Jagger Jones Sweeps VP Racing SportsCar Challenge at Mid-Ohio

LEXINGTON, Oh. — FASTMD Racing by Remstar’s Jagger Jones was never seriously threatened Sunday morning (June 9) en route to victory in Race No. 2 for IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Not only is it a weekend sweep for Jones, but the second straight sweep and the fourth straight win overall.

“We made changes, but maybe not all the best changes [after Saturday],” Jones told Frontstretch after the race. “I’m happy that I was able to hold on [for the win].”

Jones’ margin of victory was 7.405 seconds over MLT Motorsports’ Steven Aghakhani, although the lead was as high as 13 seconds during the race. Ave Motorsports’ Seth Lucas was third, then Rick Ware Racing with Ave Motorsports’ Ryan Phinny. Performance Tech Motorsports’ Alex Kirby was fifth.

Jones started from pole and attempted to open up the gap. This time, Ave Motorsports’ Seth Lucas gave chase. It did not take long for Jones to open up a decent advantage as he was lapping more than a second a lap faster than the field.

Lucas eventually fell into the clutches of Aghakhani in the No. 6. The points leader made short work of Lucas for second, but he was nearly 10 seconds behind by the time he got the spot 17 minutes into the race.

For much of the rest of the race, Aghakhani and Jones traded quick laps. However, the interval that Agahkhani spotted Jones was simply too much to overcome.

In GSX, Motorsports In Action’s Jesse Lazare started on pole in his McLaren, but quickly lost the advantage to Thaze Competition’s Josh Green. Mid-Ohio is the home race for the Michigan-based Thaze team, so the team’s onlookers in the green and gold were overjoyed. Saturday’s winner Luca Mars trailed in third.

Green pulled out to a small advantage, but Lazare was able to run him back down. Mars ended up running by himself, eight seconds back from the leaders.

Further back, Eddie Killeen in the second Thaze Mercedes spun on his own exiting turn 1. He lost a full lap trying to get turned back around, but he was able to continue without issue.

Later on, Turner Motorsport’s Vin Barletta spun exiting the Keyhole and bounced off the wall. The car had some damage, but Barletta was able to drive away. Barletta’s car is running both VP Racing SportsCar Challenge and the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge O’Reilly Auto Parts 4 Hours of Mid-Ohio, so the car was retired in order to make repairs ahead of the Pilot Challenge race.

At the front of the class, Green was doing well to hold Lazare off. However, that required Green to take alternate lines. With 13 minutes to go, Green got a little loose in turn 9. That was all Lazare needed to get by to retake the lead.

From there, Lazare had to hold off Green, who had the faster car. Despite that, Lazare managed to take the win.

Lazare’s margin of victory was .491 seconds over Green. Mars was third, but he was more than 15 seconds back. Split Decision Motorsports’ Patrick Wilmot was fourth in his BMW, while Ruckus Racing’s Scott Blind was fifth.

IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge: Mid-Ohio Race No. 2 Results

VP Racing SportsCar Challenge teams will take the next month off. The next scheduled weekend will be at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park the weekend of July 12-14. Race No. 1 from CTMP is scheduled for July 13 at 8:50 a.m. ET. The race will air live on Peacock.