Ford seized a 1-2 Grand Sport (GS) class and overall finish in the Virginia Is For Racing Lovers Grand Prix, round eight of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge championship staged Saturday at VIRginia International Raceway.
But the winning entry for the Blue Oval was not necessarily the one expected.
Gregory Liefooghe guided the #19 Ford Mustang GT4 to Stephen Cameron Racing’s first Michelin Pilot Challenge race win, seizing the lead from Mike Skeen in the similar #60 Mustang GT4 fielded by Kohr Motorsports with just over three minutes remaining.
Sean Quinlan qualified the #19 car 13th in the 29-car GS field, and he ran ninth when he handed the car to Liefooghe after a 44-minute stint. Running fifth prior to a full course caution with 20 minutes remaining, Liefooghe was visibly the fastest driver on the track in the closing stages. He passed his way from fifth to second, then ultimately forced leader Skeen to drive too deep into the Horseshoe (turn one) to create the race-winning pass.
The #19 made its final pit stop two laps later than the #60, and that may have been the difference. Nine different teams have won the last nine GS races at VIR.
“I was surprised how fast Mike was,” Liefooghe said. “He was saving tyres, but he was very fast on those last few laps. I just had a little bit more tyres and was able to brake at the same spot as him, but I made the corner whereas he washed out.
“You never know how much time you have left in those situations,” he added. “You never know if there is going to be another full course yellow.”
Sure enough, just a few seconds later, there was. Incoming GS points leader Robert Noaker sought another top-five finish after new co-driver Finn Wiebelhaus qualified and started on the front row in the #13 McCumbee McAleer Racing Ford Mustang GT4. However, contact from another car dropped the #13 car to an unofficial 21st place finish and down to third in the standings with two races left. That caused the race to end under yellow.
Dillon Machavern and Luca Mars finished third in the #95 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 EVO and have unofficially regained the GS class points lead over Stevan McAleer and Austin Krainz, who finished 10th at VIR in the #27 AutoTechnic Racing BMW.
While Liefooghe won in Michelin Pilot Challenge competition for the fourth time, it was the first victory for both Quinlan and the Stephen Cameron team. Liefooghe broke his own 104-race winless drought for his first win since an ST class triumph at Sebring in 2015.
“VIR is my favourite track and now it’s beyond my favourite track,” exclaimed Quinlan. “We’ve had so many opportunities where we didn’t pull it off, including the last race at Road America where we were winning and broke down. Finally, for nothing to go wrong to actually pull it out is such a relief.”
Liefooghe appeared to be just as happy for both team owner Stephen Cameron as he was for himself.
“It feels like we’ve been building this programme for so long,” he said. “It’s a family now. This is really special. I’ve learned so much from him and to be able to do this here is amazing.
“This car has been amazing,” he concluded. “The guys have been working so hard. Sean did amazing on his first stint and we’ve got Racing for Alzheimer’s on the car and that makes it even more special.
From the outside, Steven Clemons and Tyler Gonzalez were basically unchallenged on their way to taking the TCR class victory.
Clemons took an early lead after starting fourth, pulled away from the pack, and at one point Gonzalez held a 20-second advantage over the field. Then the #99 Victor Gonzalez Racing Cupra León VZ TCR suffered a malfunction with its anti-lock braking with just 16 minutes remaining. Almost simultaneously, a full course caution flew, hampering Gonzalez’s attempts to work through the problem.
“That got really hairy really fast and I was trying to manage that,” Gonzalez said. “The yellow definitely threw a wrench into that plan, but we were able to hold on.”
Gonzalez held on at the front for another two laps of green flag racing before the race ended under another full course caution. He crossed the line to claim his fourth race win in IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge competition. It was the first win for co-driver Clemons in just his eighth Michelin Pilot Challenge start.
“From the start, the car was super good,” Gonzalez said. “Steven drove a great first stint. Honestly, hats off to him – he did an amazing job. I’m super proud of him. I don’t know how I got such a huge lead on the pit stop, but we were just managing and saving fuel and saving tyres.”
TCR championship leaders Mason Filippi and Bryson Morris stretched their advantage by finishing second in the #33 Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb-Agajanian Hyundai Elantra N TCR, while Tim Lewis and Rocco Pasquarella drove from the back of the field to claim third in the #5 KMW Motorsports with TMR Engineering Honda Civic FL5 TCR.
Unofficially, Filippi and Morris are now more than 200 points up on their BHA teammates Preston Brown and Denis Dupont. The #76 duo was delayed by a stop-and 60 second hold penalty assessed against Brown for ignoring the red light at the end of pit lane.
Victor Gonzalez Racing has now tasted victory six times in Michelin Pilot Challenge competition. The team’s last win came earlier this year at Sebring International Raceway with Tyler Gonzalez and Franco Girolami.
“The stars just aligned,” said a delighted Clemons. “I clicked with the car and it worked out really well. Driving with Tyler has been really good. We click well with our styles, and the mentalities work.
“I knew after those first three laps if I could put down some passes and get up front, I could really save some fuel and conserve the tyre so when I passed it on to Tyler it was really solid.”
The next round of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge is at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course on 19 September.
Images © IMSA
