DXDT Racing stood out above the rest in Fanatec GT World Challenge America’s first race at VIRginia International Raceway as their Pro class lineup of Alec Udell and Tommy Milner secured the team’s third consecutive overall victory in the No. 63 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R. In Pro-Am, the spotlight was on GMG Racing as Tom Sargent and Kyle Washington fought tooth and nail to clinch their first Pro-Am victory.
Pro
The Pro class field wasted no time making moves, as Bill Auberlen in the No. 28 ST Racing BMW M4 GT3 moved ahead of Alec Udell in the No. 63 DXDT Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R on the opening lap.
The margins remained very tight, with a three-car battle unfolding for third between Spencer Pumpelly in the No. 85 RS1 Porsche 992 GT3 R, Luca Mars in the No. 93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3 EVO22, and Adam Adelson in the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 992 GT3 R.
Pit stops and driver changes began to unfold with 50m remaining. As Tommy Milner took over from Udell, they regained the overall lead, with Elliott Skeer just behind in the Wright Motorsports machine, followed by RS1’s Trent Hindman.
Milner focused on the road ahead, expertly navigating through multiple race restarts to retain the lead all the way to the line. As he took the checkered flag, he secured DXDT Racing’s third consecutive win of the season following their back-to-back victories on debut in the previous rounds at COTA.
The Wright Motorsports team was handed a 1.085s post-race time penalty for a short pit stop, but built enough of a gap to secure a second-place finish over RS1 in third.
When talking about the challenges of the track conditions, Alec Udell explained: “I think the stress always comes in these situations from not knowing what the weather conditions are going to be like. But I have a lot of confidence in the DXDT Racing team, Team Chevy, and of course in my co-driver Tommy.”
“The team is working very well together,” added Tommy Milner. “All of these guys have a lot of experience, but this shows what this team and this car is capable of. Alec is doing a fantastic job as well. We’re just firing on all cylinders right now, so we’ll ride this wave as long as we can.”
Pro-Am
Phillip Ellis, the overall pole sitter, took off in his No. 91 Regulator Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 as soon as the green flag waved and focused on building a gap to the cars behind. However, a series of back-to-back full course cautions packed the field up, much to his disadvantage as the team opted for an alternative strategy approach.
Ellis handed his machine over to teammate Jeff Burton with just under 40m remaining during a full course caution, returning to the track third in class.
Consequently, Neil Verhagen was the new class leader in the No. 38 ST Racing BMW M4 GT3, but got involved in some argy-bargy with Robby Foley in the No. 29 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3, which sent the latter off-track. The incident resulted in a drive-through penalty for the ST Racing driver.
As Verhagen came down pit lane to serve the penalty, Tom Sargent was promoted to the Pro-Am lead with the No. 32 GMG Racing Porsche 992 GT3 R in the final 20m of the race. The battle for first continued all the way to the line, with the two going nose-to-tail in the final laps with no room for error on either side. Sargent was able to fend off the attack from Verhagen to clinch GMG Racing’s maiden win in the series, with ST Racing finishing second, followed by Regulator Racing in third.
“Hectic is what I describe it as,” expressed Tom Sargent. “Neil Verhagen didn’t make it easy for me, and was able to get back right on my tail for the last lap. It was very close, and it was great to race with him. I knew just how important this win was for the team, this has been a long time coming. The teams work so hard and big hats off to Kyle, he drove amazing all day.”
“VIR is such a tough track, with or without rain,” added Kyle Washington. “It was great to watch Tom bring it home, I’m obviously very excited. This is amazing, we have an all star team with GMG Racing and we’re stoked for the rest of the season.”
The Fanatec GT World Challenge America Powered by AWS field will return for race two on Sunday, July 21st at 2:15 p.m. ET.