Pratt Miller Corvette secures overdue victory at IMSA VIR, Winward Mercedes wins in GTD
- Natalie Johnston
- Aug 24
- 8 min read
The No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller car finally secured its first win of the season in GTD PRO at IMSA VIR. In GTD, the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes never set a foot wrong and achieved their third win of the season.
The IMSA grid saw the green flag at 2:10 pm track time. The No.1 jumped to the lead immediately. The polesitting No.81 Dragonspeed Ferrari quickly fell behind both the No.1 and the No.48 Paul Miller BMW. The grid was three-wide into turn one.
The No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini and the No. 65 Ford Multimatic had it out throughout the first lap, making constant contact. The No. 65 Ford went off track and fell back to ninth position, 11th overall, because of the incident. Caused by the Mustang’s trip off the track, the No. 66 Gradient Racing Mustang went off shortly after.
One of these cars collected an advertisement board, which landed on the track and caused a short yellow flag after one and a half laps. We went back to green after just five minutes, led away by Neil Verhagen in the No. 1 BMW. It was a clean start, the No. 64 Ford Multimatic Mustang gained a place on the No. 4 Corvette of Nicky Catsburg.
The No. 66 was not out of the woods, however, as it was caught up in a battle with the No. 96 Turner Motorsport GTD BMW. They looked to have contact, which sent the Mustang even further down the order. The No.65 Ford Multimatic car came into the pits after having a scrap with the polesitting No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus. The No. 12 was soon handed a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility.
The No. 021 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari and the No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari had a scrappy battle simultaneously; the No. 021 received a drive-through penalty for the incident. The No. 12 and the No. 021 served their penalties on the same lap, dropping down the field.
Yet another drive-through was handed to the No. 96 Turner BMW for the battle with the No. 66 Mustang. Clearly, the stewards were sending a strong warning to the field, cautioning against any kind of contact.
Twenty minutes in, in GTD PRO, the Paul Miller BMWs were one-two. Giacomo Altoe in the No. 81 Ferrari held on to third, followed by the No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Corvette in fourth.
In GTD, Manny Franco in the No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari led the field, followed by the No. 45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini in second. The No. 36 DXDT Racing Corvette sat in third, followed by the No. 78 Forte Racing Lamborghini in fourth, and the championship-leading No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes in fifth.
More bad news threatened the No. 12 Lexus when they received a warning for a torque sensor malfunction, but it ultimately came to nothing.
The leading No. 34 Conquest Ferrari fell to fifth place fifteen minutes later, caused by a moment off the track by driver Manny Franco. The No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari was the second car of the day to pick up an advertisement board, and this time it got stuck onto the front of the car. Driver Brendan Iribe attempted to wiggle the debris off, right in front of the No. 021 Triarsi Ferrari, but was unsuccessful. When the No. 021 passed, Iribe weaved heavily and cleared the debris.
Both Vasser Sullivan Lexus came in with under 40 minutes of racing completed. The No. 14 got a full service and driver change, while the No. 12 only pitted for energy.
The No.77 AO Racing ‘Rexy’ Porsche was given a drive-through penalty for a racing incident with the No. 4 Corvette, in which Rexy went off track but did not pick up damage.
Around the 40-minute mark, we saw the entire GTD class pit, followed by the majority of the GTD PROs, except for the No. 1 and No. 48 BMWs, the No. 4 Corvette, the No. 9 Lamborghini, and the No. 77 Porsche.
The No. 021 employed an unusual strategy, opting to keep Onofrio Triarsi in the car past the 40-minute mark and pit with an hour and 48 minutes remaining. They had a drive-through penalty earlier in the race, so by pitting later than the rest of the GTDs, they hoped to fuel save and go longer.
The No. 1 Paul Miller and the No. 4 Pratt Miller came into the pits, finally, with just under an hour of running completed. They came out in eighth and ninth, ahead of the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan in last place in GTD PRO. The No. 9 Pfaff Miller led the pack, having not come into the pits yet. The No. 77 AO Porsche sat in second, yet to pit as well, which made the No. 65 Ford Multimatic the net leader of GTD PRO in third position.
In GTD, the No. 78 Forte Racing Lamborghini cycled to the lead after the first pit sequence. Philip Ellis in the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes ran up in second, followed by Trent Hindman in the No. 45 Wayne Taylor car.
The No. 9 and No. 77 came in just after the one-hour mark, now in ninth and tenth, respectively. The No. 65 Ford Multimatic Mustang led the field, followed by the No. 3 Pratt Miller Corvette in second, and the other Ford Multimatic No. 64 car in third. The No. 64 car was put under significant pressure by the No. 81 Dragonspeed Ferrari for its position in third.
The No. 65 pitted from the lead with an hour and twenty-five minutes to go, Christopher Mies taking the wheel. At the front, the No. 81 and No. 48 squabbled over third position, Albert Costa in the Ferrari defending deftly from Max Hesse in the BMW.
