GEBHARDT Intralogistics Motorsports’ Valentino Catalano led flag-to-flag Friday afternoon (Aug. 22) to win IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge Race No. 1 at VIRginia International Raceway. It is Catalano’s fifth win of the 2025 season.
Catalano won by 21.115 seconds over teammate Alexzander Kristiansson. Turner Motorsport’s Jake Walker was third in his BMW, then Wright Motorsports’ Adam Adelson. Forte Racing’s Brian Thienes was fifth.
Catalano started from the pole and easily was able to out-distance Kristiansson, who was making his IMSA debut, to turn 1. By the end of the first lap, Catalano was multiple seconds ahead.
Further back, Jon Hirshberg went wide in turn 5 and spun his Ligier JS P320-Nissan. He was able to get back underway, but lost a bunch of time in the grass.
Catalano’s advantage was over 10 seconds less than 10 minutes into the race. With the pace advantage that he had over the rest of the field, that would allow him the chance to relax a little.
Kristiansson, who is racing in place of Oscar Tunjo, had never raced in the United States prior to Friday. But, he does have LMP3 experience as he races in ADAC Prototype Cup Germany. Unlike the European Le Mans Series or Michelin Le Mans Cup, ADAC Prototype Cup Germany still races the second-generation LMP3 cars like VP Racing SportsCar Challenge.
Despite that experience, there really isn’t a race track in Germany like VIR. He was 7.431 seconds slower than Catalano in the opening practice session. That margin was cut down to just under a second in qualifying.
In GTDX, Walker started from the class pole and almost immediately put Matthew DIcken‘s LMP3 car between himself and Adelson. That allowed Walker to open up a gap over the Porsche.
Once Adelson was able to clear Dicken, he was able to gain some time on Walker. However, Walker was able to pour it on and gap him in slower traffic. From there, Walker was able to easily hold on to take his fifth GTDX win of the year.
Walker’s margin of victory was 7.531 seconds over Adelson. Samantha Tan was third in her BMW.
In GSX, RAFA Racing Team’s Kiko Porto started from pole in his Toyota. Here, the top-three drivers in the standings (Porto, Ian Porter and Steven Clemons) were right at the front, battling it out.
Further back, 89x Motorsports’ Michael Fitzpatrick had contact with AR Motorsports’ David Hampton entering turn 1 on the second lap. Both drivers ended up spinning out.
While both drivers were able to continue, The contact punctured the radiator on Fitzpatrick’s Aston Martin. He ultimately retired from the race once he got back to the pits.
Clemons was able to work his way past Porter for second and began putting the pressure on Porto for the lead. With 17 minutes to go, he attempted to use the draft of the passing Adelson to try to get past, but Porto was able to hold him off.
A lap later, Clemons was able to make a clean move inside of Porto at NASCAR Bend (turn 3). That move stuck and gave Clemons the lead.
Once out in front, Clemons was able to put some time on Porto as the faster GTDX cars wound their way through the GSX leaders. He was able to hold on to take his second win of the year.
Clemons’ margin of victory was 4.998 seconds over Porto. Porter was third, while Kingpin Racing’s Tyler Hoffman was fourth in his first appearance since winning Race No. 2 at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta last October. Justin Di Benedetto was fifth.
IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge: VIR Race No. 1 Unofficial Results
VP Racing SportsCar Challenge teams have two more races scheduled for this weekend. Race No. 2 is scheduled for 12:25 p.m. ET Saturday afternoon. The race will stream live on Peacock starting at 12:20 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.