The fight for the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship GTD Pro title isn’t over yet – not if Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor had anything to say about it. The #3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD of Garcia and Taylor won Sunday’s Michelin GT Challenge at VIR in a duel against the championship leaders, Jack Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat, and drew closer to them in the points table with just two races left.
This two-hour, 40-minute race at VIRginia International Raceway was the second and final GTD-exclusive round of the season in IMSA. A field of 19 cars took the green flag under beautiful, sunny skies, eager to conquer “America’s Motorsport Resort”.
Polesitter Jack Hawksworth led them early on in the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, followed by Daniel Juncadella in the #79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3. Juncadella was soon overtaken for second by his countryman Garcia.
But just eight minutes after the green flag, the first Safety Car was deployed when gentleman driver David Brule caught too much of the runoff at turn six and spun into the tyre barriers. The track was almost completely blocked from debris and stacks of tyres strewn across – Brule was okay, but his #92 Kellymoss with Riley Porsche was out.
After the race restarted, Hawksworth continued to lead ahead of Garcia and Juncadella. The #14 Lexus built a 3.5 second gap to the field just as the GTD Pro leaders came into the pits and changed drivers, putting Barnicoat in the Lexus ahead of Taylor in the Corvette, and Jules Gounon in the Mercedes.
The GTD class #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 was now leading overall after an early pit stop from Bryan Sellers.
At this stage, Forte Racing Powered by USRT’s race was falling apart. What began with the #78 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 shutting off at pit entrance during Loris Spinelli’s first stint, ended with a scary moment when the ABS failed along the back straight, sending Misha Goikhberg crashing into the tyres at the Madison Avenue chicane. Goikhberg walked away from the impact unhurt, as the Safety Car was deployed for a second time.
Dark clouds began to roll in over VIR but did not bring with it any significant rainfall before the finish.
Barnicoat and Taylor got past Sellers shortly after the ensuing restart to take back first and second place overall. The final round of stops, with one hour remaining, would determine the winner.
While Taylor enjoyed a trouble-free pit stop, Barnicoat stalled coming out of his pit box, long enough to allow Taylor to drive through to the lead with Barnicoat dropping to second.
Barnicoat kept himself within striking distance of Taylor afterwards, but could not come close enough to take the lead from the second-generation American driver.
Taylor held on and collected the yellow #3 Corvette’s second win of the season in GTD Pro – Taylor’s 33rd career win in IMSA, and the 29th for Garcia. The gravity of this win, days after Taylor announced his decision to leave the GM racing family to rejoin his father’s team at WTRAndretti, wasn’t lost on him.
“This has to be one of the most special races I’ll ever have,” Taylor said. “Amazing race, amazing victory.”
“It was just down to saving fuel and managing tires and managing the gap. I was counting down the laps with about 25 to go. I was very happy to see that chequered flag.”
“Jordan did an amazing job today. He was like a Swiss watch,” added Garcia.
The win allowed Taylor and Garcia to close to within 144 points of Hawksworth and Barnicoat, who finished a close second despite the hiccup in the pits.
“The team did a great job to get us a race-winning car. Sadly, I made a mistake and stalled it on the pit stop. I apologize to the team for that,” Barnicoat lamented. “It happens sometimes.”
“It was a decent day. We’re still leading the points, which is the main thing right now.”
It would still take a significant setback for Hawksworth and Barnicoat to lose their grip on the points lead with just Indianapolis and Petit Le Mans left, but Garcia and Taylor have put themselves back into the conversation – and given Corvette Racing a chance to win both the IMSA GTD Pro and WEC GTE Am championships in the final season of Corvette Racing as we know them today.
The #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW may have dropped out of the overall lead, but Sellers and Madison Snow dominated the GTD class, taking third place overall and their fifth GTD win of the season by 12 seconds. The #1 BMW combined to lead GTD for 77 out of 81 laps, only conceding first place during pit stop cycles.
Sellers, who came into the race nursing an illness, said after this victory: “Amazing doesn’t even come close to describing it. Wins are so hard to come by in this series, and it’s why everyone does this. Before this, we’ve never had more than two wins in a season, so to get five is just crazy.”
“If there was a secret, I don’t think we’d be trying to give it out,” Snow added after taking the car home to the chequered flag. “It’s really the team. We just work really well together. We’re always trying to improve; we’re always helping each other out.”
“The beginning of my final stint was hard mentally because I knew I had to just drive for 50 minutes and not make a mistake. Once you get in the rhythm and get going, it gets easier.”
With the win, combined with a lacklustre 12th place class finish for the #27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 (Roman de Angelis/Marco Sørensen), Snow and Sellers have now all but guaranteed themselves the 2023 GTD Championship and WeatherTech Sprint Cup titles, leading the season championship standings by 375 points, and the sprint cup by 229 points. They could clinch both titles as soon as the upcoming Battle on the Bricks at Indy on 17 September.
BMW got a 1-2 finish in GTD as the #96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 (Patrick Gallagher/Robby Foley) finished second, tying their best result of the year on a weekend where Gallagher seemed to find his best form so far.
A podium sweep seemed to be in the works for BMW, but Winward Racing’s Philip Ellis had other plans.
With a late pass from Ellis to get around Bill Auberlen with two laps to go, Ellis and Russell Ward captured the final GTD podium position in their #57 Mercedes, giving Winward Racing its first podium of a deeply troubled 2023 season.
Ellis recalled of his podium-winning overtake: “We just took a chance. We saw (the #97 BMW) slowing down quite a lot and weren’t sure if they were just managing the pace or the tyres or having to save some fuel. I don’t think he (Auberlen) could put up much of a fight at the end.”
Auberlen and Chandler Hull consolidated fourth in the #97 Turner Motorsport BMW. The #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus (Frankie Montecalvo/Aaron Telitz) finished fifth in class, ahead of “Roxy”, the pink #80 AO Racing Porsche (PJ Hyett/Seb Priaulx) in sixth.
For the #70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 Evo (Brendan Iribe/Frederik Schandorff), VIR was a case of “what could have been” – they were running third when Schandorff had to serve a drive-through penalty for a pit work infringement. That kicked them down to seventh in class.
The rest of the GTD top ten featured the #91 Kellymoss/Riley Porsche (Alan Metni/Kay van Berlo), #77 Wright Motorsports Porsche (Alan Brynjolffson/Trent Hindman), and the #66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 (Sheena Monk/Katherine Legge).
The final GTD Pro podium place went to the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R (Klaus Bachler/Patrick Pilet), in 12th overall.
Gounon lost out on that podium after he and Bachler made contact, which eventually led to the #79 WeatherTech Mercedes pitting for suspension repairs and losing two laps to finish 17th overall and fifth in class, last in both.
A collision between the #32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes (Mike Skeen/Mikaël Grenier) and the #23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin (Ross Gunn/Alex Riberas) ultimately dropped the Aston to 15th overall, fourth in class.
Images courtesy of IMSA
