The final sprint race for the IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge before the championship moves to an endurance format in 2027, featured a 45-minute barnburner at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta on Friday morning.
Both Jules Caranta and Westin Workman completed weekend sweeps, although both drivers had to work a little harder to get there.
Season champions Óscar Tunjo (LMP3) and Workman (GSX) had clinched their respective titles in Thursday’s first race of the weekend, so they raced in a pressure-free environment. Alas, a few key moments led up to the final restart with less than five minutes to go.
For the overall LMP3 lead, Caranta in his #18 Forbush Performance Duqueine D09 paced the field from pole but withstood multiple close passing attempts from Tunjo in his #1 Gebhardt Motorsport USA Duqueine.
After the restart, Caranta was able to extend his gap over Tunjo to a final margin of victory of 2.031 seconds, with Tunjo’s teammate Danny Soufi third in his #11 Pinaxis-Zone 4 Racing Duqueine.
“It was an amazing weekend,” said the 18-year-old Frenchman. “I’m super happy to win both races. I got a ton of experience. I love this track. I hope to come back more in the U.S. (and IMSA) next season.”
Tunjo reflected, “I can’t thank Gebhardt Motorsport enough for everything. It’s been a special two years in IMSA. Two championships in a row for the team. We finished on the podium and fought until the end for the win, even though we came up a bit short.”
Behind them, the LMP3 Bronze Cup championship came down to the final five minutes. Travis Hill (#2 Shopify Racing Ligier JS P325) led Brian Thienes (#77 Forte Racing Ligier) by just 30 points. Thienes needed to finish two spots higher than Hill among Bronze-rated entries to overcome the deficit, with a potential tiebreaker looming if Thienes only finished one spot ahead of him.
Thienes led Hill for the bulk of the race, running fourth and fifth overall, with Hill briefly having a moment where he went off course in the esses.
But the lone full-course caution with 10 minutes remaining – caused when Thienes’ teammate Jon Hirshberg in his #86 Forte Racing Ligier was trapped in the turn five gravel – entirely changed the complexion of the race and the championship.
Once the race restarted, Hill made his move to the inside of Thienes in turn one. That netted the Canadian a fourth overall finish but crucially, his seventh Bronze Cup win of the year. That single 60-point swing of positions ensured Hill avoided the tiebreaker and beat Thienes after a yearlong fight across 14 races of both sprint and endurance race lengths.
Both drivers reflected on the move and the clean finish to a hard-fought championship battle.
“Inside turn one is the place to be; we learned that on both starts, yesterday and today,” Hill said. “I got hung out on the outside this morning. I hoped for a bobble on the concrete (from Thienes ahead) on the restart, and I got just enough of a run. But Brian’s been a heck of a competitor all year. He’s been super fair. He could have easily pinched me down and changed the scenario, but he ran it clean.”
Thienes noted, “I tried to push as hard as I could, but I think I pushed it a little too hard so I had to lift in (turn) 12. He had a good run on me. Travis got around me. I had another chance to get him back in (turn) three, but that might have run him off the track and that wouldn’t have been the way to win. He did a great job. Proud to race with these good, fast Bronze drivers this year!”
Were it not for a mechanical malady north of the border at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, there’s a good chance Workman would have completed a perfect 12-for-12 season in GSX in his #8 RAFA Racing Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2.
His win on Friday morning was still his 11th in 12 races among races he could control and built on his yearlong goal of learning in different conditions, temperatures and race situations this season. A cooler, overcast Friday morning race offered a marked difference from Thursday; nonetheless Workman still beat Courtney Crone (#35 CarBahn Motorsports BMW M4 GT4 EVO) by 9.424 seconds.
“It was interesting with no sun out, as it was a little misty in the morning,” Workman said. “I set different goals for myself all weekend. It’s been a great season, happy to end with another win. We tried to see how we could get the gap.”
In his first IMSA weekend of the year, Angus Rogers returned to the paddock and took the GSX Bronze Cup win, third among all GSX runners in his #5 KMW Motorsports with TMR Engineering Porsche 718 GT4 RS Clubsport.
“It’s amazing; thanks to my coach Andrew Davis to get me back up to speed quickly,” Rogers said. “I had a great race today and not having been in (this) pro series (this year), it was fun to come back and finish with a win.”
Although he had a tough race himself, Jon Brel still wrapped the GSX Bronze Cup title in his #81 Kingpin Racing Toyota by starting the race.
The new-look IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge season will open with a two-hour endurance round at Sebring International Raceway, 26-28 February, 2027.
Images © IMSA
