Turner Motorsport driver Jake Walker has been the winningest driver in the IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge this year in his M4 GT3 and won all three of the sprint races at VIR this past weekend. There are usually two races on each VP Challenge race weekend, but a third was added at VIR to make up for the second race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park last month, which was canceled due to bad weather. BMWs had a more difficult time in the Michelin Pilot Challenge race, with the best finishing BMW ending up in fourth.
Jake Walker was on the pole for all three VP Challenge races at VIR and didn’t have much of a challenge in the first two, winning the GTDX class and finishing third overall in both, ahead of some of the faster LMP3 prototypes. Samanta Tan finished third in the GTDX class in her ST Racing M4 GT3, ahead of Vin Barletta in a Turner Motorsport M4 GT3. Tan and Barletta swapped positions in race two. There were only four GTDX entries at VIR, with the only non-BMW being the Porsche of Adam Adelson, who finished second in the first two races.
Jake Walker and Adam Adelson had a great battle going in race three.
The third race in VP Challenge ended up being more of a fight for Walker, as he was passed by Adelson at the start, and the two then had a great battle going for several laps before Walker got by. Walker then lost the lead again when he went off track in the Oak Tree corner, but he managed to get the lead back again within a few laps to take his third win of the weekend. Samanta Tan finished in third behind Adelson, with Barletta in fourth.
Samantha Tan and Vin Barletta battle for third place.
After VIR, Walker had seven wins in ten races but is second in the championship with a slim chance of winning it all. The reason for that goes back to the first two races at Daytona in January, where an issue with his M4 GT3 kept Walker out of race one and caused him to finish last in race two. Adam Adelson won both of the Daytona races, won the only other race that Walker didn’t win (at Mid-Ohio) and finished on the podium in every other race. The points that Walker lost at Daytona have been significant enough that he hasn’t been able to close the gap enough to Adelson, who has been very consistent this season, and there are only two races left, at Road Atlanta in October.
Jake Walker (center) celebrates his VP Challenge race one win. Adam Adelson (left) finished second and Samantha Tan finished third.
There were also two BMW entries in the VP Challenge GSX class for GT4-spec cars, with Bill Cain driving an M4 GT4 for CarBahn with Peregrine Racing, and Roland Krainz in an Auto Technic Racing M4 GT4 EVO. Cain had the best finish of the two BMWs in the three races with a seventh-place finish in race two. Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO entries swept the GSX podium in races one and two and finished one-two in race three.
In the Michelin Pilot Challenge race, the BMW entries were saddled with balance of performance adjustments at VIR that put them at a disadvantage. The M4 GT4 EVO is not only the heaviest car in the field, but was given reduced power at VIR, which was a killer on the long straights there. Sean McAlister was the fastest BMW in qualifying in his #39 CarBahn with Peregrine Racing M4 GT4 EVO but was down in seventh and around 1.3 seconds off the pole of the #13 Ford Mustang GT4.
The #39 CarBahn with Peregrine Racing M4 GT4 EVO was the fastest BMW in Michelin Challenge qualifying but finished eighth in the race.
In the race, Dillon Machavern was second at the halfway point in the #95 Turner Motorsport M4 GT4 EVO thanks to a good strategy call and strong driving by Machavern, and McAlister was in fourth. When McAlister brought the #39 BMW into the pits to turn it over to Jeff Westphal, the team had an issue with a tire gun that led to a penalty and took them out of contention. The #13 Mustang that had dominated the race to that point also had an issue with the transmission during their pit stop and lost several places.
After pit stops cycled through, Francis Selldorff ended up in the lead of the race in the #95 Turner BMW but was being caught quickly by the #28 Porsche of Jan Heylen, which had a lot more straight-line speed than the BMW. A caution with fifteen minutes left bunched the top group together, and Heylen got by Selldorff on the restart. Selldorff then held off the Mustangs behind him as best he could but ultimately finished fourth. The #96 Turner BMW of Robby Foley and Vin Barletta finished in seventh, and the #39 BMW of McAlister and Westphal finished eighth. The #27 Auto Technic Racing BMW of Stevan McAleer and Austin Krainz, which had been on a good run in the last few races, finished twelfth.
The #95 Turner Motorsport M4 GT4 EVO of Francis Selldorff and Dillon Machavern finished fourth in the Michelin Challenge race.
A BMW (the #39 driven by Jeff Westphal) ended up with only the ninth quickest lap time of the entire weekend, so hopefully the series will give the BMWs some power back for the final two races.
The Michelin Pilot Challenge series has two races left, at Indianapolis on September 19th-21st, and at Road Atlanta on October 8th-11th.
—David Haueter
[Photos courtesy LAT Images]