Despite the picture postcard surroundings of the Virginia International Raceway, the penultimate round of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Series turned into something of a nightmare for the GS Championship contending Volt Racing Aston Martin Racing team.

Going into the VIR round off the back of a fourth placed finish last time out at Road America in early August, drivers Alan Brynjolfsson and Trent Hindman travelled to VIR in the knowledge that a decent points finish at the end of that two hours of racing possibly being enough for them to secure the GS Championship.

Going into Qualifying on Saturday with air and track temperatures again rising against a backdrop of increasing humidity too, a late red flag during the session blighted the final run of Brynjolfsson leaving him with a third row start but importantly still ahead of the #56 Murillo Racing Mercedes shared with championship rival Eric Foss.

A clean start at the end of the field saw Brynjolfsson maintain his position whilst the #56 Mercedes was quickly ‘in the wars’ with a rear end impact into the car in front resulting in front end damage for them and that would hinder their progress throughout the remaining one hour and fifty-three minutes of racing.

Whilst this played into the favour of the #7 crew, Brynjolfsson was unable to progress to car beyond seventh, some six seconds behind the leader as they approached their minimum drive time of forty minutes. As others pitted at the first availability, the #7 continued for another lap before it was seen slowing along the pit straight before stopping on the exit of turn 1. Bringing out the first FCY in the process, the #7 car was eventually recovered to the rear of the paddock where it was met by the team before being pushed along pit lane for fuel, tyres and a driver change. The exact reason for the unplanned stop remains unclear.

Whilst Hindman did get back on track, they were already four laps down, so it became an exercise in damage limitation for the team to be able to go into the final round of the season at Petit Le Mans with the most points possible.

Eventually finishing P28 overall and P18 in class, the #56 car only finished six places ahead of them in class in P18 overall and P12 in class all making for a final round showdown at Road Atlanta in five weeks’ time.

Photo Credits – Team / Jamey Price

The opening news from race weekend was that of Pat Gallagher standing in for an absent Manny Franco aboard their #12 Corsa Horizon car, with Gallagher then placing that car highest of the three Aston’s after Qualifying in forth – reminiscent of his GT4 days with the RS1 Notlad Racing Aston Martin GT4 with Steven McAleer!! Alan Brynjolfsson then placed his #7 car a disappointing for him P11 whilst Ramin Abdolvahabi Qualified P24 in GS with his #09 Aston Martin.

Another fast and furious rolling start form Watkins Glen with a circuit that simply encouraged speed through its sweeping opening set of corners but with high track temperatures, that was always to come at a price.

Small early gains from the #7 and #09 cars were soon cancelled out by the first FCY after the #21 Toyota impacted heavily into the barrier having been battling the #09 of Abdolvahabi just moments before with that car electing to take service at the re-opening of the pits whilst the #21 and #7 passed the pit entry by on a strategic decision for both.

At the restart, a determined Brynjolfsson passed Gallagher for position, but it quickly became apparent that the #12 car was in trouble with what appeared to be another nearside puncture. Getting the car back to the pits, that would be the last we would see of the #12 car as that, and other engine related issues forced the Gallagher/Josh Hurley driven car into retirement.

Moments later, the #7 car would also get a nearside front puncture (about the fourth of fifth of the race so far) with still another quarter of an hour to go to the midway points of the two-hour race and which would cost the Volt crew the lead lap in limping back for repairs.

Luckily for them, the FCY’s just kept coming as debris and stranded vehicles forced race control to neutralise the race and allowing the #7 car to get the wave around back onto the lead lap. The #09 car meanwhile had found itself up in the top ten thanks to the sequence of the caution periods although that wasn’t their true running position at the time.

The end of the fourth FCY left just twenty minutes remaining for Trent Hindman to catch and pass the GS car ahead of him if he wanted a podium finish from his then P13 position on track. As the laps counted down, his position on track improved by time this time was not to be their friend as they crossed the line down in P6 overall at the end.

Not the finish or indeed the race they had hoped for but a decent points finish non the less having been leading the GS class coming into the event. The #09 Stoner Car Care car of Abdolvahabi and Rob Ecklin would finish P21 overall at the end, thanks in part to an intermittent power steering issue adding to further discomfort for the drivers inside an already hot cabin.

Their next round will be a relatively short trip north and across the Canadian border as IMSA revisits the Canadi an Tyre Motorsport Park for the first time since lockdown in 2019.

That’s another day – another race!!

Photo credits – Teams