BRASELTON, Ga. — US RaceTronics’ Steven Aghakhani and FASTMD Racing with Remstar’s Jagger Jones split the two IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge races at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. For Aghakhani, it was his fourth win of the year, while Jones claimed his eighth.
Race No. 1
Jagger Jones started from the pole in his Duqueine M30-D08-Nissan, but there was trouble on the start. Jones and Steven Aghakhani had some casual contact coming down the hill to the start, but Jones made the mistake of getting out of line prior to the start-finish line.
In IMSA competition, staying in line until the start-finish line is quite stringently enforced. However, the investigation wasn’t immediate. The officials chose to look at it immediately after the race.
Jones was able to pull away from Aghakhani fairly quickly, eventually opening up an advantage of nearly 10 seconds. That lead went away when the caution came out for the stalled Aston Martin of Frank DePew.
Despite the whole field closing back up together, Jones was able to drive away and take the win on the road by 4.353 seconds. However, after the checkered flag, IMSA assessed a 10-second penalty on Jones for changing lanes on the initial start of the race.
As a result, Aghakhani ascended to the race victory, his fourth of the year. The official margin of victory was 4.936 seconds over GEBHARDT Intralogistics Motorsports’ Markus Pommer. Pommer’s teammate Valentino Catalano was third, while Jones was forced to settle for fourth. Escuderia ABRO’s Miguel Villagomez was fifth.
By virtue of starting the race, Agahkhani clinched the LMP3 championship. Jones was his primary competition all year, but he missed the opening two races in Daytona back in January. Aghakhani won both of those races and staked himself a 700-point head start.
In the GSX class, the circumstances were similar. KohR Motorsports’ Luca Mars clinched the championship by simply starting the race. That said, he didn’t take the opportunity to score another victory lightly.
Mars was never seriously challenged in the 45-minute race en route to his sixth win of the year and third in a row. His margin of victory was 8.749 seconds over Split Decision Motorsports’ Patrick Wilmot. Kingpin Racing’s Tyler Hoffman recovered from having all of his times from qualifying Wednesday deleted due to the car being touched in the pit lane to finish third. AutoTechnic Racing’s Mark Brummond was fourth, while Stephen Cameron Racing’s Sean Quinlan was fifth.
Sadly, Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton had a substantial effect on the entry list for the series. The original entry list for this weekend had 25 cars on it, 13 in LMP3 and 12 in GSX. That number shrunk all the way to 15.
IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge: Road Atlanta Race No. 1 Results
Race No. 2
Race No. 2 Friday morning (Oct. 11) started out similarly to Thursday’s race. Jones, by virtue of his second fastest lap in qualifying Wednesday, started from pole. On the downhill run before the start, there was casual contact between himself and Aghakhani before Jones got the jump. He took great to keep himself to the inside exiting turn 12 to prevent another start violation.
Aghakhani was able to hang with Jones for the first few laps until he lost control on the curb exiting turn 7. That was as a result of the dew that settled over the track overnight.
That slip cost Aghakhani second to Villagomez as Jones caught lapped traffic. That resulted in a brief three-way race for the overall lead.
Once the traffic was cleared, Jones was able to pull away again. Meanwhile, Villagomez was forced to pit with an issue with the left rear of his Ligier JS P320-Nissan. That issue ultimately put him out of the race.
The race’s sole full course yellow came out with 16 minutes to go when Ave Motorsports’ George Staikos spun his LMP3 car by himself in the chicane and got stuck in the gravel. He was able to be extricated and continued, but lost two laps in the process.
Once the green flag came back out, Jones was able to pull away from the pack and take the win. The margin of victory was 4.835 seconds over Aghakhani, while Catalano was third. Pommer was fourth, followed by Brian Thienes.
In GSX, Mars earned the pole for the race. However, since he locked up the championship Thursday, he chose to opt out of the race and put his IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge teammate Bob Michaelian in the car instead so that Michaelian could get more track time. As a result, the KohR Motorsports Ford was sent to the rear.
Wilmot inherited the class pole as a result in his BMW. His advantage was short-lived as Hoffman was able to take the lead away on the first lap.
Once out front, Hoffman was able to open up a comfortable lead over Wilmot. Michaelian was able to quickly move up from the rear of the field to third, but was quite a ways behind.
When the caution came out, the pack closed back up for the final 10 minutes. However, Hoffman got a good start and managed to pull away for the win.
Hoffman won by 3.231 seconds over Michaelian. Wilmot ended up third, then Ruckus Racing’s Scott Blind and Quinlan.
IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge: Road Atlanta Race No. 2 Results
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.