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.

Make room, Cadillac, Nissan and Mazda. There’s a newcomer in the Daytona Prototype international (DPi) ranks.

Acura’s new ARX-05 DPi car was officially unveiled today at The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering in Carmel, California as part of Monterey Car Week festivities. Two ARX-05s – which stands for Acura Racing eXperimental, generation 5 – will be fielded in the 2018 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Prototype class by Team Penske, in a new partnership with Acura Motorsports.

The team announced earlier this week the first half of its full-time, four-driver lineup with three-time Rolex 24 At Daytona and two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Juan Pablo Montoya joining 2016 WeatherTech Championship Prototype champion Dane Cameron.

“The Acura DPi is the latest example of an automotive manufacturer applying key design features and technology from its consumer vehicles into a world-class racing application,” said IMSA President Scott Atherton, who was on hand for the unveiling.

“Acura and Team Penske join a formidable WeatherTech Championship Prototype class that includes race-winning DPi programs from Cadillac and Nissan, a Mazda DPi team that should be highly competitive in 2018 through its new relationship with Joest Racing along with several highly professional and competitive LM P2 programs.

“On behalf of the France family and everybody at IMSA, it is truly an honor to congratulate Acura and Team Penske on the unveiling of this striking new race car. We join race fans everywhere in great anticipation of seeing it on the racetrack soon.”

The new DPi is based on the ORECA 07 LM P2 chassis, but showcases Acura-specific bodywork and design features including Acura’s Jewel Eye headlights. The car will be powered by a 3.5-liter, twin-turbo V6 engine based on the production V6 that powers Acura production vehicles such as the MDX, RDX, TLX and RLX.

“At Acura, Precision Crafted Performance is at the heart of everything we do,” said Jon Ikeda, Acura vice president and general manager. “Whether it is our production cars or a prototype race car, if you want to be a performance brand, you need to perform.”

Bodywork for the new DPi was developed by a team led by Acura Global Creative Director Dave Marek.

“We created a variety of initial sketches, then pared those down to a handful of potential designs,” Marek said.

“Next came aero and wind-tunnel model testing and time for the engineers to have their say. The design continued to be refined throughout the testing and evaluation process until we came up with a final treatment that met our performance goals, while maintaining Acura’s styling cues. It’s been an exciting process.”

The car will be on display at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on Saturday, Aug. 19 and will be featured on the Concept Lawn at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance on Sunday, Aug. 20.

The team and car already have tested at France’s Circuit Paul Ricard and will continue a rigorous testing schedule throughout the next several months before its competition debut in the Rolex 24 At Daytona on Jan. 27-28, 2018. 

For current IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GT Le Mans (GTLM) points leaders Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen, the Michelin GT Challenge at VIRginia International Raceway might be just what the doctor ordered.

The co-drivers of the No. 3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C7.R built an early lead in the GTLM standings with victories in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida and the Advance Auto Parts Sportscar Showdown at Circuit of The Americas, along with a third-place run in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen and three other fourth-place results.

However, No. 66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT co-drivers Dirk Mueller and Joey Hand, who currently sit second in the championship standings – eight points in arrears of the No. 3 duo – have momentum, winning the most recent WeatherTech Championship round, the Continental Tire Road Race Showcase at Road America earlier this month.

That’s why this weekend’s two-hour, 40-minute race at the 3.27-mile VIR circuit, which will be televised live on FS1 at 1:30 p.m. ET Sunday in addition to live IMSA Radio coverage on IMSA.com and SiriusXM Radio, is so important. With three races to go in the season for the GTLM class, it’s “go time” in the race for the championship.

The best way for Magnussen and Garcia to swing the momentum pendulum back in their direction would be to have a strong performance at VIR. Fortunately for them, they head into the weekend as defending race winners in the Michelin GT Challenge.

“VIR has always been good for us in terms of pace and how the Corvette behaves,” Garcia said. “The No. 4 [Corvette, co-driven by defending WeatherTech Championship GTLM champions Tommy Milner and Oliver Gavin] has won once, we’ve won another time in the No. 3 Corvette. Pretty much every year we have been competitive. It definitely would help in the championship to have another good race there.”

While history may be on their side, however, neither one of the No. 3 Corvette drivers is overly confident. The GTLM class is too tough for anybody to think they have too great of an advantage at any time.

“A repeat of VIR would be fantastic, but it’s so close,” Magnussen said. “We go into every race thinking we have a chance to win, but we also know that we can’t make any mistakes. All year, the whole field has been split by less than a second most times. So that means no mistakes and you have to be on it every time you are on track for every lap.

“I’m really looking forward to going back to VIR. It was a fantastic win last year and pole position. Hopefully, that means we can get back there and have another good weekend. Even if we don’t win it, hopefully we can keep our lead in the championship and extend it a little bit.”

They’ll have plenty of competition, starting with their own teammates in the No. 4 Corvette. Gavin and Milner have had a tough season as defending champions, but they did win the BUBBA burger Sports Car Grand Prix at Long Beach and are a threat each weekend.

The Porsche GT Team also knows what it takes to win at VIR – having done so in 2015 – and brings a pair of strong 911 RSR race cars and a quartet of lightning-fast drivers. Patrick Pilet, the 2015 VIR winner, teams with Dirk Werner in the team’s No. 911 entry with Gianmaria “Gimmi” Bruni and Laurens Vanthoor in the No. 912.

