After a disappointing run in the first race of the SprintX weekend at VIR yesterday, finishing 13th, Lone Star Racing bounced back on Sunday to win Race 2, Mike Skeen proving to be the hero at the end.
The race looked to be settled in the second half, the Race 1-winning #3 K-PAX Racing Bentley Continental GT3 of Rodrigo Baptista holding a comfortable lead, but Skeen fought his way from third to the lead in the final half hour.
Before getting past Baptista, Skeen had to get the better of a struggling Daniel Morad in the CRP Mercedes. Morad struggled for pace throughout, due to the front splitter and nose of the AMG GT3 coming loose. His teammate Frank Schiller, who led the race early after getting past Soulet at the start, revealed that the issue was getting worse throughout his time in the car before the round of stops.
After muscling his way through to second, Skeen then had his sights set on Baptista. By setting a series of fast laps, including the fastest of the race (a 1:42.757), he closed the gap, and through traffic managed to get right up behind the leading Bentley. Skeen then picked his moment, and made the move stick with just three minutes left, gaining the lead and cruising to the finish.
“I’ve got a lot of friends and family out here, it’s close to my home in Charlotte,” Skeen said after the race. “To come back from P5 on the grid, battle it out and take the win is awesome.
“It was a tough move (on Baptista), I caught up to him in traffic, followed him for a couple of laps, I had better straight line speed, got close enough to him and dived down the inside.”
After losing the lead, it went from bad to worse for Baptista, who in an attempt to put the pressure on Skeen ran off the road and into the tyres. The Brazilian rejoined third, behind Morad, but eventually fell to fifth; a tough end to such a promising race for the team. He and teammate Maxime Soulet did however still pick up the GT Pro/Am class win with the top five finish.
“I’m a little unhappy, I lost the overall win,” Baptista said after. “But it happens, it’s racing. I’m still happy to get the class win.”
The last minute drama didn’t end there though, as Morad too lost his chance at an overall podium just before the finish, with issues causing the car to slow and limp home fourth.
Inheriting second and third respectively was therefore the #96 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche of Scott Hargrove and Wolf Henzler, and the #24 Alegra Motorsports 911 GT3 R of Michael Christensen and Spencer Pumpelly.
Further down the order, it was a disappointing day for the points-leading R.Ferri Ferrari of Toni Vilander and Miguel Molina. After such a dominant run at CoTA, neither driver was able to find front-running pace, the car eventually finishing a lowly eighth, after a penalty for violating the pit stop delta time ended the team’s hope of a top five finish.
GT Am was once again won by the Squadra Corse Garage Italia, the team going unbeaten so far in SprintX this year. The GT Cup win meanwhile, was taken by default by the Dream Racing Lamborghini of Ryan Hardwick.
Next up on the 2018 Pirelli World Challenge schedule is a trip to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park on May 18-20.
Photo courtesy of PWC
