Alexander Sims and Antonio Garcia have won the IMSA GT Challenge at Virginia International Challenge, to further extend their championship lead in the #3 Corvette.
Despite leading the championship, this was their first win all year in the IMSA SportscCar Championship series.
Garcia started the car fourth and remained there until he stopped. Giacomo Altoe, on pole in the #81 DragonSpeed Ferrari 296 GT3, lost the lead on the opening lap to #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3’s Neil Verhagen, with his BMW teammate Dan Harper following him through.
This gave the German manufacturer a 1-2 at the front of the field. However, the race was soon neutralised as a sponsorship hoarding had been knocked over by a car going off track.
At the restart, Verhagen kept the lead over Harper, in the #1 Paul Miller BMW. They tried to stretch their lead, but Altoe in third kept them in check.
Garcia was the first to stop, from fourth. The two BMWs also soon stopped from the lead, as did Altoe. This gave Marco Mapelli, in the #9 Pfaff Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, the lead until he too pitted.
Albert Costa, now in the #81 DragonSpeed Ferrari, had pitted as well. The two BMWs, with slower stops, rejoined behind both Costa and Sims, who had replaced Garcia in the #3 Corvette.
Soon, Sims was in the lead of the race, from Mike Rockenfeller in the #64 Ford Mustang GT3 and Costa third.
Max Hesse, now at the wheel of the #48 BMW, was fourth. However, he soon was reporting a loss of power from his M4 GT3, dropping down the field as other cars passed him.
Before he could pit, though, the car dramatically caught fire from the right front exhaust, with the safety crew needing to extinguish the fire. This caused the race’s third full course yellow, which saw the entire field pit under yellow.
At the restart, the order was Sims, Tommy Milner in the #4 Corvette, Costa, Seb Prialux in the #64 Ford having replaced Rockenfeller, and Laurin Heinrich in the #77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3R, ‘Rexy’ to his fans.
However, the race was not green for long, with another fire the cause of the race’s third FCY. This time, Danny Formal, in the #45 WTR Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, had his car catch fire on track.
This caused the car to spin uncontrollably into the tyre barriers, with Formal escaping quickly with possible light burns to his hands, with the entirety of the rear of the car engulfed in flame.
The next restart saw Sims retain the lead from Milner once again. However, Costa soon got passed the American in the closing minutes of the race, with the Spaniard setting about catching Sims in the lead.
As it was, Costa caught Sims but could not find a way by, with the Briton in the yellow #3 Corvette winning by just over a second from the Ferrari. Third was Milner in the sister #4 Corvette, a further four seconds back.
Fourth and fifth were Priaulx and Heinrich, with Snow in the #1 Paul Miller BMW sixth.
”I was just doing my job,” said Sims after the race.
“Antonio did a fantastic job in his first stint and the team called a great strategy. We went aggressive on the first stop to try and force a situation, and it seemed to work. We could just about hold the gap to the BMW who had a significant fuel advantage on us had it stayed green.
“We were fortunate with that second yellow but I think we just about had the race anyway. A really great job by everyone. The Corvette was fast today. The Michelin tires held on nicely. In these temperatures they were working hard but held on well. It was a really enjoyable race and it’s great to get our first win of the year.”
In GTD, Philip Ellis and Russell Ward took victory in the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes AMG-GT3.
Ward started the car second behind polesitter Jack Hawksworth in the #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus. However, Hawksworth soon received a drive through penalty, promoting Manny Franco in the #34 Conquest Ferrari into the lead.
However, after a few laps in the lead Franco went off track, dropping down to fifth.
This promoted Formal to the lead in the #45 WTR Lambo, which later caught fire.
From then on, the race was between Philip Ellis and Mario Farnbacher in the #78 Forte Lamborghini. However, late on in the race, he received a 30s penalty for blocking, dropping him well down the field.
So, Ellis took the lead followed by Kenton Koch in the #021 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari, with Tom Gamble third in the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3.
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