BMW and Team Rahal Letterman Lanigan took the first ever win for the BMW M8 GTE at Virginia International Raceway yesterday.
The #25 BMW M8 GTE with Alexander Sims and Connor De Phillippi took home the win in the GT Le Mans class, as part of the final GT-only event for IMSA this year. It was a masterful recovery drive from Sims, combined with excellent strategy calls from the RLL crew that brought home the first victory for the German marque.
Sims had to serve a drive-through penalty in the race’s first half after making contact with the #15 3GT Racing Lexus RC-F GT3 car, sending the GTD car well off track at the final corner. Now at the back of the field the RLL strategists rolled the dice and opted for an alternate fuel strategy which set themselves up for Sims to bring the car into the pits for the final stop. With fifty seconds of room to breathe the M8 GTE was refueled and sent with ten seconds still in hand.
Another quiet performance but one that ended in yet another podium from Corvette Racing resulted in the #3 with Jan Magnussen and Antonia Garcia taking home second in the class, roughly eight seconds behind the eventual class winners. With that finish however, they do take the championship lead in GTLM from the #67 Ford GT.
Making it two BMWs on the podium was the sister car of the #24 M8 GTE of Jesse Krohn and and John Edwards. Like for Corvette it was a rather uneventful day that netted that team a strong finish at VIR with the M8 GTE looking the most competitive since its outing earlier this year at Sebring.
Two cars suffered race ending faults in GTLM, and both of them while leading the class. First it was the championship-leading #67 Ford GT with Richard Westbrook and Ryan Briscoe. Westbrook lead much of the first half of the race after starting from pole but a gearbox issue after Briscoe got behind-the-wheel ended that car’s day.
The #911 Porsche 911 RSR that Nick Tandy and Patrick Pilet share then inherited the lead only for the car’s engine to catch fire. Tandy pulled the extinguisher which prevented any major damage being done to the flat-six engine and stopping the car on track. That was the race’s only Full Course Yellow that came with one hour and twenty five minutes remaining.
GTD provided yet another thrilling outing this time out however it was the #14 3GT Racing Lexus RC-F GT3 with Dominik Baumann and Kyle Marcelli taking home their second set of 1st place trophies this year.
“The temperatures made its really difficult today… the first win is always the most difficult and its great to back it up,” said Kyle Marcelli after the race.
Baumann took advantage of a triplet of sparing GTD cars in the race’s final half hour to gain control of the field, driving the car to the end despite a late-race challenge from Katherine Legge and the #86 Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3.
That scrap saw two of the race’s top contenders be taken out of contention. The #44 Magnus Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 of Andy Lally was battling with the #33 Team Riley Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Jeroen Bleekemolen when they came together whilst fighting for the lead. The #44 Audi hitting the back of the #33 Mercedes-AMG at the exit of Turn Four, Lally was given a drive through, and Bleekmolen had to watch the GTD field sail by while sitting in the grass.
A last lap, last turn pass from the #58 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Patrick Long moved that car to second in GTD past the #86 Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3 of Katherine Legge and Mario Farnbacher. The #86 Acura ending the race in third after being side-by-side the race-winning #14 Lexus into the Roller Coaster.
“The first win is always the most difficult win to get and we got that at Mid-Ohio and today felt like it was Déjá Vu,” Marcelli continued. “We had the 86 (Katherine Legge) chasing us the last couple minutes of the race. It was a very hot race. Me, being from Canada, I don’t do too well in the heat so that was the biggest struggle for me.
“But, we had a good car and it was going to be difficult to win the race, but we knew we just had to make no mistakes and be there at the end. Thankfully, we were able to capitalise off a few competitors mistakes.”
A few cars had tough days, notably the aforementioned #15 Lexus but there were no retirements in the GTD class.
The next round of the IMSA Weathertech Sports Car Championship will see the return of the Prototype class at Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca on September 9th.
Photos courtesy of IMSA
