Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports’ Alexander Sims claimed the overall lead Sunday (Aug. 24) when a full course caution came out right after he made his final pit stop and others pitted under yellow. From there, he was able to hold off a charge from DragonSpeed’s Giacomo Altoe to win the Michelin GT Challenge at VIR with Antonio Garcia. Despite being the GTD Pro point leaders, it is the duo’s first win of the year.
“I was just doing my job,” Sims told NBC Sports’ Matt Yocum in victory lane. “Antonio did a fantastic first stint. The team called a great strategy.
“We were fortunate with the yellow, but I think that we just about had the race anyways,” Sims continued. “Really great job by everyone. Our Corvette was fast today. Really enjoyable race and great to get our first win of the year.”
Garcia and Sims’ margin of victory was 1.07 seconds over DragonSpeed’s Giacomo Altoe and Albert Costa. Nicky Catsburg and Tommy Milner in the second Corvette were third, then Ford Multimatic Motorsports’ Sebastian Priaulx and Mike Rockenfeller. AO Racing’s Klaus Bachler and Laurin Heinrich were fifth in their Porsche.
Altoe started from the overall pole, but Paul Miller Racing’s Neil Verhagen was able to get the jump on him and immediately take the lead. Teammate Dan Harper followed into second.
Further back, Ford Multimatic Motorsport’s Frederic Vervisch was forced off the road by GTD polesitter Jack Hawksworth and dropped down the order. In the process, a WeatherTech placard was clouted by Conquest Racing’s Manny Franco, putting debris on the track that resulted in the race’s first full course caution.
The first round of pit stops started 45 minutes into the race. Verhagen chose to stay out and run long. Those who stopped closer to the 45-minute mark were able to get out in front.
Harper chose a strategy that was in between the two. Unfortunately, a slow change over to Max Hesse cost the No. 48 team three spots on the track. When Snow brought the No. 1 BMW back on track, he was behind Hesse.
After the stops, Sims ended up with the overall lead. Costa should have been right with him, but he got held up by Rockenfeller. As a result, Sims ended up with a seven-second lead.
The final round of stops began with an hour to go. Sims pitted from the overall lead at that point, followed by Rockenfeller and Costa. Just as that happened, Hesse pulled off the track with flames coming out of the exhaust pipes, signs of an apparent engine failure. That brought out the second full course caution of the day.
Hesse’s teammate Snow had not pitted when the caution came out. He was able to stop here for tires and fuel, but dropped back to seventh after being the third car off pit road.
Sims ended up back in the lead for the restart, but this time with teammate Tommy Milner behind him to run blocker.
The scariest moment of the race occurred with 38 minutes to go when Formal suffered a substantial mechanical failure that resulted in the car bursting into flames. He then spun and hit the barrier in the Roller Coaster section.
Formal was able to quickly extricate himself from the burning Lamborghini and jumped over the Armco barrier to safety. He appeared to have had some kind of a foreign substance get into his eyes and asked the safety team for water to splash into his eyes. He was treated and released from the medical center at VIR.
After the restart, Costa was able to get past Milner for second. He then proceeded to hunt down Sims for the lead.
In GTD, Hawksworth started on pole and led early, despite his early contact with Vervisch. On the restart, Triarsi Competizione’s Onofrio Triarsi was able to briefly take the lead for a lap. Shortly afterwards, Hawksworth was able to get Triarsi back.
However, both Hawksworth and Triarsi were penalized for avoidable contact. Hawksworth for the Vervisch contact and Triarsi for forcing Franco off the road on the first lap. In addition, Turner Motorsport’s Patrick Gallagher was also given a drive-through for contact with Gradient Racing’s Jenson Altzman.
These penalties are part of a crackdown on driving standards that IMSA has instituted starting this weekend. They came after a series of incidents at Road America left a number of drivers upset about standards and where the line actually is in regards to dirty driving.
Franco benefited from the top drivers in GTD getting penalized and took over the class lead in his Ferrari. Behind him was Wayne Taylor Racing’s Danny Formal. Franco was able to maintain the advantage until he had a slight off-course excursion at the Oak Tree turn.
That off-course move elevated Formal to the class lead. Meanwhile, Franco dropped back to fifth.
The first round of stops completely jumbled the field as all of the lower-rated drivers exited their cars in favor of their more seasoned teammates. Some of the teams had quicker stops than others.
When the sequence concluded, Forte Racing’s Mario Farnbacher ended up in the lead with a two-second lead over Winward Racing’s Philip Ellis. The points leader had the faster car and slowly ran down Farnbacher’s Lamborghini.
The final pit stops in GTD started around the same time as they did in GTD Pro. Farnbacher stopped his Lamborghini for service along with Ellis. Ellis was able to beat Farnbacher out of the pits prior to the caution coming out.
When the drivers that had not stopped under green made their final stops during the caution, Ellis ended up in the class lead. Farnbacher ended up second with Kenton Koch in the Triarsi Ferrari in third.
Ellis was able to open up his lead just enough to hold on to take his as Russell Ward’s third win of the year. The triumph allowed them to expand their points lead.
At the beginning of the final lap, Farnbacher was given a drive-through penalty by IMSA officials for blocking Koch. That penalty took Farnbacher and Misha Goikhberg from a second-place finish all the way back to 12th once it was converted into a time penalty.
As a result, Ellis and Ward’s margin of victory was 1.078 seconds over Koch and Triarsi, who recovered from Triarsi’s early avoidable contact penalty. The Heart of Racing’s Tom Gamble and Casper Stevenson were third in their Aston Martin, followed by Gallagher and Robby Foley, who recovered from their own penalty. Altzman and Robert Megennis were fifth.
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Michelin GT Challenge at VIR Unofficial Results
Next up for WeatherTech teams is the TireRack.com Battle On The Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a six-hour endurance race. That race will go green at 11:40 a.m. ET on Sept. 21. Coverage will begin on Peacock at 11:30 a.m. ET while NBC will join in progress at 3 p.m. ET. Frontstretch will be on-site to bring you 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.