Field set for IMSA's all-GT showdown at VIR

Eighteen cars will take part in the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship’s Michelin GT Challenge at VIR next weekend.

Amongst the regular GT Daytona entries are Alegra Motorsports, which returns for the first time since the Six Hours of the Glen, and Gilbert/Korthoff Motorsports which made its IMSA debut at Road America before skipping the pair of west coast races.

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The RACER Mailbag, April 15

This is the penultimate race of the season, but the finale for the IMSA WeatherTech Sprint Cup. Roman De Angelis and Ross Gunn in the No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage currently hold a 74-point lead over Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini, who are coming off a win at Long Beach.

In the full-season championship, the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 moved into the lead after a dreadful race for the No. 96 Turner Motorsports BMW that saw Robby Foley hit the wall and Bill Auberlen deal with a malfunctioning ABS system. Pfaff’s lead is just 32 points, but with a 30-point difference between finishing first and second and points on offer in qualifying, the battle could hardly be closer.

Driver changes include Mario Farnbacher, who will replace Marc Miller in the No. 66 Gradient Racing Acura, and Kevin Estre who will step into the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Porsche 911 RSR with Cooper MacNeil.

This will be Estre’s first race in the No. 79 Porsche since the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Matthew Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet have typically traded the second seat, but they will be racing in the GT World Challenge Europe season finale in Barcelona on the same weekend.

The race will be broadcast on NBC at 12:00 p.m. ET on Saturday, October 9.