Philip Ellis in the No. 57 Winward Mercedes put serious pressure on Mario Farnbacher in the No. 78 Forte Lamborghini for the lead of GTD at the halfway mark of the race. Farnbacher was able to keep the championship leader at bay through almost twenty minutes of a Mercedes on his bumper. Max Hesse in the No. 48 Paul Miller lost a spot after slowing down on track, losing two other places very soon after slowing once again in turn four. The recurring nature of the issue raised suggests a power issue for the BMW.
The No. 57 Winward Racing car was one of the first cars to pit to go to the end with just over an hour remaining. Their battle with the No. 78 appeared unlikely, so they opted for the undercut. The No. 3 Pratt Miller Corvette pitted next from the lead of the GTD PRO.
The issues for the No. 48 Paul Miller BMW came to a head when the car went off in turn 17 and burst into flames, spitting out the car’s passenger-side exhaust. This brought out the race’s first full-course yellow, a lucky break for the cars that had just completed their undercut pitstops.
The pits opened for the GTD PROs, and the rest of the cars that were due to pit came in. The No. 77 Porsche got in and out well, causing questions around whether they ran through a red light in the pit lane. The No. 3 and No. 4 Corvettes came out with a one-two, followed by Albert Costa in the No.81 Dragonspeed Ferrari.
The incident involving the pit lane light and the No. 77 was resolved by the IMSA stewards, who determined that the light was dysfunctional. When the green flag was waved with 41 minutes remaining, the field got away cleanly, led by the No. 3 Corvette. The No. 65 Ford Multimatic Mustang was all over the back of the No. 81 Dragonspeed Ferrari, but the Dragonspeed broke away and began fighting with the No. 4 Corvette in front.
Madison Snow in the No. 1 Paul Miller BMW made a place on the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan on the restart. Kenton Koch climbed two places from the No. 70 and No. 27 cars.
A massive accident for the No. 45 Wayne Taylor Lamborghini brought out a full-course yellow with 37 minutes remaining. The Lamborghini was engulfed in flames before it went off the track and spun 180 degrees, causing the fire to blow toward the driver. Thankfully, driver Danny Formal got out of the car and to safety immediately.
The pits did not open due to the incident occurring so quickly after the restart. The barrier of tyres was repaired, and the 45 was carried back to the pits. With 28 minutes remaining, we were back to green flag racing. The leaders got away cleanly, and the No. 77 Porsche came under major pressure from the No. 1 BMW in a battle for fifth place.
With just under 20 minutes remaining, Albert Costa in the No. 81 Dragonspeed Ferrari finally made a move on the No. 4 Pratt Miller Corvette and went up into second position. The fourth-place No. 64 Ford Multimatic Mustang picked up the Dragonspeed’s leftovers by dancing in the mirrors of Tommy Milner in the No. 4.
In GTD PRO, Alexander Sims in the No. 3 Corvette led from the Dragonspeed No. 81 and the other Pratt Miller No. 4 Corvette. In GTD, Philip Ellis in the No. 57 Winward Mercedes led Mario Farnbacher in the No. 78 Forte Racing Lamborghini and Kenton Koch in the No. 021 Triarsi Ferrari.
Costa in the No. 81 car steadily cut into the 1.6-second lead that the No. 3 Corvette had on him when he reached second position. As the minutes wound down, the 81 cut the gap down to 0.725. The No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari received a drive-through penalty for blocking with eight minutes remaining, dropping them down to last place. This penalty hurts their bronze race against the No. 13 AWA, which has an entry in Le Mans on the line.
Alexander Sims in the No. 3 Pratt Miller Corvette was flying with six minutes to go, keeping the No. 81 at arm’s length. The gap plateaued around the 0.8-second mark, although the Costa in the No. 81 was stringing together competitive laps.
In GTD, the No. 021 Triarsi Competizione ran up on the second-place car, the No. 78 Forte Racing Lamborghini, on the second-to-last lap, vying for a P2 finish. The battle resulted in a penalty for the No. 78 Forte Lamborghini that was decided with less than a lap to go, confirming a second-place finish for the No. 021 Triarsi Competizione.
This penalty secured the GTD victory for the championship-leading Philip Ellis/Russell Ward No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes. They made several key strategy decisions that, coupled with well-timed cautions, clinched the win at VIR. The No. 021 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari and the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin finish out the GTD podium in second and third place, respectively.
In GTD PRO, Alexander Sims in the No. 3 Pratt Miller Corvette was able to successfully hold off Albert Costa in the No. 81 Dragonspeed Ferrari. The championship-leading No. 3 Corvette has now secured its first victory of the season, ending its unlucky winless streak this year. The No. 81 Dragonspeed Ferrari secured second position, followed by the other Pratt Miller No. 4 Corvette in third position.
Race Result
GTD PRO
1st No. 3 Corvette, Garcia, Sims
2nd No. 81 Ferrari, Altoe, Costa
3rd No. 4 Corvette, Milner, Catsburg
4th No. 64 Ford, Rockenfeller, Priaulx
5th No. 77 Porsche, Bachler, Heinrich
GTD
1st No.57 Mercedes, Ellis, Ward
2nd No. 021 Ferrari, Koch, Triarsi
3rd No. 27 Aston Martin, Gamble, Stevenson
4th No. 96 BMW, Foley, Gallagher
5th No. 66 Ford, Megennis, Altzman
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