For Jagger Jones, it appeared like a leisurely Sunday drive to the overall and LMP3 class victory in the back half of the IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge weekend at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. For Jesse Lazare in the GSX class, it was anything but.
Jones (pictured above) started from the pole position in the 45-minute race, pulled away at the start and cruised to his second win in as many days, this time by 7.405 seconds. It was nearly identical to the 7.567-second margin of victory he had Saturday in the No. 87 FastMD Racing with Remstar Duqueine D08.
Lazare (pictured below) pushed off from pole in his class as well Sunday, but the driver of the No. 21 Motorsports In Action McLaren Artura GT4 lost the GSX lead to Josh Green (No. 78 Thaze Competition Mercedes-AMG GT GT4) on the opening lap. Lazare proceeded to hound Green throughout the 13-turn, 2.258-mile road course until leveraging lapped traffic and making the decisive pass to retake the lead with just under 13 minutes remaining. Green tried his best to overtake Lazare until the finish but fell 0.491s short.
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“I started on pole but I lost it right at the start, so I had to work out of everything I’ve got in my tools to figure out how to get around him,” Lazare said. “I realized I can get to his bumper but Josh isn’t making any mistakes. Without a mistake it would be really hard to get by, so finally – it wasn’t even his fault – but it was the lapped traffic that caused him to make a mistake. Took advantage of that, got the slingshot and I got it done.”
Luca Mars, winner of Saturday’s GSX race, finished third on Sunday in the No. 59 KohR Motorsports Ford Mustang GT4. He leaves the weekend with the same points lead – 120 over Lazare – that he brought to Mid-Ohio as the VP Racing Challenge reached its midpoint.
“We’re halfway through the championship now,” Lazare said. “We’re a little bit back but we have a whole half to get it done, so I’m excited.”
Jones, meanwhile, completed the perfect race weekend, leading every lap in the pair of P3 races that both ran under green-flag conditions throughout. It marked the second consecutive weekend sweep for the grandson of Parnelli Jones and son of PJ Jones, following his pair of wins at St. Petersburg in March.
But since he missed the opening 2024 round at Daytona International Speedway, Jones sits fourth in the P3 standings, 510 points behind leader Steven Aghakhani, who finished second in both Mid-Ohio races in the No. 6 MLT Motorsports Ligier JS P320.
“It’s awesome to get two wins for the team and for myself, and yeah, make it four-for-four on the year,” Jones said. “All the boys worked so hard. They were here until about midnight last night, (back at) 6:30 this morning just making sure everything’s perfect, and I think that’s the difference. They give me such a good car and then it’s up to me to just stay smooth, navigate through traffic – which seemed to be a lot trickier today for whatever reason. I was getting a little unlucky when I was catching them but I just kept calm.”
Seth Lucas, making his VP Racing Challenge debut this weekend, rounded out the P3 podium by finishing third in the No. 61 Ave Motorsports Ligier.
The series returns to action July 12-14 at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
