(Photos by David Whealon) – In my younger days back in the early 70’s and growing up just a an hour or so from Lime Rock Park in Connecticut where the likes of Sam Posey, Mario Andretti and Paul Newman once raced, sports car racing has always been one of my favorite forms of motorsport that I always looked forward to attending at least once a year when the SCCA, Trans-Am or the IMSA GT guys would show up. Now that my relocation to North Carolina back in 1978 made those trips virtually non-existent I was stoked when I heard about a track that was about the same driving distance from my new southern home. And when I heard that IMSA was running their major brand of the sport there I knew I had to be there. Starting in 2012 I attended my first IMSA sports car race at the amazing Virginia International Raceway (VIR). And man was I impressed. With a track over twice the size of Lime Rock with all the same rolling hill and wooded surroundings as Lime Rock, I knew a new annual trip was on my list from now on out.
This year’s Michelin GT Challenge was one of the best to date. With 25 of the best road course racers showing up for the GT only show I knew it was going to be a barnburner. Something new at the start of the IMSA season this year was the arrival of three new GT Daytona (GTD) manufacturers with the Mercedes-AMG, Lexus RCF and the sleek Acura NSX to battle with Ferrari, Porsche, Audi and Lamborghini for a total of 16 in the class. In GT Lemans (GTLM), 9 of the best in the business showed up to show us why. On a picture perfect weekend with the never better racing weather made it tailor-made for a perfect show. Along with the Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT’s, the Corvette Racing Corvette CR7’s, the Rayhall Letterman Lanigan (RLL) BMW M6’s and the Porsche GT Team RSR’s came the lone Ferrari 488 GTE from Risi Competizione back to IMSA competition after taking a few months off after a devastating wreck at the 24 Hours of Lemans.
There was drama-a-plenty as always with these multi class dual driver events. The usual fender rubbin’ and off course excursions were abound all day. With all the beatin’ and bangin’ racing with dust and grass scattered around the track surface, surprisingly the race went caution free. In GTLM the No. 66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT with drivers Dirk Mueller and Joey Hand on the point their lead was short lived. Taking the lead away on the first lap and leading first 85 laps of the eventual 93 and within 12 minutes of the finish of the 2 hour and 40 minute race, the No. 25 Team RLL BMW M6 GTLM with drivers Bill Auberlen and Alexander Sims suffered a puncture and was relegated to a 4th place finish. This left the door open for the reigning 2016 Michelin GT Challenge champs from the Corvette Racing No. 3 with drivers Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia that was running well all day, to slip into the top spot on the podium. The Ryan Briscoe/ Richard Westbrook No. 67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT placed 2nd and with an amazing run from No. 62 Ferrari 488 GTE from Risi Competizione with Giancarlo Fisichella and Toni Vilander took the 3rd step in victory circle.
In GTD the action and drama was more of the same that we witnessed with the bigger horsepower cars. Unfortunately for four of the new to IMSA brands, the two Michael Shank Racing NSX Acura’s, one 3GT Racing’s Lexus RCF and one Mercedes-AMG fielded by SunEnergy 1 Racing went out very early on. In their home track performance, drivers Corey Lewis and Jeroen Mul basically dominated the entire race in their No. 16 Change Racing Lamborghini Huracan taking the win with Jens Klingmann/ Jesse Krohn Turner Motorsport’s No. 96 BMW M6 placed 2nd with a final podium spot to the No. 33
