RS1 Porsche races back to MPC win at VIR

VIRginia International Raceway’s propensity for chaotic IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge races continued with the 2025 edition of the Virginia is for Racing Lovers Grand Prix under sunny skies but not scorching temperatures, where a great crowd was treated to another wild two-hour affair.

RS1 got its Grand Sport (GS) championship charge back on course after two tough races for Jan Heylen and Luca Mars aboard their No. 28 Porsche 718 GT4 RS CS with their class-leading third win of the season.

Meanwhile the RVA Graphics Motorsports by Speed Syndicate team got both itself and Audi on the board in Touring Car (TCR) in 2025 with the first Michelin Pilot Challenge wins for Jaden Conwright, IMSA’s first 3D Scholarship recipient, and Luke Rumberg aboard the team’s No. 31 Audi RS3 LMS TCR.

Both races relied on strategic gambits that changed hands as a pair of first-hour cautions shifted when teams opted to pit. However, the on-track battles inside the final 15 minutes following the third and final full-course caution of the race saw both class leads change. The GS battle in particular saw the two primary title combatants at the front of the field, albeit on two different strategies.

The No. 13 McCumbee McAleer Racing with Aerosport Ford Mustang GT4, after achieving its fourth straight Motul Pole Award and third straight by Nate Cicero, led the full first hour after eschewing a stop within that time, which the bulk of the GS field did not. But an apparent mechanical issue on its first stop sent them down the order.

On an off-sequence strategy, Turner Motorsport’s Francis Selldorff was thrust into a similar position in the No. 95 BMW M4 GT4 EVO as at the O’Reilly Auto Parts 4 Hours of Mid-Ohio earlier this year where he needed to defend against far more experienced shoes. But Heylen was on a charge in the No. 28 RS1 Porsche – which itself was making a comeback.

Earlier in the race, contact between the No. 57 car and the No. 28 at the end of the back straight pushed Mars off the road, down to 15th place from 11th. Mars, however, recovered from 15th to sixth in his own stint before handing off to Heylen. Heylen then closed the gap on Selldorff from six seconds to within one second before the third and final full-course caution came out.

Post the restart, Heylen made an immediate pass on Selldorff into Turn 1 to put the No. 28 Porsche back up front. He then played defense against a pair of KOHR Motorsports Ford Mustang GT4s, led by the new-for-this-race pairing of Sam Paley and Nick Persing in the team’s No. 60 Ford, by just 0.658s. The second KOHR Ford, the No. 59 entry of Billy Johnson and Robert Michaelian, completed the podium with Selldorff and Machavern fourth. It’s Heylen’s sixth (and second at VIR, GS 2021) and Mars’ third series wins.

“The lap it went yellow I was prepping for it,” Heylen laughed. “But we still had enough time to get by after. We needed a good result and we got it. It’s good to have a fast car. But you still have to execute it. It’s one of those days with the speed and everyone executed. Luca was in not such an easy spot, pitting early, but it all worked out.”

“After I got pushed off I slowly worked my way back up to push as far as we could; then Jan made the pass for the lead,” Mars added. “Jan is such a great driver. We wouldn’t be here without him.

Cicero and Altzman ended 11th, falling from 90 championship points behind entering VIR to unofficially 240 behind Heylen and Mars leaving. Altzman is tied with the No. 39 CarBahn by Peregrine racing BMW M4 GT4 EVO of Jeff Westphal and Sean McAlister, who finished eighth on Saturday.

Conwright, Rumberg and Speed Syndicate Audi squad breaks through

Jake Galstad/IMSA

Jaden Conwright and Luke Rumberg scored their first series wins in the No. 31 RVA Graphics Motorsports by Speed Syndicate Audi RS3 LMS TCR, as Conwright carved past a pair of Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb-Agajanian Hyundai Elantra N TCR cars in the waning stages of the race to break through for an elusive first IMSA victory. Speed Syndicate’s Audi has won in IMSA before, most recently in 2020 at Mid-Ohio in TCR and also at VIR in 2019, under different branded team names and earlier generation chassis.

Similar to GS, the TCR title contenders went through the wringer in a rough-and-tumble race. Entering the race, Harry Gottsacker’s No. 98 BHA Hyundai led Preston Brown and Denis Dupont’s No. 76 BHA Hyundai by 20 points with LP Montour and Karl Wittmer third in the No. 93 Montreal Motorsports Group Honda Civic FL5 TCR third, 90 in arrears.

Early on, the No. 76 BHA Hyundai was assessed a drive-through penalty for contacting the No. 52 Baker Racing Audi RS3 LMS TCR at Turn 3, which forced Brown and Dupont into a need to recover the rest of the race.

Then the No. 93 MMG Honda – the hottest car in class entering the weekend with two wins and four podiums in the last four races – fell back after being assessed a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility with the No. 71 car exiting Turn 12 at the one-hour mark, which negated a potential lead.

Finally, the No. 98 BHA Hyundai started by Mason Filippi and finished by Gottsacker, fell out of podium contention when contact occurred between it and the eventual winning No. 31 Audi. Race control reviewed the No. 31 and No. 98 incident with no further action taken.

Conwright made it past another BHA Hyundai – the polesitting No. 33 entry qualified by Bryson Morris and finished by Mark Wilkins – after the final restart. He went on to take the checkered flag by 2.838s over Wilkins.

“The contact with the GS cars kind of backed us up; I had a good run and had great straight line speed with the Audi on the Hyundais, especially with a good exit,” Conwright said. “I pretty much towed up, popped out and was next to him under braking in the Roller Coaster. I was pretty much on the dirt on the curb on the left, so I was pretty sure I didn’t do anything wrong. They came back no-call and that kept it up right mentally.”

Three cars from three manufacturers fought over the final podium spot. In the end, Eddie Gou’s last lap pass of the recovering Wittmer, who’d made it back to third with an earlier pass of Ryan Eversley, netted Gou and father Eduardo Gou a third-place finish aboard the No. 55 Gou Racing Cupra Leon VZ TCR. Wittmer and Montour finished fourth with Eversley and this year’s IMSA 3D Scholarship recipient, Celso Neto, finishing fifth in the No. 7 Precision Racing LA Audi RS3 LMS TCR on Neto’s birthday weekend.

The chaotic TCR race has jumbled the standings significantly. Brown and Dupont, who recovered to seventh in their No. 76 Hyundai, unofficially lead Gottsacker in the No. 98 Hyundai by 20 points. That car finished 11th. Wittmer and Montour still gained the most ground with their P4 finish and are now 30 points back.

The Michelin Pilot Challenge has two races remaining with the next round at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course on Saturday, September 20. 

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