FASTMD Racing with Remstar’s Jagger Jones led flag-to-flag Saturday (Aug. 24) to win Race No. 1 for IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge at VIRginia International Raceway. It is Jones’ sixth win of the season (it technically would be his seventh, but he had a victory stripped in July at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park due to a technical violation).
Jones’ margin of victory was 4.551 seconds over US RaceTronics’ Steven Aghakhani. Escuderia ABRO’s Miguel Villagomez was third, then Rick Ware Racing’s Ryan Phinny. Forte Racing’s Brian Thienes was fifth.
Jones started from the pole and drove off to a decent advantage over Aghakhani. The lead expanded to 1.5 seconds in the opening laps, then stabilized.
Meanwhile, Performance Tech Motorsports’ Alex Kirby ran into some issues. He went off-track exiting turn 5 and hit one of the WeatherTech placards on the side of the road. The placard got stuck on Kirby’s nose.
Kirby tried to get the placard off, but couldn’t do so. With more than two miles to drive in order to get back to the pits, he was forced to pull over, which brought out the caution. Once the safety crew removed the placard, Kirby was able to continue, but lost a lap in the process.
Immediately prior to the caution, Phinny made an aggressive move for fourth at the Oak Tree turn. He had side-to-side contact with Thienes, putting Thienes in the dirt. IMSA officials reviewed the incident and noted that Phinny was fully alongside when the contact was made. As a result, they chose to take no action.
Once the green came back out, Jones was able to extend his lead back out before it stabilized. However, Jones was not the best in traffic. When Jones caught the GSX class pack, Aghakhani was able to catch back up.
Jones appeared to be indecisive on how to get past AutoTechnic Racing’s Mark Brummond. That allowed Aghakhani to nearly get past for the lead entering the Climbing Esses.
Once clear of the pack, Jones was able to pull away again, this time to a three-second advantage. He was able to hold that advantage to the finish.
In GSX, KohR Motorsports’ Luca Mars started from pole in his Ford Mustang GT4. Quite simply, once the green came out, Mars ran off and hid.
Within a couple of laps, Mars had more than a three-second lead over AutoTechnic Racing’s Mark Brummond. Much of the rest of the pack was stacked up behind Brummond, losing seconds a lap to Mars.
The caution didn’t change anything. If anything, it made it worse. Brummond lost more than two seconds the first three laps after the restart to Mars, dropping nearly seven seconds back. The whole time, Baby Bull Racing’s Moisey Uretsky was right there, trying to get past, but being unable to do so.
Eventually, things got a little rough once Mars’ lead extended to 12 seconds. Uretsky ended up getting into the back of Brummond, damaging a dive plane in the process.
Chaos broke out when the overall leaders caught this pack. Jones got past Rebel Rock Racing’s Frank DePew, who then went wide exiting NASCAR Bend, resulting in DePew spinning his Aston Martin out. Van der Steur Racing’s Brady Behrman went into the dirt and spun in turn 4 as well. Both managed to continue.
Split Decision Motorsports’ Patrick Wilmot was able to move past Uretsky for third and began to pressure Brummond for second. The two fought over the final 15 minutes of the race, but Wilmot was unable to do anything with the red and silver M4 GT4.
Meanwhile, Mars was another planet. Mars was the only GSX driver to set a lap time faster than 117 seconds during the race. His best lap was in the 114-second bracket. As a result, he was never threatened on his way to his fourth win of the year.
Mars technically won by a full lap over Brummond due to the positioning of the overall leaders. At the white flag, he was 46.127 seconds ahead of the BMW driver.
Wilmot ended up third, then Uretsky. Stephen Cameron Racing’s Sean Quinlan was fifth in his Mustang.
IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge: VIR Race No. 1 Results
Race No. 2 for VP Racing SportsCar Challenge is scheduled for 8:40 a.m. ET Sunday morning. Coverage of the race will begin at 8:35 a.m. ET on Peacock
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.