The co-drivers of the No. 28 RS1 Porsche Cayman GT4 MR, who finished third in the last three events prior to Saturday’s Biscuitville Grand Prix at VIRginia International Raceway, finally broke through to score their first career win in the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge.
It also marked Porsche’s 50th win in the Grand Sport (GS) class.
Machavern and Murcott entered the weekend atop the GS point standings, with a four-point lead over Trent Hindman and Cameron Cassels and an eight-point lead over Marc Miller and Till Bechtolsheimer in third.
After claiming the victory, the RS1 drivers get a little breathing room heading into the final two races of the season at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and Road Atlanta.
“Today was all about getting points,” said Machavern. “I was just out there trying to run clean, consistent laps. It just so happened the RS1 guys gave us an incredibly fast car and it was super consistent on the Continental tires. It made my job really easy. This one really goes out to the RS1 boys.”
Machavern and Murcott fought all afternoon in a battle with the No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro GT4.R and the No. 59 KohR Motorsports Ford Mustang GT4.
The No. 57 of Matt Bell and Robin Liddell finished second. The team led 14 laps, but surrendered the lead to the No. 28 Porsche when the Camaro’s rear bumper cover was damaged and nearly dislodged if not for a tie in the center holding it in place.
Liddell held off a charging Dean Martin in the No. 59 started on the pole by Jack Roush, Jr., for the remainder of the race. Roush led for the entirety of his stint before being forced to pit during the full-course caution and handing the lead over to the No. 57 and dropping to mid-pack before finishing third.
The Biscuitville Grand Prix will be broadcast live on Saturday, Sept. 2 on FS1 at 9 a.m. ET. The Continental Tire Challenge returns to action on Saturday, Sept. 23 at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca for the second of two, new four-hour endurance races on the schedule. The race can be watched live on IMSA.com at 4:50 p.m. ET.
Cattaneo, Trinkler Bring Home First Checkered Flag Of Season for Nissan
In the Street Tuner (ST) class of Saturday’s Biscuitville Grand Prix, Owen Trinkler snuck by Tyler Cooke on a restart to claim the first victory of the year for the No. 44 CRG-I Do Borrow Nissan Altima.
Trinkler’s co-driver Sarah Cattaneo placed the car second in qualifying behind Cooke’s co-driver and Virginia-native James Clay in the No. 84 BimmerWorld Racing BMW 328i. Cattaneo overcame a minor off-track incident early in the race which dropped her back to sixth, but brought the car to pit road in third for Trinkler to takeover.
“It’s always important to stay up front for the first driver,” Cattaneo said. “I try to do that every race for Owen and give him a good car… We came in third when we made our pit stop. We’ve got to thank our team for that, and Continental Tire and Nissan for the opportunity to be here today. I wanted to give Owen a good car in a good position and I’m happy with that. It was my end goal.”
The win was the eighth for Trinkler and fourth for Cattaneo in the Continental Tire Challenge. It was also the first for the team since Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in 2016.
“We’re such a little team and we’re so tight as a group,” said Trinkler, who has the most Continental Tire Challenge starts at 135. “It’s so rewarding to get these wins when you’re such a small group. We just don’t have that big of a staff. That’s why you see the emotion in pit lane and victory lane.”
Clay and Cooke finished second, their strongest performance of the season. The No. 75 C360R Audi S3 of Pierre Kleinubing and Roy Block matched their best performance of the season with a third-place result.