Rennsport One’s Jan Heylen was able to get past Turner Motorsport’s Francis Selldorff on the final restart with 15 minutes remaining Saturday afternoon (Aug. 23). From there, he was able to pull away to win the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Virginia Is For Racing Lovers Grand Prix at VIRginia International Raceway with Luca Mars. It is the duo’s third win of the year.
“What I can say? It was a perfect race,” Heylen told NBC Sports’ Matt Yocum in victory lane. “We came into the first practice, feeling optimistic about [the car’s speed]. Then, it’s all about execution. I’m glad that we were able to do that.”
Heylen and Mars’ margin of victory was .658 seconds over KohR Motorsports’ Sam Paley and Nick Persing. Their teammates Billy Johnson and Bob Michaelian were third, then Turner Motorsport’s Dillon Machavern and Francis Selldorff. Stephen Cameron Racing’s Greg Liefooghe and Sean Quinlan made it three Ford Mustang GT4s in the top-five.
McCumbee McAleer Racing’s Nate Cicero led the field to green for the third straight race in his Ford Mustang. In the opening laps, he was able to open up a small gap over Rennsport One’s Luca Mars.
Further back, Rebel Rock Racing’s Frank DePew made a dive to the inside entering turn 1 and clipped the grass. That shot him into Czabok Simpson Motorsports’ Nikita Lastochkin, sending both drivers off-course.
Lastochkin’s Porsche had significant suspension damage in the incident and ended up in the pits for extensive repairs. DePew was given a drive-through penalty for avoidable contact.
15 minutes into the race, Baker Racing’s Sam Baker slid off-course and hit the tire barrier at NASCAR Bend (turn 3) after contact from Bryan Herta Autosport’s Preston Brown. That brought the first caution out.
Baker’s No. 52 ended up with a collapsed left rear suspension, but attempted to drive back to the paddock for repairs. He couldn’t make it. Brown was given a drive-through penalty for the contact.
The caution resulted in a split pit strategy. Cicero chose to stay out, but most of the other leaders pitted just 21 minutes into the race for fuel.
That meant that Cicero restarted with Copeland Motorsports’ Ford Koch on his tail. Koch had qualified third, but failed post-qualifying tech and had to start at the rear of the class for his Pilot Challenge debut.
Mars, who had pitted during the yellow, went off-course just after the restart after contact with Winward Racing’s Bryce Ward. That dropped him out of the top 10, while Ward had to serve a drive-through penalty.
Just before the 40-minute mark, CarBahn Motorsports with Peregrine Racing’s Bill Cain made a very ill-advised move into the grass entering turn 1 and proceeded to clean out Victor Gonzalez Racing Team’s Eric Powell and LAP Motorsports’ Scott Thomson.
Cain was able to continue without issue, while Thomson struggled. Cain was eventually assessed a stop and 60-second hold penalty for the crash. Powell was stopped and out on the spot.
Since this incident occurred less than 15 minutes after the restart, the pits stayed closed. However, a mad rush to the pits occurred once the green came back out for full service including driver changes.
Cicero held off on making his pit stop until 54 minutes remained in the race. At that point, he had an 8.5-second lead. Then, trouble struck in the pits. Jenson Altzman couldn’t get the car to stay running. By the time he was finally able to get back underway, Altzman was on the tail end of the lead lap.
Once the stops were complete, Selldorff ended up in the lead with a five-second advantage over Heylen. Despite Selldorff turning in his best laps, Heylen was able to quickly run him down.
Once Heylen got to Selldorff, the two drivers battled hard. But, before Heylen could get past, Rockwell Automotive Development’s Bruno Colombo crashed into the tires to bring out another yellow.
On the restart, Heylen wasted no time in dispatching Selldorff under braking for turn 1. A lap later, Paley was able to follow into second.
In the closing laps, Paley was starting to run Heylen down. However, he ran out of time as Heylen held on for the win.
In TCR, Bryan Herta Autosport’s Bryson Morris led the field to green in his Hyundai, but he didn’t last long at the front. In the opening corners of the race, Victor Gonzalez Racing Team’s Eric Powell was able to slip past to take the class lead in his Cupra VZ TCR.
During the first caution, Powell chose to stay out while the majority of the class stopped. That put Montreal Motorsports Group’s Louis-Phillippe Montour up to second.
Powell was able to open a small gap on Montour and was looking good until Cain made his dive at turn 1. The resulting crash put Powell out.
Montour assumed the lead following the crash and had to do battle with Morris until he brought his Honda in with 55 minutes to go for full service to hand over to Karl Wittmer. Just after that stop, the team was hit with a drive-through penalty after contact with Rebel Rock Racing’s Robin Liddell.
Wittmer’s penalty gave the lead to BHA’s Mark Wilkins. Teammate Harry Gottsacker was second, a few seconds back.
The Colombo wreck put Gottsacker on Wilkins’ bumper with a chance to win and extend his points lead. However, contact between Gottsacker and Jaden Conwright resulted in Gottsacker spinning at turn 14 and hitting the tire barrier.
While Gottsacker was able to extricate himself from the barrier and resume, he lost all of his track position. The contact that put him off the road was determined to be incident, thus no penalty.
Conwright, coming off of a second-place finish at Road America, then proceeded to run down Wilkins. With 11 minutes to go, he made the move to take the lead.
From there, Conwright pulled away to give himself and Luke Rumburg their first career Pilot Challenge victories. It’s the first win for Speed Syndicate since Mid-Ohio 120 No. 1 in 2020.
The margin of victory was 2.838 seconds over Morris and Wilkins. Eddie and Eduardo Gou posted their best career finish in third, while Montour and Wittmer ended up fourth. Precision Racing LA’s Ryan Eversley and Celso Neto were fifth.
IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Virginia Is For Racing Lovers Grand Prix Unofficial Results
Next up for Pilot Challenge teams will be the Indianapolis Motor Speedway 120 on IMS’ infield road course. The race is scheduled to go green at 12:40 p.m. ET on Sept. 20. The race will stream live on the IMSA Official YouTube channel and on Peacock. Frontstretch will be on-site in Indianapolis to bring you all the action.
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.