Corvette Affirms Lead Status with VIR Win

Heading to VIRginia International Raceway for the Michelin GT Challenge at VIR, it had been a relatively quiet season by the usual standards of Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports. Yet Alexander Sims and Antonio Garcia led the Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) standings of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in the No. 3 Corvette Z06 GT3.R on the strength of a trio of second-place finishes.

The one thing missing from their season to date was a race win – Corvette’s last win came in July 2024 at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park - and Garcia and Sims ticked that box by taking the checkered flag at VIR 1.070 seconds ahead of Albert Costa and Giacomo Altoè in the No. 81 DragonSpeed Ferrari 296 GT3. Unofficially, Sims and Garcia now lead Costa by 53 points with two races remaining in the campaign. 

It was the 117th IMSA win for Corvette Racing, with three of the last six coming at VIR.

VIR has always been a happy hunting ground for Garcia, and he credited the Corvette by Pratt Miller team for crafting an undercut strategy that helped him claim his fifth victory at the challenging 3.27-mile road course in southern Virginia. Garcia now owns 31 wins in IMSA competition.

“Qualifying showed we didn’t have the ultimate pace, but it seems like VIR is always good to us,” said Garcia, who started the race from fourth place. “But we definitely had the race pace, and that maybe let us roll the dice a little bit on strategy. It really paid off, we jumped them in the pits, and then we extended the advantage.

“I think we’ve been doing this all year long, but everything didn’t fall into place as it should,” he added. “But today was a flawless race, 100 percent. I think we’re in a really good position towards the end of the season.”

Costa in the Motul Pole Award-winning Ferrari overtook Tommy Milner in the No. 4 Corvette for second place with a little more than 20 minutes remaining in the two-hour, 40-minute race. He kept the pressure on Sims but was never close enough to attempt a pass. Milner and Nicky Catsburg ultimately finished third in the No. 4 Corvette, 5.036 seconds behind their teammates.

“Costa was behind me pushing every single lap, and that was about as hectic as it gets,” said Sims, who now owns eight IMSA wins. “The Corvette was on rails, really working well, and we were able to keep the Michelin tires underneath us for the stint on a hot day. Fantastic strategy by Pratt Miller to aggressive on the first stop and then try to make something happen. And we did, honestly. We were able to control the race from the front.”

When he passed Milner for second, Costa briefly thought he had a chance to attack for the win. But he found the No. 3 Corvette was a tougher foe.

“When I passed the first Corvette, I thought, ‘Let’s go for the second one,’” he said. “But he was quicker than us. I’m happy because I gave my best, that was the maximum, and I’m happy about the clean and respectful race with Tommy. I’m proud of my team and I’m proud of Giacomo putting the car on pole position. We’re still in the fight with two more rounds.”

Klaus Bachler and Laurin Heinrich finished fifth Sunday in the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) to remain third in the GTD PRO standings, unofficially 191 points behind Sims and Garcia.

“It’s lovely to get the wins, but our focus is on the championship,” said Sims. That’s the main aim, so we’ll enjoy the moment now and start to focus on the next one.”

GTD: Winward Delivers Recovery Drive to Third Win of 2025

Winward Racing’s mettle was tested early in Sunday’s Michelin GT Challenge. But the defending IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) champions took a great step towards a second straight title with a combination of a recovery drive and excellent pit work to secure their third win of the 2025 season.

Russell Ward started second in the No. 57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 but fell to seventh just after the start, as the combined GTD PRO and GTD-only field enjoyed an intense start battling for position while close together under the green flag.

 By halfway in the two-hour, 40-minute race and with the “money” stop remaining – the second and final one – Ellis had driven back to second after taking over just after 45 minutes were complete.

The Winward team pitted with just over an hour remaining and used a successful stop and undercut to move ahead of the leading No. 78 Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2. The race’s second full-course caution flipped the order roughly in half between those who had stopped prior to the yellow and those who hadn’t.

 Once the order reset after everyone had completed their last stops, Ellis was at the head of the GTD queue ahead of Mario Farnbacher in the No. 78 Lamborghini, the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, the No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 and the No. 021 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3. The Triarsi Ferrari had made a comeback after being one of several cars assessed a drive-through earlier in the race for incident responsibility.

 Ellis held form ahead of Farnbacher while Kenton Koch aboard the No. 021 Triarsi Ferrari gained two spots on the restart. He closed enough within Farnbacher for race control to assess a penalty to the No. 78 Lamborghini for blocking, which was declared inside the final two minutes.

Ellis enjoyed a clear win to the flag by 1.078 seconds, with Koch up to second in the car he shared with Onofrio Triarsi and the No. 27 Aston Martin of Tom Gamble and Casper Stevenson completing the podium in third.

Winward’s winning pair noted the collective team effort to deliver the comeback en route to its 11th IMSA win for all of Ward, Ellis and the team, as they extended their championship lead to an unofficial gap of 171 points with two remaining races left on the schedule. Mercedes-AMG also goes back-to-back in GTD at VIR after the No. 32 Korthoff team won in 2024.

“I felt like I got a pretty good jump, but the inside lane got a much better jump,” Ward said. “What we did from there was impressive. I mean, we really needed that, and, now we've given ourselves a bit of a buffer.”

Ellis added, “I was just lucky that the guys behind me were fighting so hard. You know, it worked out on strategy, but because we played it right early.”

Koch noted on his own team’s recovery drive: “The only way I could really get by was hopefully trying to get close enough to make something happen. It wasn't a bad weekend for us. Based on where we had the penalty at the beginning, the guys made a good call to stop a bit early, and then when the yellow came out, it came out at the perfect time, and we were able to jump enough guys.”

The No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO was fourth ahead of Gradient Racing’s No. 66 Ford Mustang GT3 of Robert Megennis and Jenson Altzman, posting a season-best result in their last scheduled WeatherTech Championship start of 2025.

There was one other late-race penalty that affected the finishing order. While running fifth, the No. 70 Inception Ferrari was also dinged for blocking, which promoted the No. 13 AWA Corvette to the best finishing Bob Akin Award entry of the race in eighth with the Inception Ferrari in 11th.

Results are HERE