Neither sickness nor rain could prevent a determined Jagger Jones from getting back to victory lane in the IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge.
A day after a win in the No. 87 FastMD Racing with Remstar Duqueine D08 was negated by a postrace technical infraction, Jones rebounded to win Sunday’s 45m race at the 10-turn, 2.459-mile high-speed road course. Jones was hampered throughout by a stomach illness and endured a treacherous final few laps racing in wet conditions after a light rain fell around the circuit and the entire field was brought into the pits for a mandatory change to wet-condition Michelin tires. Still, he persevered to pick up his fifth overall and Le Mans Prototype 3 (P3) win in the last six VP Racing Challenge races.
“We really dominated on track both days this weekend, which is awesome,” Jones said. “It looked smooth from the outside but I was super nauseous for some reason; I’ve been really sick all weekend. We brought it home nice and clean, thank you to the Remstar FastMD guys. A little mistake yesterday but today everything’s all cleaned up and another win for us.”
The race began in the dry, with Jones bumping his way past polesitter Steven Aghakhani (No. 6 MLT Motorsports Ligier JS P320) as they battled through Turn 2 on the opening lap. Rain began on parts of the track less than 10m later, with a full-course caution ordered shortly after. Race officials declared it a wet race at the halfway point, bringing all cars in for the grooved Michelin tires and returning them to the track in the same running order.
Racing resumed with just under six minutes to go and Jones was off and running away. He took the checkered flag 8.365s ahead of Aghakhani, with Alex Kirby (No. 7 Performance Tech Motorsports Ligier) finishing third for the second straight day.
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“Once we went on the rain tires, they were super solid,” Jones said. “I’ve only done like six laps on these rain tires before, so I was a little hesitant at first. But once I built that gap, I just kind of managed it.”
With two rounds and four races remaining this season, Aghakhani holds a comfortable 500-point lead over Brian Thienes (No. 77 Forte Racing Ligier) atop the standings. Jones is third, 100 points behind Thienes.
Rain dance pays off for Green with maiden series win in GSX
Josh Green was hoping it would rain in Sunday’s race, sensing he could make his way to the front in the Grand Sport X (GSX) class. Green’s wish came true and so did he, making a strategic pass in traffic on the penultimate lap and rolling on to his first VP Racing Challenge victory in the No. 78 Thaze Competition Mercedes-AMG GT GT4.
Green sat in third place when the race restarted late in the wet conditions, trailing Race 1 winner Jack Polito (No. 98 Polito Racing Ford Mustang GT4) and Jesse Lazare (No. 21 Motorsports In Action McLaren Artura GT4). Three laps later, a slower P3 car balked the trio and Green made his move to maneuver past both Polito and Lazare.
From there, the Mount Kisco, New York, resident edged away to win by 1.208s over Lazare.
“I was doing the rain dance the whole weekend,” Green said. “Once we put the wets on, I was pretty confident. I’ve had a lot of great races in the rain.
“We got a P3 car kind of stuck in front of us and he blocked everyone,” he added. “I knew that that was going to be the opportunity to get clear. It feels sweet, I’m so happy. This is such an awesome group, it’s like family to me. I’ve been so lucky that they took me under their wing. It’s my first real season in sports cars and to win it on my third try is awesome.”
Lazare trails GSX championship leader Luca Mars (No. 59 KohR Motorsports Ford Mustang GT4) by 190 points with four races remaining. Both classes race next at VIRginia International Raceway as part of the Michelin GT Challenge at VIR weekend from Aug. 23-25.