IMSA Highlights: Michelin GT Challenge at VIR
Watch all the head-turning highlights from 2026 IMSA Michelin GT Challenge from the VIRginia International Raceway.
Video Transcript
There is so much racing history here, but it's history that will continue to be written with every lap run today.
From the open paddock and fan walks to today's race, VIR provides one of the most complete sports car experiences in North America, and IMSA brings the fans close enough to see the work behind that spectacle.
And you got to wonder, Max Esterson aboard that bright orange McLaren, did he get those gremlins sorted?
Are we ready to go?
You better be because Caldarelli on the pole in the Lamborghini waits to the start zone.
He is on it right now.
Green flag will wave.
Racing at Virginia International Raceway.
Here we go.
Two hours and 40 minutes, the race to turn one.
Big run there down to the inside in that red, white, and blue BMW as Neil Verhagen from third on the grid gets inside Nicky Catsburg in that yellow Corvette.
Moves up to P2 early.
Catsburg along his flank there as he accelerate down towards turn three.
Catsburg hangs on to her, and look at that, opens up the door for Dennis Olsen to make a big move.
What about Valentin Hasse-Klou in the white Aston Martin?
He is charging forward already past the McLaren BMW sideways.
Championship leader here.
We talked about that name the clean day.
He's not had a great opening lap here, and now he's being swung by other cars.
Body work flying there between the Aston Martin and the McLaren.
Hasse-Klou really leading, leaning on Max Esterson.
You talked about staying out of the principal's office.
16 with an issue, but how are they gonna look at Hasse-Klou in that Aston Martin being that aggressive?
Look at this.
Is it Oh, big moment here.
Massive impact here for Alex Sims aboard the number 3 Corvette.
That is huge.
Corvette Racing, nine out of the last 10 races here, has had a Corvette on the podium at the end of this race.
It will not be the number 3 today.
Door opens.
Sims beginning to climb out, but that was huge right there on the scene.
What happens to Alex Sims?
Oh, he goes side by side there with King in the green Porsche there.
Just not enough racing room.
Just super aggressive there by Sims to try and go side by side.
Here we go on board here with Jack Hawksworth.
And you can see Sims there had to use all the curb on the left-hand side.
He brushes Rexy, as we call it, that green dinosaur livery machine, and he goes for a massive ride at about 150 miles an hour.
Well, King knows he's there.
They're side by side as they come up.
The question that race control is gonna look at is did King give him racing room?
That has been a big, big topic all season long.
Yeah, but those speeds, Brian, you, you really got a head of steam there.
The car needs that trajectory kind of straight through.
You try to straighten those Ss.
You can't kind of like curve through there like you'd need to do to give Alex Sims some room, so he put it all on the line and it has bit him big time.
Lights out on the Mustang Dark Horse SC safety car.
They are away and so is the field.
Andrea Caldarelli in the Lamborghini.
Big jump, but Corvette, Mustang side by side to one.
Yeah, Ford versus GM.
What a great start there by Dennis Olsen aboard the number 64 Mustang.
Caught Nicky Catsburg napping.
You don't do that very often.
Now they almost trade paint there as they accelerate off of turn two.
Catsburg trying to make a similar move, trying to pace what he did on the open lap this race, and he loves that inside line there.
Makes it stick.
Well, I'm gonna take you back to Watkins Glen and say yellow and blue don't always get along very well.
Closing laps there, Catsburg, and I believe it was the 65 at that point in time, got together in the closing stages.
Not a lot of love lost.
No one will know until we go back to green.
There is Petresi aboard his Ferrari 296 serving that penalty.
On to pit lane right now, and it's a long run down this pit lane.
Yeah, traverse down there at 60 kilometers an hour.
That costs you 21 seconds from pit in to pit out.
Probably about an 18 second delta.
You got to slow down and get back up to speed, but obviously the cars on the racetrack have to cover a similar distance, so not ideal, but they've got a fast Ferrari here this weekend looking to rebound.
So at 45 minutes, you could start to think about coming to pit lane.
You can then make it to the finish of this two hour 40 minute race with one more stop.
These cars will go just on either side of an hour in terms of fuel range here.
So once someone comes to pit lane, then it gives Danny Faubel the option to follow them in or stay out for a couple laps, be in that hot zone, that danger zone in terms of if we get a yellow.
But I think he's got a great race car.
Right through this sector is where he lost it yesterday in qualifying.
He said, "I think I had a poor run going and put it all on me.
We had a fast race car.
The team's done a great job this weekend, but I threw it all away."
But he has put that right early and has established a really handy lead now up to 7.1 seconds.
