(Words and photos by David Whealon) – Well we’re back to the rolling hills of the southern Virginia countryside at one of the most beautiful and award winning road racing courses in the USA, Virginia International Raceway (VIR) in Alton, Va.  This IMSA event marks the sixth consecutive running of America’s world class sports car racing series with the running of the Michelin GT Challenge at this prestigious track. Unlike most other IMSA events, this one is limited to only GT Lemans and GT Daytona racers sans the Prototypes. But that doesn’t mean there’s any lack of fast action or excitement on the state park like 3.27 mile road circuit.  With the long straights, winding turns and elevation changes, VIR is one of the fastest and most technical tracks that these factory based and non-factory teams will run on all season. With the likes of Ford, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Lexus, Acura, AMG Mercedes, BMW and the ever popular Chevy Corvette, bragging rights to this one are truly cherished.

If you have never witnessed one of these awesome racing events, you will be blown away with the amount of on-track activity.  There is non-stop racing whether it be from qualifying, practice or timed racing from five different racing series starting around 8:00am until 7:30pm for 3 days with some the world’s most expensive high-tech motor cars that you can buy at your local exquisite car livery. Well, with the exception of the Ford GT, but that’s another story. Accessibility to the racers and teams rivals our drag racing brethren with an all access fan friendly paddock and a grid walk before each race to meet the drivers and crews for photos and autographs. And if you hang out for the evening you can go to VIR’s on-site Oak Tree Tavern and spend some time in Connie’s Pub, you will see that these racers, crew members and owners are very approachable and love the suds as much as the best of us while talking of horsepower and handling. Good ol’ boys from all over the world. Pretty cool if you ask me.

In this first blast of photos there is a small cross section of all the different racing series. Along with the IMSA WeatherTech Series are the Continental Tire Sportscar Challenge Series, Lamborghini Super Trofeo, Porsche GT3 Cup and an abundance of the F4 US Championship cars. F4 is a fascinating entry level open wheel series formed in conjunction with the FIA and the SCCA in 2014 for drivers starting at the age of 15 to gain entry into a larger form of the sport. Using spec Honda Civic Type R 2-litre K20 C1 engine making 160hp there were thirty plus competitors for three 35 minute sprints throughout the weekend. As expected there was no lack of action as you will see.

Stay tuned to BS for more VIR series specific racing coverage coming up shortly.