Toney Driver Development’s Wyatt Brichacek led all 30 laps in his Ligier Saturday evening (Feb. 28) to wrap up the IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge sweep at Circuit of the Americas.
Brichacek’s margin of victory was 18.85 seconds over teammate Titus Sherlock. GEBHARDT Intralogistics Motorsports’ Oscar Tunjo was third, then Danny Soufi. Travis Hill was a lap down in fifth.
By virtue of the fastest second lap in qualifying Friday night, Brichacek started from pole in his Ligier. Much like the late morning event, he was able to pull away from Tunjo.
Meanwhile, the points leader once again had to do battle with Sherlock. This time, it only took a few minutes for the No. 95 to move up to second.
Meanwhile, the crashes that occurred during Race No. 1 did hurt the car count. Both Jon Hirshberg and Jeremy Siffert were unable to start the race after their crashes.
Brian Thienes, who crashed out of Race No. 1 with Siffert, went to a backup car that was actually a new Ligier JS P325-Toyota as opposed to his Ligier JS P320-Nissan that crashed. Unfortunately, he had mechanical issues that ended his race with 11 minutes to go.
Sherlock had a great race behind Brichacek, but was a little too aggressive with track limits. Early in the race, he picked up multiple warnings from the stewards about violations. For the final third of the race, he had to be careful with his lines, but he was able to avoid a time penalty.
Brichacek really only had one nervous moment during the race. He was a little aggressive while lapping slower GSX traffic around halfway. That cost him some time, but he was able to recover. At the checkered flag, his margin over Sherlock was the largest that it had been the whole race.
In GSX, RAFA Racing Team’s Westin Workman started from pole in his Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2 for the fourth straight time. In this race, he was never threatened.
Courtney Crone was able to hang with Workman for only part of the first lap before Workman drove off into the distance. From there, Workman simply needed to keep himself on the road to take his fourth straight victory to start the season.
Workman won by 24.49 seconds over Crone. Mad Joker Racing by Lone Star Racing’s Marc Austin was third, more than 80 seconds back. Rafael Martinez was fourth, while VRC Motorsports LLC’s Dan Ammann was a lap down in fifth.
IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge: COTA Race No. 2 Results
Next up for the LMP3 teams will be the inaugural race for the IMSA Airbnb Endurance Challenge, a two-hour race at Sebring International Raceway. This race was originally going to be a combination of LMP3 and BMW M2 cars, but it will be only for LMP3 cars.
The race is scheduled to go green at 10:55 a.m. ET next Sunday (March 8). The race will be streamed live on the IMSA Official YouTube channel. For GSX teams, their next race will be at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on June 7 at 12:45 p.m. ET with live coverage 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.