Risi Competizione, which returns to WeatherTech Championship competition this weekend after a brief hiatus from the series, also knows what it takes to win at VIR, as the team’s 2014 victory will attest. Giancarlo Fisichella and Toni Vilander share the No. 62 Ferrari 488 GTE.

Hand and Mueller lead a two-car assault for Ford Chip Ganassi Racing in the No. 66 Ford GT and will be going for their third win this year. They won the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona in addition to the Road America race a few weeks ago. They’re joined by Ryan Briscoe and Richard Westbrook in the No. 67 Ford GT.

And BMW Team RLL also will be a force to be reckoned with this weekend. No. 25 BMW M6 GTLM co-drivers Bill Auberlen and Alexander Sims rode back-to-back victories at Watkins Glen and the Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park toward the top of the GTLM standings are currently third in the championship, just one behind Mueller and Hand. John Edwards and Martin Tomczyk – yet another pair of ultra-quick drivers in need of a little luck – complete the entry in the No. 24 BMW.

Practice for the WeatherTech Championship Michelin GT Challenge gets under way Friday, Aug. 25, with the first of two, hour-long practice sessions starting at 11:45 a.m. ET. Friday’s second session starts at 4:10 p.m. ET.

Saturday, Aug. 26 opens with another WeatherTech Championship practice from 8:45 to 9:45 a.m. ET, followed by qualifying from 12:20 to 1 p.m. ET. Saturday’s schedule also includes the two-hour Biscuitville Grand Prix for the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge beginning at 2:10 p.m. ET.

The Michelin GT Challenge takes the green flag at 1:35 p.m. ET on Sunday, Aug. 27. The weekend schedule also includes a pair of races for the IMSA-sanctioned Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama, as well as a doubleheader for Lamborghini Super Trofeo.

It doesn’t always take winning races to be in the hunt for a championship at the end of a season.

For the No. 33 CJ Wilson Racing team, sitting third in the IMSA SportsCar Challenge Grand Sport (GS) class standings just eight points out of the lead, the 2017 season has been about consistency and making the most of every race.

Winless so far in 2017, co-drivers Marc Miller and Till Bechtolsheimer have recorded two podium finishes in seven races, and have yet to finish below eighth. The No. 33 Porsche Cayman GT4 also is the only car to finish on the lead lap in every race this year.

“We have a championship-caliber team and I’m very thankful, as they have the type of drive to make a run at this,” said Miller. “Without that, it’d be very easy for them to have thrown in the towel when we were struggling for speed the first half of the season. I don’t think a win is out of the question this year. I’m sure as hell trying and I know they are too. If we can get a little bit of luck, it would go a long way for us in the championship to be able to get a win.”

For Miller, a veteran who made his 50th series start at Lime Rock Park last month, the best place to get that first win of the season might just be at next week’s Biscuitville Grand Prix at VIRginia International Raceway. He won the event in 2016 with then co-driver Danny Burkett.

Between Miller and Bechtolsheimer, the series veteran brings all the experience to the table at VIR. The circuit is the last of four tracks on the schedule this year where Bechtolsheimer, in the midst of his first full season, has not competed previously.

“It’s been hugely helpful having Marc as my co-driver this year with all the experience that he brings, especially because it’s been one of those seasons where we’re really having to play the long game,” said Bechtolsheimer, a UK native whose racing experience prior to 2016 consisted only of vintage car racing with zero starts in modern sports car competition. “That’s been the name of the game for us and I think that takes a level of maturity and a level of experience to be able to deliver on that type of a season. I think having Marc continuing to point that out, it’s been really useful and it’s been really helpful for me.”

Four teams make up the top five slots in the GS championship standings, the top three of which are all a variation of a Porsche Cayman. And while the Caymans haven’t consistently been the fastest cars this season compared with the new GT4 models from McLaren, the Ford Mustang and the Chevrolet Camaro, the Porsches have demonstrated reliability and durability to get its teams to the finish.

“Obviously, Porsche has been known to build a very solid, reliable car and their customer program is top notch as far as support at the track and support away from the track,” said Miller. “But really, I believe the championship battle is the way it is with the three teams because it’s on the weight of the team’s shoulders more than anything.

“These are the three teams that haven’t been the fastest teams and that haven’t been in contention to win races as much as teams that have put their drivers in a position to finish well week after week and make the least amount of mistakes. I think as a brand, Porsche has developed a car that is a bit more reliable than some of the new GT4s have been this year and that’s translated well into giving some of the Porsche teams a shot at having this championship.”

And maybe the best is yet to come for the No. 33 CJ Wilson Racing team.

“I think the good news for us is that if we were to rank all 10 races… I think the final three would certainly be in the top half of that in terms of the track,” said Bechtolsheimer. “If the final three races of the year are all three races where we can do well, we can podium on, if we are consistent and the other guys make any kind of mistakes, then it’s ours for the taking.”

“I believe our team has learned a lot from last year,” Miller added. “We had a car we didn’t know 100 percent, but on race pace, it was typically one of the fastest cars on track. But we had a myriad of mistakes that took us out of the chance to win but we still put it on the podium.

“This year, you can’t have any of those mistakes and one of the offseason discussions was regardless of where our car’s pace is, any mistake in pit road is something that we cannot stand for. So far this season, the team has been just a perfect example of what pit stops should be like.

“It’s even more important when you don’t have a car that can set fast laps, lap after lap, that you need to be able to put yourself in a position to come in the pits and out of the pits in a place that you can race for a podium. We’ve been able to do that a handful of times this year and because of that, we find ourselves kind of in the thick of the championship fight.”