Toney Driver Development’s Wyatt Brichacek led flag-to-flag Saturday (Feb. 28) to win IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge Race No. 1 at Circuit of the Americas. It is the first series victory for Toney Driver Development and the first series victory for the current generation LMP3 cars.
Teammate Titus Sherlock finished second in his series debut, followed by GEBHARDT Intralogistics Motorsports’ Oscar Tunjo. A second GEBHARDT entry for Danny Soufi was fourth, while TWOth Autosport’s Travis Hill was fifth.
Brichacek started from pole in his Ligier JS P325-Toyota. While he has little experience in VP Racing SportsCar Challenge, he has been racing LMP3 cars in Europe for years. As a result, he was very comfortable in the new car. It did not take long for Brichacek to pull away from Tunjo, who swept the weekend in Daytona back in January.
Behind Tunjo, the driver on the move was Sherlock, who was making his IMSA debut Saturday. The defending Formula Regional Americas Championship champion was able to move himself up the order early on and dispatched of Tunjo for second 17 minutes into the race.
The race’s sole full course caution came out just before halfway when Forte Racing’s Jon Hirshberg spun in the Esses and went hard into the tire barrier. Hirshberg was able to walk away from the crash, but his Ligier JS P320-Nissan was heavily damaged.
The race restarted with 13 minutes to go. Brichacek and Sherlock were able to pull away from Tunjo at the front, but the time under green was short-lived.
Entering the Esses on the restart, Forte Racing’s Brian Thienes and GEBHARDT Intralogistics Motorsports’ Jeremy Siffert collided and spun off. Siffert’s Duqueine M30-D08-Nissan was the more heavily damaged car as his rear wing broke off, but both drivers were ok.
With both cars being disabled and requiring tows, there was not enough time remaining to clean everything up and restart. As a result, Brichacek was able to take the victory under yellow.
In GSX, RAFA Racing Team’s Westin Workman started from pole in his Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2. CarBahn Motorsports with Peregrine Racing’s Courtney Crone started alongside in her BMW and immediately put the pressure on Workman.
Workman was able to fight off Crone’s advance and slowly pulled away from the former IMSA Diverse Driver Scholarship winner. The duo were significantly faster than the rest of the class. Jon Brel, who was third, was 16 seconds behind Workman 10 minutes into the race.
Workman was able to expand his advantage over Crone to over 10 seconds prior to the halfway. Crone was nearly 25 seconds ahead of the rest of the class when Hirshberg’s crash brought everyone back together.
Any chance that Crone could have had to battle Workman was lost when she was swamped by LMP3 cars on the restart. That allowed Workman to get a good gap over the BMW.
The Siffert-Thienes crash officially ended the festivities, allowing Workman to take his third straight GSX victory. Crone was second, then Mad Joker racing by Lone Star Racing’s Marc Austin. Rafael Martinez was fourth and Brel fifth.
IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge: COTA Race No. 1 Results
By virtue of setting the fastest second-best lap in qualifying Friday night, Brichacek will start Race No. 2 from the pole. That event is scheduled to go green at 6:30 p.m. ET Saturday. Coverage will begin at 6:25 p.m. ET on the IMSA Official YouTube channel and Peacock.
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the Frontstretch email 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 Frontstretch 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.