TR3 Racing wins penalty-filled PWC SprintX at VIR

The No. 31 TR3 Racing/The Collection Ferrari of Daniel Mancinelli and Andrea Montermini overcame a door-to-door challenge for the lead and benefited from several pit lane penalties to the top five-running cars for the win in Saturday's Pirelli World Challenge SprintX race at Virginia International Raceway.

Just before the halfway mark of the 60-minute race, leader and polesitter Michael Skeen spun the the No. 82 McCann Racing Audi R8 LMS he shared with Andrew Davis course, handing the lead to Mancinelli. But the now-second-place No. 4 Magnus Racing Audi R8 LMS of Pierre Kaffer challenged for the lead and the two made contact in the Esses, followed by a second impact that sent both off course and nearly sent Kaffer airbone. Mancinelli was able to drive back to the pits for a driver swap to put Andrea Montermini behind the wheel but Kaffer was forced to make the slow drive back in.

• SprintX Saturday results

Canada's Daniel Morad assumed the lead – but with less than 15 minutes remaining race control issued penalties for not meeting the minimum pit lane delta time to the CRP Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 driven by Morad and Ryan Dalziel, the No. 3 Cadillac ATS-V.R of Johnny O'Connell and Ricky Taylor and the No. 61 R. Ferri Motorsport Ferrari 488 GT3 of Alex Riberas and Kyle Marcelli. No less than seven two-driver teams miscalculated the 60-second pit lane minimum during the driver change and were forced to serve the drive-through penalties; also caught was the No. 58 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Patrick Long and Jörg Burgmeister.

The lead then cycled back to Montermini, who held off a late charge from Davis by just .239 seconds to pick up the win in the Pro-Pro class in his 300th race.

“Fortunately, the last lap before the pit stop, I was overtaking a GT4 car at the back of the track on corner 8-9,” said Mancinelli. “Kaffer was running quicker but I was overtaking the GT4 car and we made contact and spun off the track. The car wasn't damaged too much and then I dropped the car off to Andrea and he did a good job. After the caution, and factoring in the penalties for the pit stops for the other cars, we ended up with a fantastic win.”

“I was racing in the Blancpain Series in Europe,” said Montermini, a veteran with IndyCar and U.S. Endurance racing experience. Luckily, I was called by the guys and I was so happy to be back here in the U.S. It's like a second home to me. I had some great days here in the past. I had a good feeling about the racing since I jumped on the track Thursday. Everybody is so nice and professional, and it's so competitive. To be honest, this is the kind of racing you can't find in Europe.”

Davis, a late addition to the team after team owner Mike McCann became ill, and Skeen finished second.

“My race started off nice and smooth and we got the lead through turn one,” said Skeen. “I was were able to manage a little bit of a gap to Dalziel. Just as the pit window opened we got run off by a lap car and lost a lot of time. Unfortunately, we lost 15-20 seconds before I handed it over to Andrew. Fortunately for us, some other guys messed up the pit stops so we were able to capitalize. We were able to get the pole earlier and then end up with a podium, but we're a little more hungry than that and want to get more tomorrow.”

“I was here at VIR to coach my friend, Preston Calvert, when Mike McCann said he needed a driver for him,” said Davis. “Pirelli World Challenge has always been crazy competitive. A last year I was amazing how fast everyone is and how competitive the team are throughout the series. The driving is very professional too. I think the SprintX format is great. Now you have 35 entries, great driver pairings, I was really impressed the way it worked.”

Rounding out the podium for Saturday’s SprintX event at VIR was the Pro-Am duo of James Sofronas of California and Laurens Vanthoor of Belgium, who finished third overall in the 33-car field and won the Pro-Am division in the No. 14 GMG Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R.

“I knew the guys I was racing with were all the Pro-Pro class in the 10th to 15th place,” said Sofronas, the GTA class winner at Long Beach. “So I knew that if I made contact and knocked the car’s alignment out that Laurens wouldn't have a chance. So, I gave up some positions to the pros and then stayed with them knowing that it if it went green the whole way, Laurens would get a good car. We had a good strategy on our pit stop and the allowed adjustments we were going to make. There are no easy passes in this series. I was fighting for fifteenth place with some pros - it's an amazing competition.”

“I had quite a few close calls,” said Vanthoor. “There were a few moments where I would try to make a pass and think to myself 'I hope this is going to work out.' But it did work out, I didn't touch any cars, managed to get through the field quickly and finished first (in class) so it was good.”

Another Pro-Am contingent placed fourth overall with Micheal Schein and Jan Heylen in the No. 16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R with fifth going to the Cadillac Racing Pro-Pro duo of Michael Cooper of and Jordan Taylor in the No. 8 Cadillac ATS-V.R.Also claiming class wins in the SprintX contest Saturday were Kris Wilson and Drew Regitz in the No. 007 Lasalle Solutions/Abode Road Winery/TRG-AMR Aston Martin GT3 in the GT Am-Am class; Yuki Harata and Allesandro Bressen in the No. 55 Dream Racing Motorsports Lamborghini Huracan in the GT Cup Pro-Am; Joe Toussaint and Cory Friedman in the No. 90 Autometrics Porsche 911 GT Cup in the GT Cup Am-Am; Adam Merzon and Trent Hindman in the No. 017 Case-It Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport MR in the GTS Pro-Am; and Cameron Cassels and Phillip Bloom in the No. 018 Case-It Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport MR in the GTS Am-Am.

Sunday’s SprintX Round 2 feature will take place at 1:15 p.m. EDT.