GEBHARDT Intralogistics Motorsports’ Valentino Catalano was never seriously threatened Sautrday (Aug. 23) or Sunday (Aug. 24) en route to a three-race weekend sweep. That brings him up to seven wins in 2025. He’s also one step away from claiming the LMP3 championship.
Race No. 2
Catalano started from pole and was able to open a small gap on teammate Alexzander Kristiansson. Meanwhile, Jon Hirshberg spun out in turn 4 and dropped to the rear of the field.
Naturally, in a 45-minute race, Hirshberg wanted to recover as soon as he could. However, he had to weave his way through the GSX traffic. While trying to pass CarBahn Motorsports with Peregrine Racing’s Bill Cain, he dropped a wheel in the grass and spun again at the Oak Tree turn. Once again, he didn’t hit anything, but lost more time.
As the race continued on, Kristiansson was able to run down Catalano and challenge him for the overall lead. It was a substantial increase in form after being so far off the pace in practice.
Unfortunately, it didn’t last. With 18 minutes to go, Kristiansson lost control at the Oak Tree turn and spun. He just barely tapped the tires, not even damaging the car, but the track position damage was done. He went from one second behind Catalano with a chance to potentially pounce to 21 seconds back.
From there, Catalano was never threatened. He continued to pad his led en route to victory.
The margin of victory was 42.439 seconds over Kristiansson. Forte Racing’s Brian Thienes was third, then Turner Motorsport’s Jake Walker. Wright Motorsports’ Adam Adelson was fifth.
In LMP3, the top-three finishers were the top three in class. Hirshberg made it back to fourth over Matthew Dicken. Both drivers were a lap down at the finish.
In GTDX, Walker started from pole and quickly opened up a two-second lead on the first lap over Adelson. Adelson was able to pull that margin back in the first half of the race, but Walker drove away again late to take his seventh win of the year.
Walker won by 4.879 seconds over Adelson. Turner Motorsport’s Vin Barletta was a lap down in third.
RAFA Racing Team’s Kiko Porto started on the GSX pole in his Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO 2 and opened up a comfortable lead over teammate Ian Porter. Porter ended up in a battle with BSI Racing’s Steven Clemons for second.
Once Clemons was able to get past Porter, he slowly but surely ran down Porto for the lead, partially due to faster LMP3 and GTDX cars catching them from behind.
Clemons ran himself hard in order to keep up with Porto. Perhaps a little too hard.
With eight minutes to go, Clemens had an off-course excursion exiting turn 10 where he went bounding through the grass and dirt. That only cost Clemons a couple of seconds, but that was enough to drop him out of Porto’s slipstream.
From there, Porto was able to pull away to take the victory. He ended up 2.299 seconds ahead of Clemons at the finish. Porter ended up third, then TWOth Autosport’s Chris Walsh and Justin Di Benedetto.
IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge: VIR Race No. 2 Results
Race No. 3
The final race of the week was a makeup race after Race No. 2 at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park was wiped out due to a combination of rain and the delay resulting in teams missing their time slot for border crossings back into the United States. As a result, only those teams entered at CTMP were eligible to race.
That resulted in a thinner field of 16 cars. Catalano led a three-car LMP3 class to green and promptly ran off and hid. He was never seriously threatened en route to the weekend sweep.
Catalano won by 29.269 seconds over Thienes. Walker was third, then Adelson and ST Racing’s Samantha Tan.
In GTDX, Walker started from pole in his BMW, but Adelson was able to take the lead on the first lap. Despite the pass, Walker continued to ride Adelson’s rear bumper in an attempt to get him back.
On the third lap, Walker got a run on the backstretch and ran Adelson side-by-side into the roller coaster complex. However, Adelson was on the proper side of the road and was able to hold him off.
The story of the opening portion of the race was Adelson using defensive driving. However, 10 minutes in, Adelson went a little wide exiting turn 3 and and it took away just a little bit of pace. That was just enough for Walker to slip past before the Esses.
Even once Walker got the lead, he was not able to get away. Adelson ran him hard. Lapped traffic helped keep the battle close. However, as the tires wore, Walker was able to drive away and clinch the weekend sweep.
Walker won by 7.258 seconds over Adelson. Tan was another 22 seconds back in third.
In GSX, Porto started from the pole and raced hard to keep the advantage away from Porter. After the first couple of laps, Porto was able to open up the gap over his teammate.
Porter was racing hard to keep Clemons behind him until he went too hot into the Oak Tree turn and ended up in the dirt. He didn’t hit anything, but he lost second and a bunch of time.
Clemons would ultimately have problems of his own that necessitated a pit stop at the halfway point. That elevated Porter back to second, but 13 seconds back of Porto.
Walsh inherited third when Clemons stopped and ran a good, but lonely race. That is until there were eight minutes to go. Walsh lost control of his Porsche and spun into the tires in the Hog Pen section.
Walsh was able to drive the car away, but it was significantly damaged. He drove the car to the pits and retired it.
Porto was able to hold on to take his second win of the weekend and seventh of the year. His margin of victory was 31.123 seconds over Porter. Di Benedetto was third, then the Porsche of KMW Motorsports with TMR Engineering’s Angus Rogers in a season-best fourth. AutoTechnic Racing’s Roland Krainz was fifth.
IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge: VIR Race No. 3 Results
VP Racing SportsCar Challenge teams have only one more race weekend remaining in their season. That will be at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta as part of the Motul Petit Le Mans weekend. Race No. 1 is scheduled for 1:05 p.m. ET on Thursday, Oct. 9. Coverage will stream live on Peacock starting at 1 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.