The IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge held its second round at Circuit of the Americas this weekend in support of the NASCAR Cup Series. Last-minute addition Oscar Tunjo won the pole for the first race in the #31 Gebhardt Intralogistics Motorsports Duqueine D08 (replacing Markus Pommer) but it was Jonathan Woolridge and Valentino Catalano who split the victories in Saturday’s two races. Jake Walker swept GTDX for Turner Motorsport, and RAFA Racing team-mates Kiko Porto and Ian ‘Crimsix’ Porter took victories in GSX.
In a shocking finish to the 45-minute IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge race at Circuit of The Americas on Saturday morning, Canadian Jonathan Woolridge collected his second career victory in the series as the cars running first and second ran out of fuel coming to the white flag.
Driving the #54 MLT Motorsports Ligier JS P320, Woolridge trailed race-leading teammates Oscar Tunjo in the #31 Gebhardt Intralogistics Motorsports Duqueine D08 and Valentino Catalano in the #30 Gebhardt Duqueine by more than a minute on the second-to-last lap. Tunjo, who started the race from the pole position, led most of the race until Catalano took over out front with just over six minutes remaining.
The two ran nose-to-tail before Tunjo briefly claimed the lead from Catalano with 1:40 left on the clock. Seconds later, both cars ran out of fuel and slowed to a stop on course.
That opened the door for Woolridge to eventually take the white flag as the new leader, and 2.4 miles later, he claimed the victory, his first since winning at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in 2023.
“I was a little surprised coming around the carousel there and finding those two parked there,” Woolridge said. “But I feel like that’s racing. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don’t and today we got lucky.”
While other cars also slowed to a stop on the course on the final lap, Woolridge reported no fuel concerns in his #54 Ligier.
“No fuel light, so I have to thank my team for making sure it was full and they’re really strong with all the calculations and stuff,” he said. “Tom Brown, John Bobbitt, they’re so good with the car and they know that car so well. Obviously, it’s a lot of respect to them for doing that for me.”
Brian Thienes finished second in the P3 class and won the Bronze Cup race in the #77 Forte Racing Ligier JS P320. Mirco Schultis rounded out the P3 podium with a third-place run in the #70 Mishumotors Ligier.
After dominating the first 44 minutes of the 45-minute race, Catalano – who entered the race as the P3 points leader by virtue of his double victory at Daytona – and Tunjo were relegated to fifth and sixth in the final P3 race standings.
Jake Walker started the #6 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 on the GTDX pole position but he found himself immediately under attack at the drop of the green flag by points leader Adam Adelson in the #24 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R.
In fact, Adelson claimed the lead at the conclusion of the first racing lap and the battle was on between Adelson and Walker for the first 10 to 15 minutes of the race. The decisive moment in the race came when Adelson spun on his own entering the esses approximately 12 minutes into the race. Walker, who was right on Adelson’s tail but avoided contact, quickly took evasive action and sailed off into the GTDX lead.
“I saw him get a little loose on the initial part of the esses,” said Walker of Adelson. “He started to spin and I just kind of backed out and took a little bit of a shortcut. He’s a great driver, so we’ll definitely have a good battle in Race 2.”
He was never challenged the rest of the way, pulling away to win by 15.407 seconds over AJ Muss in the #66 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3. In fact, Walker nearly claimed the overall race victory, crossing the stripe just 0.429 seconds behind Woolridge. It was Walker’s first career VP Racing SportsCar Challenge victory.
Samantha Tan finished fifth in GTDX and won the Bronze Cup in the #38 ST Racing BMW M4 GT3.
Kiko Porto has proven to be impossible to beat in the early stages of the VP Racing SportsCar Challenge GSX season.
The Brazilian started from the pole position and won both races in January’s season-opening weekend at Daytona International Speedway. It’s been more of the same so far at COTA, where Porto again qualified on the pole position and quickly showed his competitors a clean pair of heels en route to his third consecutive victory in the #8 RAFA Racing Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2.
“I tried to pass some GT3 (GTDX) cars (at the start) and this is what I did,” Porto said. “I passed three of them, I think, in the first corner just to kind of protect me with all the GT4 (GSX) cars with a gap in the cars between us. After this, on the second or third lap, I understood that the GT3s would pass me eventually, so I tried to not lose as much time and giving the right gap to them.”
Porto finished a full lap ahead of Steven Clemons, who finished second in GSX aboard the #76 BSI Racing Toyota. Ian Porter made it a top-three sweep for Toyota in GSX with a third-place run in the #68 RAFA Racing Supra. Porter also won the Bronze Cup in GSX Race 1.
The victory kept Porto perfect in the GSX point standings and stretched his advantage to 230 points over Patrick Wilmot (#12 Swish Racing BMW M4 GT4) and Justin Di Benedetto (#4 Di Benedetto Racing Porsche 718 GT4 RS CS), who finished fourth and fifth, respectively.
A wild ending in Saturday’s first race of the IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge race at Circuit of The Americas snapped Valentino Catalano’s overall and P3 class winning streak, but the German returned to his winning ways on Saturday afternoon.