Carroll Shelby said it a long time ago when it first opened, and that is one lap here.
He actually said it was like 100 laps at Watkins Glen.
It's brutal.
It is warm today.
88 degrees, 111 on the track.
100, One hour and 47 minute stint.
Is that gonna be a long time, or could we potentially see a second driver change for some of these guys as you look at a problem for the 66, that left front Michelin.
Yeah.
This was on his out lap, so it was just one lap on board this fresh set of tires for Corey Lewis.
They'd done the driver change.
Jake Walker, by the way, did a tremendous job keeping tight with that leading pack there during that opening stint.
I think that's been the drive of the season for that young man.
But they had to correct something there with the latch system, so Tommy Milner's just got to remain calm here and poised, but lost a lot of time and lost track position to the number 1 who they're fighting out.
They won one and two in the championship coming into this weekend, so that is not ideal for Tommy Milner, as you said, on his home circuit.
Just before the 4 came to pit road, this happened.
So an off by Catsburg.
He's pushing on that in lap to try to get in up in turn 11.
Yeah, that's what I was talking about earlier.
When you get a little bit of marbles on the outside of that line through there, if you over commit to turn 11 really hard And this is the issue.
This is not caused by the off here, but something with the latch system.
They're trying to slam her.
It should clip.
Suddenly you see the mechanic has to go to work there.
Tommy's looking down like, "What is going on?"
Finally they get that- System sorted out, but he probably lost about six to eight seconds there.
Racetrack kind of plateaus in a heavy braking zone.
Very easy to lose the front of the car there and slide a little bit wide.
And as soon as that left front drops into the red clay around here, the car a lot of times slides off.
Let's see what happens.
Ooh.
Oh, he loses the tail of the car, actually.
A little bit.
Yeah, normally you understeer wide through there.
Just looked like he leaned on the rear of the car, gave up on him, and you just got a fraction of a second to try and recover.
So comes in here a little bit wide, so he's already out in the marbles, and that's where, what we call it, the gray.
We ride on board the number one, the BMW for Paul Miller Racing, Conor Dalziel behind the wheel.
For Tommy Milner, he sees the Aston Martin in his mirror and m- man, he's gonna drive right by him.
It looks like the Aston Martin working his way by.
Tom Gamble on Tommy Milner.
Again, different classes, but both drivers in the cars now are the pros in these cars.
Two pros in GTD Pro, and that was interesting.
That almost looked like Gamble gave it up.
Oh, little wiggle there, but wow.
But no, he didn't.
Tommy carved back down to the inside there.
Kind of did the crossover there, and as he's squeezing on the power, just lost the tail end of that Corvette there.
As we dig a little bit deeper into this stint, we talk about tire degradation.
This is the battle for sixth on the racetrack.
Right now, Benjamin Peterson has it aboard the 12 from Vasser Sullivan.
And man, Robert Wickens right there.
Little bit of a bumper, front bumper to rear bumper.
Loosens him up a little bit.
Looked like he was gonna sneak by, but Peterson now back out in front and the over and under.
Wickens tries again, and a block by Peterson.
Yeah, just great racecraft there by Robert Wickens, trying to work all of the angles here through this tight, twisty section.
But Peterson is, is hanging on nicely.
But you can see his Lexus is moving around on him.
Got to be get, getting pretty close to maybe making the call to get to pit lane.
They're just getting inside the window where he could stop right now and make it to the finish.
Ben Barnicoat behind the wheel of that Vasser Sullivan Lexus.
He got together with Nick Tandy up in turn four.
Take a look at this.
Yeah, this is Left Hook, that's the name of that corner there, and Nick kind of gave him one.
Goes like Ben Barnicoat was not happy.
Rexy is through, as is the number one, which is huge in the championship.
Let's go on board here with the number one of Di Filippi.
So Nick was trying to use all of the curbing he could to try and create some room, but by doing that, kind of catapulted his car across the racetrack.
Well, it'll be interesting to see what Ellis can do.
You know that Gamble doesn't want to get held up by these cars in front.
And Milner slides a little bit wide.
That might open the door for the number one of Di Filippi.
It certainly could.
Di Filippi's got a lot more energy on board, so he's gonna be full bore right now.
He pitted one lap later than Tommy Milner, so that shouldn't be a huge advantage in terms of the undercut tire-wise.
Filippi would've been more forceful there, but he knows he's gonna get the call if he touches him.
Ooh.
Gamble is feeling the heat.
Tires may be going away from him.
Little slip there.
Doesn't get off of Oak Tree.
Ellis has got a run.
Didn't get to the apex of Oak Tree down to the inside.
That cost him a little bit of speed.
