DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — GEBHARDT Intralogistics Motorsports’ Valentino Catalano led all but one lap Saturday afternoon (Jan. 18) en route to the overall win in IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge Race No. 1 at Daytona International Speedway. It is Catalano’s first career victory in his third start.
“I started pretty smooth,” Catalano said after the race. “I knew it was a long race, so I didn’t push that much. I created a bit of a gap and could hold it quite good. At some point, I heard that Markus [Pommer] got a penalty. Then, I just managed my tires.”
Catalano’s margin of victory was 5.503 seconds over Toney Driver Development’s Brady Golan. Pommer in the second GEBHARDT entry was third, then Mishumotors’ Mirco Schultis and Forte Racing’s Brian Thienes.
Catalano started on the overall pole in his Nissan-powered Duqueine M30-D08. The two GEBHARDT Duqueines had been the class of the field all weekend in practice and qualifying. The race was more of the same.
Catalano was able to open a small advantage over Pommer. The two of them put three seconds on the rest of the pack on the first lap.
While the advantage on the track was a second and change between the teammates, it was really much more than that. Pommer and MLT Motorsports’ Jonathan Woolridge were busted for moving out of line on the initial start of the race. Post-race 10-second penalties were handed out to both.
For much of the rest of the race, the goal was for Pommer to get more than 10 seconds ahead of Golan. However, Pommer pushed hard to get back up to Catalano. He would actually lead one lap at the line.
The extra pushing ultimately hurt the tires on Pommer’s car. That allowed Golan to move back in on both drivers. Despite that, Catalano easily held on for the win.
Catalano was able to beat Pommer to the line by 1.071 seconds. The penalty cost Pommer his second-place finish.
In GTDX, Wright Motorsports’ Adam Adelson started on pole in his Porsche. At the start, he was briefly able to put the LMP3 entry of Forte Racing’s Jon Hirshberg between himself and AF Corse’s Matias Perez Companc.
During IMSA Media Day Thursday, Adelson told Frontstretch that the new GTDX class was attractive to him because it was the only place available to him to race solo as a Silver-rated driver (Note: Adelson previously raced in SRO America’s GT America powered by AWS, but that is only open to Bronze-rated drivers).
In addition, Adelson stated that there’s no substitute for additional track time. Unlike GT America, he’s running a separate car for VP Racing SportsCar Challenge, so he doesn’t have to hold back as much to protect the car.
Behind Adelson, Perez Companc ended up coming under pressure from AJ Muss. ST Racing’s Samantha Tan was there as well. Muss was able to get past Perez Companc for second, leaving Tan to try to get third.
There was contact between Tan and Perez Companc in the International Horseshoe with 10 minutes to go that may have hurt Tan’s car. She would drop back in the final laps.
Meanwhile, Adelson easily held on to take a dominant victory in seventh overall. His margin of victory was 30.236 seconds over Muss. Perez Companc was third, then Dave Musial and Tan.
RAFA Racing Team’s Kiko Porto started on the GSX pole in his Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2. BSI Racing’s Steven Clemons moved up from fourth on the grid to threaten Porto for the class lead 15 minutes into the race.
With a little more than 25 minutes to go, Clemons was able to get the draft on Porto and sweep past entering the Le Mans chicane for the lead. From there, Clemons pulled away relatively quickly.
Clemons eventually had a 10-second lead and the race was won…until the final lap. Coming to the finish, Clemons’ Supra slowed to a stop on the apron of turn 4 of the tri-oval. That allowed Porto to come back past and take the victory.
Porto’s margin of victory was 11.015 seconds over Stephen Cameron Racing’s Greg Liefooghe. Swish Motorsports’ Patrick Wilmot was third, then Justin Di Benedetto and Rob Walker. Clemons ended up being classified in 11th.
IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge: Daytona Race No. 1 Results
Race No. 2 for VP Racing SportsCar Challenge is scheduled to go green at 1:20 p.m. ET Sunday afternoon. Coverage will start at 1:15 p.m. ET on Peacock. The forecast for Sunday is for rain, so it could be a very different race. Catalano will once again start from the pole.
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.