On Sunday morning, the IMSA Prototype Challenge raced the 3.270-mile Virginia International Raceway for the Michelin GT Challenge at VIR. Naveen Rao, for K2R Motorsports, was on the pole alongside him was Dom Cicero for MLT Motorsports.
In the first ten minutes of the race, the No.11 K2R Motorsports of Steven Thomas took over 11th place from the No. 47 Forty7 Motorsports of Joel Janco. The first caution came out with an hour and thirty-two minutes left when the No.33 Sean Creech Motorsports of Bud Grossenbacher locked up the brakes and lost the rear and spun his car around making contact with the No. 3 Jr III Racing of Eric Palmer.
Grossenbacher and Palmer had fluid coming out of their cars. Track crews went to work, putting oil dry on the track. However, this incident and oil laid on the track would be a problem throughout the race.
The race would resume with an hour and twenty left. Keith Grant in the No. 47 Forty7 Motorsports took the second position away from Dom Cicero. The second caution came out with an hour a sixteen left as the No. 74 Forty7 Motorsports of Jon Brownson crashed at the tire wall, in turn six destroying both the back and front of the car.
The race restarted with an hour and six minutes left. Right away, Keith Grant got the lead from Naveen Rao at turn one as Grant began to distance himself from Rao. Grant was up by 3.846 seconds over Rao. Pit stops began with Gerry Kraut coming in as the JDC MotorSports team swapped drivers with Scott Andrews taking over for Kraut.
With under an hour left, Keith Grant got wide and went into the grass at the front stretch and lost four positions with Rao resuming the lead. With 52 minutes left, Rao brought the car to pit road as Matthew Bell took over for Rao as Blake Mount and the No.6 Performance Tech Motorsports took over the lead.
Once pit cycles were complete, Matthew Bell resumed the lead. Late in the race, Scott Andrews began saving fuel with less than ten minutes left in the race. This allowed Dickerson, McAleer, and Kirkwood to catch Andrews. All three drivers would pass Andrews, dropping him to fifth. This had you question why this move was made so late in the race when he had a chance to finish well.
With a minute left, Stevan McAleer made a gutsy pass to take the second position away from Kyle Kirkwood. Meanwhile, Matthew Bell would take the checkered flag and win for K2R Motorsports by 35.192 seconds over Stevan McAleer and Robillard Racing LLC. Scott Andrews would run out of fuel and finish seventh.
The rest of the top ten finishers were Kyle Kirkwood/Joel Janco third, Dakota Dickerson/Dom Cicero fourth, David Grant/Keith Grant fifth, Steven Thomas sixth, Scott Andrews/Gerry Kraut seventh, Tonis Kasemets/Bruce Hamilton eighth, Rasmus Lindh/Dan Goldburg ninth, and Max Hanratty/Cameron Cassels tenth. The IMSA Prototype Challenge’s next race will be on September 27th at Mid-Ohio.
