LEXINGTON, Oh. — GEBHARDT Intralogistics Motorsports’ Oscar Tunjo led flag-to-flag Saturday afternoon (June 6) to win Race No. 1 for IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. It is Tunjo’s third sprint race win of the year.
“It was a really tricky race,” Tunjo said after the race. “Luckily, we had a really good qualifying [session]. The race was really tricky at the start, but it began to dry. It was [tough] to figure out how much you could push. Happy to get another victory.”
Tunjo won by 20.415 seconds over teammate Danny Soufi. Shopify Racing’s Travis Hill was third, then Toney Racing Development’s Lincoln Day and Gian Buffomante rounded out the top-five.
The race started roughly 20 minutes late due to an earlier complete stop due to lightning. When things finally got underway, the race had stopped, but the track was still very wet.
Tunjo started from pole in his Duqueine D09-Toyota. With the advantage of clear track, he was able to pull away quickly.
Soufi was not quite as lucky as Day was able to get past on the first lap to take second. The two continued to battle each other as Tunjo continued to pull away.
With 28 minutes to go, Soufi was able to retake second in the Carousel. Once that was done, he was able to pull away from the Toney Driver Development racer. An off-course excursion for Day further increased the gap.
Despite the heavy rain earlier in the morning, the track began to dry rapidly. Drivers were forced to hunt for moisture to keep their wet tires cool enough.
Tunjo was able to open up a lead of over nine seconds over Soufi. However, slower GSX traffic allowed Soufi to cut that margin down to under two seconds.
Once Tunjo cleared the traffic, it didn’t take long for him to open his lead back up. It was that lead that Tunjo held to the finish.
In GSX, RAFA Racing Team’s Westin Workman started from pole in his Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2. Much like Tunjo, he was able to pull out to a five-second lead over the Porsche of Justin Di Benedetto.
Further back, CarBahn Motorsports with Peregrine Racing’s Courtney Crone was third in her BMW that led the class in practice. However, she struggled a little in the wetter conditions.
That lack of pace in the wet saw her fall into the clutches of Czabok Simpson Motorsports’ Ismaeel Ellahi. After a few laps of battling, Ellahi was able to get past, then proceeded to put multiple seconds on Crone.
Meanwhile, no one was in the league of Workman on this day. He drove away to take his fifth straight win to start the year.
Workman won by a full lap over Di Benedetto due to the placement of Tunjo on-track. He was roughly 22 seconds ahead of Di Benedetto’s Porsche prior to the finish. Ellahi was third, then Crone and Kingpin Racing’s Rob Walker.
IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge: Mid-Ohio Race No. 1 Results
Race No. 2 for VP Racing SportsCar Challenge is scheduled for 8 a.m. ET Sunday morning. Coverage will stream live at 7:55 a.m. ET on the IMSA Official YouTube channel and on 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.
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