a penalty right now, driving through the pit lane. They are actually making a driver change and changng tires. The tire marks are all over the pit boxes.
They are at the end of the pit lane, doing a John Force drag racing burnout to get traction in the concrete pit box. The dinosaur is back on track. Get the pressures into the sweet spot. This was not a normal drive through penalty. 59-65 minutes on fuel stints and if there is no yellow, fuel save will be necessary. Trouble for the #9 Pfaff Motorsports McLaren with the passenger side door going up on the right side of the car. This is down the backstretch and there is low pressure opening the door. That is such a distraction! Oliver Jarvis in the McLaren being harried by Zacharie Robichon in the Aston Martin, the dark blue Heart of Racing car.
Of course, they will be making their prototype debut next year with the wild new Aston Martin Valkyrie Hypercar in the GTP class. That is going to be bonkers, and the competition is going to get hot! Of course, yours truly, and I can say this now because we are not in the race today, is a fan and friend of the team at Action Express Racing Cadillac and team boss, Bob Johnson, 2023 WeatherTech Championship GTP champions. I can assure you we will be in the fight with everyone, Acura, Aston Martin, Porsche, BMW, and whoever else is going to come. Action Express had their Cadillac GTP car on display at Daytona International Speedway during the Coke Zero 400 NASCAR Cup Series race weekend and the wild race yesterday evening.
Now, we see a spin out of turn four, that is the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 getting tagged. Laurin Heinrich tipping Hawksworth into a spin on cold tires. Hawksworth will not be a happy bunny about getting a free ride on the whirligig. OK. This incident is under review by the stewards. What will they say? We'll find out. Laurin Heinrch had a head of steam coming out of the pit lane and the sister #23 Aston Martin in GTD Pro, Ross Gunn at the wheel of it. Heinrich being chased by Ross Gunn. Gunn of course teamed with Spaniard Alex Riberas. Kenton Koch brings the #32 Korthoff Preston Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 to the lane.
Kenton Koch will do a double stint, packing the car full of fuel and changing onto new Michelin tires. Down off the air jacks and he is down and away. Alexander Sims and Antonio Garcia are going to swap in the #3 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R. Last year, Sims was a champion in GTP with my pals at Action Express before moving back over to Corvette this year. Joey Hand is chasing Tommy Milner. Hand used to race a BMW M3 for Tommy Milner's dad, Tom. I think he also raced a Panoz Esperante back in the day. Joey Hand in the Mustang and Tommy Milner in the Corvette. Front engine in the Mustang, mid-engine in the Corvette.
Hand sharing the #65 car with Dirk Mueller. Harry Tincknell in the sister #64 sharing with Mike Rockenfeller. Ford Performance has hired some of the top drivers in the world in sports car racing. This team is run by Multimatic under team boss Larry Holt. Of course, Mustangs were also synonymous in IMSA way back when in the 1980s and '90s with Jack Roush and a plethora of great drivers who drove for "the cat in the hat." Wally Dallenbach Jr., Pete Halsmer, Scott Pruett, Willy T. Ribbs, Lyn St. James, Deborah Gregg, Bob Lappalainen, Mark Martin, Tommy Kendall, Mike Brockman, Paul Newman, Tommy Kendall, Jon Gooding, Robby Gordon, the list goes on.
Jack Roush won nine straight Rolex 24's in the GT classes with Ford Mustang's except for one year, in 1994 when they didn't show up and the Clayton Cunningham Nissan 300ZX Turbos, they won overall at the Rolex 24, 30 years ago. Corvette Racing and Paul Miller Racing BMW have had incredible battles in 2024. God Bless Connie Nieholm, the President and CEO, along with director Kerrigan Smith at VIR. They have made this track a world class motor racing facility and keep improving it. It is southern hospitality, looking out for the fans, for the teams, and help the teams with what they want. The safety improvements are amazing.
OK. Loris Spinelli in the south pit in the #78 Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2. Maybe he went off the road and got rid of all the grass, all the junk out of the car. In the factory Ford camp, Mike Rockenfeller is in the #64 Ford Mustang GT3. The sister #65 is in the pit lane for service and a driver change. Joey Hand gives the car to Dirk Mueller. Of course, they drove for the Ford factory team with the Ford GT from 2016-2019 in the GT Le Mans class when Chip Ganassi Racing was a factory Ford team before changing their allegiance to GM and Cadillac from 2021-2024. Mike Rockenfeller squirming around on stone cold tires.
Gently, boys. These two chaps are racing each other. Mueller will begin feeling it with the tire grip and now the #4 Corvette is in the lane, well down to the box. Fuel, tires, and a driver change. Nicky Catsburg will be in the car next. He has not been to a lot of these tracks but is a veteran of racing sports cars in Europe and North America. He has watched past races on TV and seen how the track works. Every driver has their calling card, the paint scheme on their helmet. The factory Mustang's are beginnign to turn it on.
But the Corvette's too are really pushing. But, trouble in paradise for the #3! Dirk Mueller, too, pinged with a drive through penalty for minimum fuel flow rate infringement. Oh dear. Alexander Sims cannot start the #3 Corvette. He did a reset, and the car is back underway but, blimey! That was a bear! These GT3 cars are incredibly sophisticated. It is like resetting your laptop if the computer goes haywire. We are nearly an hour into this event. Madison Snow in total control with big fuel save and now, Snow is going to change over to Bryan Sellers in the #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3. Fuel in the tank, tires changed with the rattle guns hitting the lug nuts.
Down the car goes off the air jacks. Bryan Sellers is serviced and sent. Will he beat the #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin? Nope. Now, Mike Rockenfeller in the Mustang is all over Bryan Sellers like a cheap suit. Oof! Watch out for the climbing esses where things start going fast. Then, again, into The Rollercoaster, down the hill like a slalom skier hitting the gates in the powdery snow in a ski race. PMR has many options for attack plans. We still have a long way to go in the all GT Michelin GT Challenge. Glad to have you with us on this Sunday afternoon.
We saw classic NASCAR race cars yesterday and it was awesome! HSR, Historic Sports Car Racing. Check it out. They are under the IMSA umbrella. If there is video of the cars, I will post it here as soon as I can. Trouble in paradise, still, for the #3 Corvette doing a reset. Alexander Sims at the wheel of it. We saw Corvette win in SRO Fanatec GT World Challenge at VIR with Tommy Milner and Alec Udell a few weeks ago of course. Alexander Sims has no power steering on that Corvette. Good grief! Talking about the NASCAR vintage stock cars, that had to be a hoot! Mike Skeen drove one of Richard Petty's cars and hung out with the man himself. How cool is that!
Skeen drove the Adam Petty liveried Dodge Intrepid that Adam's dad Kyle drove in 2005 or so. Wow. How awesome! Mike Skeen says that down the road he will drive the #32 at Indianapolis and Petit Le Mans. Corvette in big, big trouble. The #3 is going behind the wall. Dear, oh dear! This is massive trouble. The power steering is out. The loads and forces for a driver without power steering, a driver will be a whipped puppy! So, hopefully the problem can be fixed. Corvette, BMW, and Porsche have all won the GT races here in IMSA at VIR over the years.
Power steering, antilock brakes, when the systems break, as a complete part of the car, if there is a failure, you are going to be in a world of pain. If your ABS and master cylinder fail, it isn't pretty. Wow. Look at the points as they run in GTD Pro.
2. #77 Laurin Heinrich AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3R (992) 2,519 points -33
3. #14 Hawksworth/Barnicoat Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 2,388 points -164
No comments:
Post a Comment