Rennsport One’s Jan Heylen passed Chouest Povoledo Racing’s Aaron Povoledo in turn 5 with 19 minutes to go Saturday (July 19). From there, he pulled away to win GT World Challenge America powered by AWS Race No. 1 at VIRginia International Raceway with Alex Sedgwick.
“We’ve been on the back foot all season long, so it feels really, really good to get on the top step [of the podium],” Heylen told SRO America’s Amanda Busick after the race. “Kudos to the whole team, especially Alex [Sedgwick], who has done a great job this weekend.”
The margin of victory was 9.085 seconds over Random Vandals Racing’s Connor de Phillippi and Kenton Koch. Turner Motorsport’s Robby Foley and Justin Rothberg were third, then The Heart of Racing’s Gray Newell and Darren Turner. JMF Motorsports’ Mikael Grenier and Michai Stephens were fifth.
Regulator Racing’s Philip Ellis started on the overall and Pro-Am poles in his Mercedes. Running a reverse strategy from most of the rest of the field, Ellis’ goal was to open up as big of a lead as possible in the first half of the race.
To that degree, he did a pretty good job pulling away from the field. In the opening minutes, Ellis pulled a couple of seconds on the field. At the same time, he pulled out a 10-second lead over Cristian Hahn early on in Pro-Am.
Koch started on the Pro pole in second overall. He had Sedgwick on his tail in the opening laps, but he slowly began to pull away from him.
The race started under partly cloudy skies, but there was a threat of rain. Roughly 20 minutes in, the skies clouded up and raindrops could be felt around the 3.27-mile circuit. The rain was hard enough to slow the cars and make the drivers use their windshield wipers, but not enough to necessitate rain tires.
That said, there had been a lot of rain in the days leading up to the race at VIR. The consequences could be dire if one were to go off the road.
20 minutes in, Rothberg, fresh off of victory in GT America Race No. 1, misjudged turn 11 and went off into the grass. He was able to recover and continue, but lost a spot to DXDT Racing’s Blake McDonald.
30 minutes in, LAB Motorsport’s Jean-Frederic Laberge used too much of the curb and spun his Porsche hard into the tires to bring out the yellow. He was ok, but done for the day.
This crash was the worst-case scenario for Regulator Racing. Ellis’ 10-second lead over Koch overall and 25-second lead over Hahn was gone.
With tire barrier repairs necessary, the mid-race pit stops started during the safety car period. Random Vandals Racing pitted their BMWs at the first opportunity, along with about half of the field. To satisfy the 50-minute maximum drive-time, teams had to wait a significant amount of time after their stops for the time to click down.
The other half of the field pitted on the next lap. Chouest Povoledo Racing’s Aaron Povoledo was the first driver out of the pits of those who pitted the first time by. The question was whether Povoledo exited the pit lane before 50 minutes were remaining in the race.
Once the green came back out, Povoledo was able to maintain the overall lead over de Phillippi. Further back, Heylen was moving up in his Porsche. He was able to move up from seventh on the restart to third in six laps.
With 23 minutes to go, Heylen was able to pass de Phillippi for the Pro lead entering turn 1. Four minutes later, Heylen took the overall lead from Povoledo.
Once out front, Heylen began to pull away from de Phillippi in class. Povoledo was able to stay with the Porsche, but the time crunch became an issue in the final minutes.
Behind Povoledo, Turner was second in Pro-Am with Foley right on his tail. With just under two minutes to go, Foley was able to draft around Turner on the backstretch to take second.
Coming to the checkered flag, Povoledo pulled into the pit lane to try to correct his drive-time. That allowed Foley to take the win.
Foley and Rothberg’s margin of victory was 1.119 seconds over Newell and Turner. McDonald and Matt Bell were third, then GMG Racing’s Tom Sargent and Kyle Washington. CRP Racing’s Jason Daskalos and Isaac Sherman were fifth.
Pitting on the final lap meant that Povoledo entered the pit lane after 90 minutes was reached. As a result, Povoledo and Ross Chouest ended up being classified eighth in class, a lap down as the final lap didn’t count.
In the Am, Dollahite Racing’s Scott Dollahite had his best run of the year early on. He qualified 11th overall and gained a couple of spots during his stint in the car.
However, he ended up pitting in the second group during the safety car period while Jay Schreibman pitted in the first group to hand over to Oswaldo Negri Jr. As a result, Negri ended up seventh while debutante Eric Powell was 15th.
While Negri was shoved around a bit in the second half of the race by Grenier, he finished ninth overall and took the win with Schreibman.
GT World Challenge America powered by AWS: VIR Race No. 1 Results
Race No. 2 for GT World Challenge America powered by AWS is scheduled to go green at 2:45 p.m. ET Sunday afternoon. The race will air live on RACER Network and the GT World YouTube channel at 2:30 p.m. ET.
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.