Driving the #30 Gebhardt Intralogistics Motorsports Duqueine D08, Catalano started the race from the pole position and remained out front for the duration of the 45-minute race to record his third victory in four races this season. Catalano beat teammate Oscar Tunjo to the checkered flag in the #31 Gebhardt Duqueine by 48.813 seconds.
“This morning we were a bit unlucky,” said Catalano, who along with his teammate, seemingly ran out of fuel on the penultimate lap of Race 1. “I mean, it is racing and sometimes that happens, but we knew that we were quick. I felt comfortable with the car. The car felt well. So we just kept our focus for the next race.
“In Race 2, we just brought it together and it worked out, so I’m really happy about showing my potential and getting the result for it.”
Tunjo followed closely behind Catalano for much of the race before fading in the closing laps. He also incurred a 10-second post-race penalty for passing under a local yellow, but it did not affect his finishing position.
Third place in P3 went to Jonathan Woolridge in the #54 MLT Motorsports Ligier JS P320 for his third consecutive podium result. Woolridge scored his second series victory in Race 1 and vaulted into second place in the P3 point standings with a solid weekend in Texas. He trails Catalano by 110 points, 1310-1200, with four of 12 races now in the books.
Brian Thienes took his third consecutive P3 Bronze Cup victory in the #77 Forte Racing Ligier JS P320.
Jake Walker had a perfect weekend at Circuit of The Americas. The young Pennsylvanian started both races from the GTDX class pole position, claimed his first series victory on Saturday morning and made it a clean sweep with a victory in Race 2 aboard the #6 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3.
Walker made a quick getaway at the drop of the green flag to pull into the class lead and controlled the race from the front. Although his gap narrowed a bit toward the end of the race, Walker was never in any jeopardy of losing the race and finished 10.759 seconds ahead of AJ Muss to win the race.
“In the beginning, we got a good run,” Walker said. “We got ourselves a gap and we just kept picking away at the GT4s (GSX cars) and LMP3s and catching the lapped traffic – navigating it and keeping the car clean. That was mainly our race.”
Muss drove the #66 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 to his second runner-up result of the day and his fourth GTDX class podium in as many races this season. As a result, Muss now finds himself atop the class point standings by 10 points, 1260-1250, over Adam Adelson, who encountered an early issue in his #24 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R that dropped him far behind the field. He eventually battled back to finish sixth in class.
Matias Perez Companc made it two AF Corse Ferraris on the podium with a third-place performance in the #50 Ferrari.
Samantha Tan capped off a successful COTA weekend with her second Bronze Cup class victory and a fourth-place GTDX class result in the #38 ST Racing BMW M4 GT3.
A RAFA Racing Toyota GR Supra GT4 has been out front for all of the GSX class season thus far.
However, when the checkered flag fell on Race 2 at COTA, it was not the #8 Supra driven to three consecutive victories by Kiko Porto. This time, it was Ian Porter, who claimed his maiden series victory aboard the #68 Toyota.
For the first 39 minutes of the 45-minute race, Porto was having another dominating performance. Unfortunately for the Brazilian, an unspecified mechanical issue reared its ugly head at the most inopportune time, forcing the #8 machine to slow dramatically on course and eventually pull off in a safe location trackside.
That opened the door for Porter – who was having his own adventures in the #68 Supra – but not enough to keep him from the top step of the podium for the first time in his VP Racing SportsCar Challenge career.
“That was probably the scariest race I’ve ever driven because we’re doing multi-class (racing) and I had no left mirror,” Porter said. “I had no right mirror. The rear camera was way, way too dark for how bright it was. And then you can’t see anything out of the top mirror, so it was a terrifying situation to try to figure out where the GT3s (GTDX cars) are. A lot of it, I was actually just doing by sound because I had no visuals.”
In addition to the GSX class victory, Porter also claimed Bronze Cup honours in the class.
“This is my second year racing and it’s an incredible feeling,” he said. “I mean, that was an actual battle to pass every single car that I had to pass, so it was very refreshing, especially coming from iRacing and online. That’s what I’m used to and now I’m just seeing this in real life and through my own two eyes and it’s just wild. I’m 15 months in and got an IMSA victory under my belt, so it’s nice.”
Chris Walsh wound up second in GSX aboard the #10 Carrus Callas Raceteam BMW M4 GT4 EVO, coming home 9.107 seconds behind Porter. Steven Clemons finished third in the #76 BSI Racing Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2 despite crossing the finish line just 0.827 seconds behind Porter as he was assessed a 10-second post-race penalty for multiple track limits violations early in the race.
Despite the setback, which saw Porto finish last in the GSX class, the Brazilian still has a fairly comfortable 150-point lead, 1270-1120, in the championship standings.
Next up for the IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge is a doubleheader at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on 6-8 June as part of the O’Reilly Auto Parts 4 Hours of Mid-Ohio event weekend headlined by the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge.
Images © Peter Casey, Matthew T. Thacker, Daniel Overbey, Danny Hansen / IMSA