Ellis now, good torque in that Mercedes.
We've been talking about it, that Aston Martin seems to come alive about mid-straightaway.
Side by side into the braking zone, and Gamble is gonna fight it.
Wow.
That was fantastic stuff there by Tom Gamble.
I thought Ellis had it.
He tries to use the side draft there, moved away from the Aston Martin.
He had the inside line, but then you get to that next little kink, and suddenly the Aston Martin just had the inside line for the right-hander down through the roller coaster.
The fight for the win in GTD is right here.
The 27 Aston Martin, the 57 just behind of Philip Ellis.
And it's a fight for the championship lead as well.
Whichever one of these cars finishes in front of the other will lead the championship when we leave VIR.
Ellis has been within a second of Tom Gamble for the last 20 minutes.
Maybe he can still make that right-hand side of the road stick, but hair is tight.
Almost touching the diffuser there as they come through turn one.
Ellis is nipping at his heels literally.
Does he send it right now?
There.
He does.
He's there, and Gamble's gonna try to cut back underneath and take the position in four.
It's gonna get tight.
Side by side here.
It's gonna get tight.
This is through Left Hook, and he forces him off the road.
Contact.
Contact.
How is that gonna be called from race control?
Very similar to that Tandy-Barnicoat situation.
Not as aggressive in terms of the big send for Barnicoat where he peeled off the road.
Eyelids are flashing.
Ellis is saying, "I gotcha, I gotcha."
So he send it in turn three.
Let's take another look at it.
Lines him up before he hell stays, and he just sends it there, which sends him out a little bit wide.
So Ellis is wide there.
Gamble kind of crosses him over, just gets inside him, and then he washes out right there.
I mean, it wasn't as aggressive as Tandy, because he didn't get up on the curb, but watch the front end here.
Loses the front end, clobbers Ellis.
A call from race control.
Okay, give the position back.
Oh.
Drive through.
27 just got a penalty, incident responsibility.
Chris, what are you hearing down on pit lane?
Indeed, that's the call that came down.
And yeah, Tom Gamble gave the opportunity to try to maybe try to rectify the issue before, race control could make a decision, but ultimately the drive through penalty was sent, and Philip Ellis was adamant on the radio after the contact, "There was room and I got shoved off the track," as you look at how Philip Ellis was given the lead back right here at Oak Tree.
27 has led the championship since Sebring.
They will not lead when they leave Virginia International Raceway.
And for Gamble, I'm sure that the box called him and said, "Let him back by.
It's under review.
Let him back by, because if you do, maybe that'll help."
Here he comes.
How many positions did he lose?
There's the 70 Inception Mercedes, or Ferrari, who was fifth.
The margins down to the leaders, this is gonna be A crazy day in the championship.
White flag for the 57.
Looking for three in a row and back to the top of the championship in GTD if it finishes this way.
Crazy.
Could be their fourth victory of the year.
They've had a disaster, a drought in the middle of the season.
Nothing would go their way.
But boy, what a way to bounce back.
And that 34 car, the run down pit lane, was sort of a splash of fuel, just shy on the energy needed to get to the finish.
Wow, big time changes in the championship, and we've got two races to go in the season.
Indianapolis and then 10 hours at Petit Le Mans.
You and I both know, Calvin, anything can happen there.
It certainly can.
But what a day for Pfaff Racing here.
Start the season with a brand new car, and now looking for their 14th IMSA Class win as Pfaff.
Sandy Mitchell behind the wheel.
Second win for him in his 12th start in GTD Pro, and for Andrea Calderelli, third IMSA Class win.
Pfaff Racing Lamborghini take the checkered flag.
They'll take the trophy here at Virginia International Raceway.
Baker got close.
Was within a second and a half.
He got a feel Mitchell was getting that warning, "Don't go over the curbs, don't spike that torque setting."
We've got a warning on that, as meanwhile, Philip Ellis, what a monster drive once again.
Did all day what he and Russell Ward have been known to do.
Be fast, be consistent, and be there at the end.
Looking for their third in a row, and once again, they have never been off the podium here at Virginia International Raceway.
They'll stand on the top step today if they can make it through four more corners down the hill, through the roller coaster.
And Ellis, masterful drive once again.
15th class win for Winward Racing, and the 15th for both Russell Ward and Philip Ellis.
Winward Racing back on top.
They'll take the victory at VIR, and they'll take the championship lead.
Wow.
This championship is heating up in a big way.
It's unbelievable.
They're still super tight.
Foley and Gallagher move up to P2, just 36 markers back.
That is nothing.
As we said, there's a 30 point spread between first and second in a single race.
This championship is gonna go right down to the wire.
