The IMSA VP Racing Sportscar Challenge went to the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida over the weekend in support of the IndyCar Series’ opening round.
Fittingly, it was Jagger Jones, grandson of Indianapolis 500 winner Parnelli and son of Daytona 24 Hours winner PJ, who swept the two races on Saturday from pole position.
Jones, driving the #87 FastMD Racing by Remstar Duquiene D08, qualified quickest for Race 1 and won the morning race ahead of championship leader Steven Aghakhani in the #6 MLT Motorsports Ligier JS P320.
Jonathan Woolridge made a late sprint to third place in the #38 Performance Tech Motorsports Ligier. Mirco Schultis’ fifth-place finish in the #70 MISHUMOTORS Ligier was enough for him to take the LMP3 Bronze Cup win in Race 1.
Race 1 was marred by only one Full Course Yellow, which came out after a collision between Alex Kirby and Cody Ware left both drivers’ cars too damaged to finish the race, or to be repaired in time for Race 2 that afternoon.
Jones proved once again to be the class of the LMP3 field in Race 2, leading wire-to-wire, as he did in Race 1, to complete the weekend sweep in just his second weekend of prototype racing.
“Full sweep of the weekend, it’s awesome,” Jones said. “It feels so good to be winning races. I think last year was my first year in my career of racing that I didn’t win a race with racing Indy NXT.
“The team got me such a good car, we even got the car way better for the second race, which is almost scary with how fast we’d already been all weekend. I was just taking it easy, making sure I didn’t make any mistakes. That’s all I had to do. Hopefully, I can come back and do some more races with Remstar.”
Bronze Cup driver Miguel Villagomez finished second in the #23 Escuderia ABRO Ligier, followed by the #77 Forte Racing Ligier of Brian Thienes. Despite finishing two laps down in Race 2, Aghakhani still holds a 190-point lead in the LMP3 Championship over Villagomez.
Similarly, Jesse Lazare was the dominant force in the GSX class, driving his #21 Motorsports in Action McLaren Artura GT4 to pole-to-win victories in both races.
Lazare did have to hold off the hard-charging Jackson Lee for the win in Race 1 but was able to keep the #82 Van der Steur Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4 behind him on the FCY restart to keep his advantage. GSX points leader Luca Mars was third in the #59 KOHR Motorsports Ford Mustang GT4.
Race 2 looked as if it would be Lee’s moment for revenge, but Lazare stuck with him throughout the race, then pounced on a final FCY restart to take the lead and pull away to the victory over Lee.
“Right from Session 1 we were super-fast and I got comfortable real quick,” said Lazare. “I knew Lee was going to be up there with me, he was quick all along.
“This race he got a really good start, got me on the outside; there was more grip out there. I was waiting for the perfect moment to execute a pass. I got it on the (final) restart and I’m really excited to bring home the second victory today.”
Gregory Liefooghe finished third despite an ABS issue on his #19 Steven Cameron Racing BMW M4 GT4.
Michael Dayton won GSX Bronze Cup honours in both races driving the #12 Swish Motorsports BMW.
Mars’ finishes of third and fourth give him a 120-point lead in the GSX standings over Lee.
The next rounds of the VP Racing Sportscar Challenge take place from 7-9 June at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
Images © Jake Galstad / IMSA
