IMSA’s Michelin GT Challenge Gives GTD PRO, GTD Classes the Spotlight
By John Oreovicz
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The closest championship battles in the 2026 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship are playing out in the production-based Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) and Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) classes. And as luck would have it, GTD PRO and GTD take center stage for the next round of the title tilt – the Michelin GT Challenge at VIRginia International Raceway – while the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) and Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) classes enjoy a late summer break.
IMSA fans know that the GT classes often provide the tightest and most entertaining competition in the WeatherTech Championship, and that’s reflected in this year’s points chase after seven of 10 rounds. In GTD PRO, the top five contenders are clustered within 113 points, with the top three separated by just 21 markers. It’s even more tense in GTD, where the top four in the standings are split by only 45 points.
The standalone race for GTD and GTD PRO therefore comes at the perfect time for them to be in the spotlight. And VIR is an ideal showcase. It’s known as one of the toughest and most technical tracks in America, which is why Car and Driver magazine uses VIR’s 4.1-mile Grand Course layout for its annual ‘Lightning Lap’ test to determine the year’s best-handling production or tuner-modified sports car.
IMSA utilizes a layout known as the Full Course, and it packs in 17 corners and plenty of elevation change into its 3.27 miles.
“It’s got a little bit of everything and as a driver, you’ve always got a smile on your face going around that place,” said Ben Barnicoat, whose consecutive midsummer wins with Jack Hawksworth at Watkins Glen International and Canadian Tire Motorsport Park put them and the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 back into championship contention. Hawksworth and Barnicoat won the 2023 GTD PRO championship for Lexus, and enter VIR fifth, 113 points back.
“I have a second- and a third-place finish at VIR, but I haven’t had a win so it would be nice to try to get it done this year,” Barnicoat continued. “Especially in GTD PRO, you’ve got a chance to fight for the overall win. It makes it that extra little bit special. You’re always jealous of the guy who gets to park in Victory Lane and gets the confetti and stuff like that.
“I’ll let you know hopefully pretty soon if it’s nice or not.”
Connor De Phillippi and Neil Verhagen lead the GTD PRO standings in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO by 15 points over Nicky Catsburg and Tommy Milner (No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R).
Both teams have a history of success at VIR; PMR BMWs driven by Madison Snow and Bryan Sellers triumphed in GTD (2023) and GTD PRO (2024), while Corvette Racing’s No. 3 driven by Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims is the defending GTD PRO winner, one of seven wins for Corvette at VIR since 2012.
GTD championship leader Dudu Barrichello (No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 EVO) is a newcomer to IMSA competition, but he drove in a Formula 4 race at VIR in 2018.
The 24-year-old son of ex-Formula 1 star Rubens Barrichello is looking forward to the GT classes having the track to themselves for the only time this season.
“Look, with all due respect to the LMP2 and the GTP drivers, I cannot wait to do that, because sometimes it’s just another variable,” he said. “You cannot control really what the prototype guys are going to do. Of course they are very good drivers, and you always expect them to do good stuff, but I think it’s going to be great to not have them this time.”
Barrichello and his co-drivers haven’t won a race this year yet have stayed at the head of the GTD standings through consistency. However, a post-race time penalty at Road America negated a fifth-place finish on the road (it dropped the No. 27 car to 15th) and opened the door for two-time defending class champions Russell Ward and Philip Ellis in their No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 to make significant inroads.
Ward and Ellis, who’ve won the last two rounds at CTMP and Road America, carved 183 points out of Barrichello’s lead at the last race. They’re now second in points, just 24 points back. Just two races ago at Watkins Glen, they were sixth, and 300 points in arrears. That’s how fast things can change in GTD.
Mercedes-AMG has been good at VIR, too. Ward and Ellis have won at VIR in both 2022 and ’25, while the manufacturer also won in 2024 with Kenton Koch and Mikael Grenier.
Robby Foley and Patrick Gallagher (No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO) are third, 26 points off Barrichello, while Aaron Telitz and Benjamin Pedersen (No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3) are fourth and 45 back.
“I love the standalone race at VIR,” Foley said. “It changes a little bit of the dynamic. We can focus more on our own race, and it’s more about pace, kind of a more traditional sprint race style, where in the multi-class races, there definitely tends to be more full-course yellows and a lot more traffic to deal with and negotiate. That ultimately can change the race, where VIR tends to be a little bit more straightforward. You really have to focus on car pace and a good long-run pace there, because you tend to basically run green to checker.”
Since the formation of the GTD PRO class in 2022, GTD PRO and GTD have used identical cars homologated to the FIA GT3 standard. GTD PRO runners generally enjoy additional factory support, including manufacturer affiliated drivers. In 2022 and ’23, the GTD race winner finished ahead of the GTD PRO winner five times, including twice by the No. 27 Aston Martin.
Beginning in 2025, IMSA split the starting lineups between classes, and also splits and re-orders GTD PRO competitors ahead of GTD runners during full course cautions.
“I think it’s interesting for us in GTD,” said Robert Wickens, who shares the No. 36 DXDT Racing Corvette Z06 GT3.R with Mason Filippi. “It doesn’t change that much since you’re never really leading the race per se because we’re always at the back of the GTD PRO. But the fact that you don’t really have to watch for prototypes, you can just race your competitors and not kind of have the give and take of multi-class, it does change it quite a bit.
“The likelihood of yellows is reduced and it’s just a different beast.”
Practice for the Michelin GT Challenge at VIR starts on Friday, Aug. 21, with the 2-hour, 40-minute race set for Noon ET on Sunday, Aug. 23.