RPW Exclusive: RS1 And Turner Sweep In GTWCA At Virginia, Pro-Am Finishes Determined Late Race

Column By: MARTY CZEKALA / RPW – ALTON, VA – When GT World Challenge America made their return to racing this season at Virginia International Raceway, some could consider it “heavenly.”

The doubleheader weekend saw sweeps in its top two classes and the highly competitive Pro-Am class not determined until the checkered flag.

Race 1 Saturday

The way everything was shaping out in Pro after practice was that Random Vandals Racing would be the team to talk about into the weekend. But RS1 wanted to change that, feeling the momentum starting to improve.

Taking the green, Kenton Koch leading the Random Vandals No. 99 had a good start over the RS1 No. 18 driven by Alex Sedgwick.

Follow the driver swap, Jan Heylen in the RS1 Porsche made a big move on Connor De Philippi near the NASCAR Bend with 23 minutes left to take the lead and pull away for RS1’s first win of the year, but for Segwick, his first career win in GTWCA.

“We’ve been on the back foot all season long so it feels really good to be back on the top step,” said Heylen on the broadcast after climbing out of his car.

“It’s a bit of relief,” said Segwick. “We’ve been chasing the whole season, working as hard as we can and it’s starting to come together. Jan did an awesome at the end of the race. Hopefully this is the first of many.”

In Pro-Am, Philip Ellis had a great start for Regulator Racing over Christian Hahn and Justin Rothberg. Ellis and Jeff Burton increased their lead to as big as 25 seconds in class before a full course caution with under an hour to go as Lab Motorsport’s Jean-Frederic Laberge crashed into the tire barriers hard, ending the team’s weekend.

The lead changed following pit stops and the driver stops as Aaron Povoledo took the overall lead for Chouest Povoledo, but there were concerns with his drivetime exceeding 50 minutes in his Corvette for the rest of the race.

While Povoledo continued to lead, Robby Foley for Turner Motorsport made a pass down Madison Avenue for second in class on Heart of Racing’s Darren Turner with 1:30 to go.

Coming to the checkers, Povoledo went down pit road to fix the team’s drivetime error, giving Turner Motorsport’s Robby Foley and Justin Rothberg the win after Rothberg drove the team’s BMW off track early.

“We had a unique scenario with the yellow and everybody pitting early, which was smart and put the field on its end. We restarted towards the back, used the strength of this BMW M4 GT3. Great day towards the championship. You’re trying to pick them off but not take too much risk.”

“I’m still p***ed I made a mistake, but it’s really nice having someone come in and saved my butt,” said Rothberg. “It all worked out in the end.”

Finally in Am, Dollahite Racing retired early due to electrical issues, giving the win to Ozz Negri and Jay Schreibman in the AF Corse USA Ferrari.

Race 2

After qualifying pole for race two Saturday at VIR, Jan Heylen got off to a strong start for RS1 to stretch the gap early. A full course yellow early bunched the field, but Heylen and Alex Sedgwick pulled their Porsche away from the field to sweep the weekend for their first wins of the year.

“We’ve been waiting for this change in momentum and hopefully we can keep this going,” said Heylen in a post-race press release. “I think we still have a good shot at the championship. I’m really looking forward to the next race and hope we can keep this up.”

“It was easier said than done out there,” Sedgwick said. “The car was pretty hot, but Jan did all the hard work and got me a nice lead. It was just my job to keep the car in shape, keep it on the track, and bring it back home in front of everybody.”

Pro-Am saw a lot of issues and close racing. The race’s lone full course yellow was for Jeff Burton crashing his Regulator Racing Mercedes. After that, Archangel Motorsports retired their McLaren after suffering ECU issues.

Up front, it was GMG Racing’s Tom Sargent and Turner Motorsport’s Robby Foley battling for the race lead, with the latter in front. After Foley came to the pits for the stop and swap, Sargent took clean air to his advantage for two laps. Kyle Washington took over for Sargent and was able to get the lead on pit out, but didn’t last long.

Justin Rothberg got back into it to take the lead. It looked like it was gonna be an easy second half for Turner, but more company came into play.

Blake McDonald, running the DXDT Racing Corvette was the fastest Pro-Am driver on track. He eventually passed Washington then set his sights on Rothberg. Many good looks came from McDonald, but great defense and composure Rothberg came to sweep the weekend and extend the points lead for Turner Motorsport in their BMW, as Rothberg gave a great present for his 28th birthday.

“The birthday is up there for sure,” said Foley in a press release. “It was an awesome weekend. Turner Motorsport gave us a great car, the crew had this thing hooked up and we showed that today. Blake put on a really good show trying to get by him, but Justin did a good job to stay in front.”

“Today I gave Robbie a good birthday gift of a clean sweep weekend,” Rothberg said.

In addition, Rothberg won two additional races in GT America, making him four-for-four on the weekend at VIR.

Finally in Am, Eric Powell grabbed the lead for Dollahite Racing early, but their Ford Mustang suffered steering issues all day thanks to opening lap contact. Before pit stops, Ozz Negri in the AF Corse USA Ferrari took the lead before the horseshoe. After pit stops, Scott Dollahite came in and reclaimed the class lead to a big Am win and the first for Eric Powell after making his debut in GT3.

“I am just so excited to be here,” said Powell in victory lane. “There’s so many legends out here and the field is stacked. It’s great to be amongst those guys. Thank you to Scott and the whole team for bringing me on.”

“There was a little incident at the start,” Dollahite said on the contact. “It knocked the steering a little loose, but it’s a tough car! We had a blast out there.”

The series returns to Road America Aug. 14-17.

VIR’s next show is MotoAmerica Superbikes Aug. 1-3.

Race 1 Results

Pro: 1. RS1, 2. Random Vandals Racing (Koch, De Phillippi), 3. JMF Motorsports, 4. Random Vandals Racing (Choksey, Auberlen)

Pro-Am: 1. Turner Motorsport, 2. Heart of Racing Team, 3. DXDT Racing, 4. GMG Racing, 5. CRP Racing, 6. Archangel Motorsports, 7. Regulator Racing, 8. Chouest Povoledo Racing, 9. AF Corse USA (C. Hahn, M. Hahn), 10. LAB Motorsport

Am: 1. AF Corse USA (Schreibman, Negri), 2. Dollahite Racing

Race 2 Results

Pro: 1. RS1, 2. JMF Motorsports, 3. Random Vandals Racing (Koch, De Phillippi), 4. Random Vandals Racing (Choksey, Auberlen)

Pro-Am: 1. Turner Motorsport, 2. DXDT Racing, 3. Heart of Racing Team, 4. Chouest Povoledo Racing, 5. CRP Racing, 6. AF Corse USA (C. Hahn, M. Hahn), 7. GMG Racing, 8. Archangel Motorsports, 9. Regulator Racing

Am: 1. Dollahite Racing, 2. AF Corse USA (Schreibman, Negri)

Note: LAB Motorsport didn’t enter race two due to crash in race one.