The IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge concluded the Michelin GT Challenge at Virginia International Raceway Sunday afternoon. Winward Racing’s Russell Ward and Indy Dontje won the pole for the GS class while Speed Syndicate Motorsports Max Faulkner and James Vance won the pole for the TCR class. Max Faulkner’s car had ignition problems before the race began. He was able to get out on to the track for the green flag.
Right away at turn one, Russell Ward went into the grass as Robert Foley in the No. 95 Turner Motorsports BMW took the lead. The first caution came out four minutes into the race as a couple of TCR cars, No. 5 KMW Motorsports driven by Tim Lewis and the No. 77 L.A. Honda World Racing driven by Taylor Hagler made contact at turn eight. The race resumed with an hour and forty-seven minutes left.
Robert Foley was able to get away from the No. 22 Multimatic Motorsports Inc. of Scott Maxwell to remain in the lead. Maxwell was defending the second position from Nate Stacy before Stacy passed him for second place. Maxwell would lose the third spot to the No. 39 CarBahn with Peregrine Racing Audi of Tyler McQuarrie.
During the green flag, the No. 99 Automatic Racing of Rob Ferriol’s car went in the grass at turn four. The caution almost came out for the No. 47 Forty7 Motorsports TCR car of Alex Papadopulos who stopped on the track at turn 12 but managed to get the car going again.
The caution would come out for Russell Wilson as his car had no power in turn one. During the caution, both the GS and TCR classes made pit stops. The race resumed with an hour and six minutes remaining in the race.
During the green flag run, Bill Auberlen was leading the race for GS class, and Mason Filippi led in the TCR class when the caution came out again for Alex Papadopulos when he went off into the grass at turn one and hit the tire wall. The race got back underway, with under 50 minutes left in the race.
With forty minutes to go, Bill Auberlen came to pit road for his final stop of the day. Meanwhile, in the TCR class, Parker Chase turned Shelby Blackstock at turn 14. Blackstock was able to continue the race and came to pit road for their final stop of the day.
Once the pit cycles were complete in the GS class, Bill Auberlen resumed the lead with seventeen minutes left. Bill Auberlen would take the checkered flag for Turner Motorsports by 1.899 seconds over the No. 35 Riley Motorsports of Dylan Murry, who finished in second place. Robert Foley for Turner Motorsports finishes in third, Seb Priaulx of Multimatic Motorsports Inc. finishes fourth, and Trent Hindman of Archangel Motorsports round out the top five in the GS class.
In the TCR class, Bryan Herta Autosport took the top three positions with Mason Filippi winning the race with Mark Wilkins second, and Parker Chase third. Mathew Pombo for L.A. Honda World Racing finishes in fourth, and Ryan Norman for Bryan Herta Autosport round out the top five in TCR.
The next race for the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge will be in two weeks at Road Atlanta on Sunday, September 6th, at noon on NBC Sports Gold Track Pass.
