Lamborghini Factory Drivers Move Within Striking Distance of GTD PRO Title with Two Races Remaining
By John Oreovicz and Tony DiZinno
ALTON, Va. – The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s newest car is suddenly its hottest.
Andrea Caldarelli and Sandy Mitchell drove the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini Temerario GT3 to their second consecutive WeatherTech Championship Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) class win of the season, Sunday in the Michelin GT Challenge at VIRginia International Raceway.
They triumphed by 1.517 seconds over Ben Barker and Dennis Olsen in the No. 64 Ford Racing Ford Mustang GT3 in the 2-hour, 40-minute race run exclusively for IMSA’s production-based GTD and GTD PRO classes. Frederic Vervisch and Christopher Mies completed a solid weekend for Ford Racing by taking third place, a distant 39.039 seconds back.
Lamborghini Squadra Corse selected Pfaff to prepare the new-for-2026 Temerario for its worldwide sports car racing debut in March at IMSA’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. After working through a few development issues, Mitchell and Caldarelli took a somewhat fortuitous podium finish at the Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic in late May.
Since then, Pfaff and Lamborghini factory drivers Caldarelli and Mitchell continued to hone the Temerario’s drivability and setup, and they broke through for a deserved win in early August at the Motul SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix at Road America. Their victory at VIR – where Caldarelli achieved the Motul Pole Award as fastest qualifier on Saturday and the No. 9 Lamborghini essentially led Sunday’s race from start to finish – was even more convincing.
“I think everything went really well,” Mitchell said after his second career IMSA race win. “The track seems to suit the strengths of our car, a little bit like Laguna Seca as well. Just from the start of the weekend, we had a good car.
“We’ve been learning a lot in the last couple of races. Obviously, we had a really good race at Road America. And I think we carried that momentum into Free Practice 1 here and were on the pace straight away. That allowed us to focus on all the other things that are important like pit stops and in- and out-laps and focus on how to win a race, not just how to be fast.”
The back-to-back victories for the Pfaff duo have brought them into contention for the GTD PRO class championship. Neil Verhagen and Connor De Phillippi (No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO) finished fifth at VIR and continue to lead the standings by 23 points over Tommy Milner and Nicky Catsburg (No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R), who placed seventh on Sunday. Mitchell and Caldarelli are now third, 56 points back, while the second place run for Barker and Olsen lifted them into a tie for fourth (with AO Racing’s No. 77 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)) with a 77-point deficit.
“I’m not saying that we were looking at a championship at Sebring when the Temerario program started,” said Caldarelli. “But I think we stayed positive because in IMSA, if you can execute a good weekend, you can never say never. Obviously, now we are here in this situation.
“But I always said it’s our job to go out and try to win every race,” he added. “That’s what we really did the last few months. We know it’s a new car, so it feels good to know we are in a fight for the championship.”
The race featured only one full-course caution, for a single-car accident involving Alexander Sims in the No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R on the opening lap. Sims was unhurt.
Winward Mercedes Rallies to Dramatic Third Straight IMSA GTD Win
The last hour of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) race absolutely came alive at the Michelin GT Challenge at VIRginia International Raceway, as Winward Racing reascended to the throne.
The pairing of Russell Ward and Philip Ellis started third in their No. 57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 and ran in podium contention for most of the race but weren’t quite in win contention until the final round of pit stops. And then the final 58 minutes of the two-hour, 40-minute race happened.
Initially, it appeared as though Lamborghini had a chance to sweep both categories, as the No. 45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 of Danny Formal and Trent Hindman led a majority of the race – a total of 37 of 84 laps.
Formal, Tom Gamble in the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo and Ellis all pitted with 58 minutes to go. Formal left the pits just ahead of Gamble, with Ellis marginally behind at Pit Out. While the stops for Formal and Gamble were north of 61 seconds, the Winward crew had given Ellis a shot with a stop just over 58 seconds – three seconds quicker than the two in front of them.
That opened up the battle on track. Into Turn 14 in a battle for second, Formal was judged to have moved in reaction and not left sufficient racing room when attempting to defend against Ellis. That netted him a drive-through and moved him from second to sixth in GTD.
But that single moment set up a battle for both the win and the GTD championship lead inside the final 25 minutes.
Ellis, then chasing Gamble down, sat less than half a second behind on track and just 44 points behind him in the points battle. If Ellis got ahead, he’d leapfrog Gamble’s teammate Eduardo “Dudu” Barrichello by 16 points.
The battle suddenly became intertwined with the GTD PRO championship bout at the same time, as Gamble and Ellis approached Connor De Phillippi’s No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO and Tommy Milner’s No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R, who were battling for position but not the race victory.
A pivotal move by Gamble past Milner netted him some track position ahead of Ellis, who made one attempt on Gamble for the lead with 18 minutes to go but was unable to complete the pass.
Then the final crescendo occurred, as Ellis made the winning dive pass on Gamble inside of Turn 3 with seven minutes remaining.
Gamble attempted to get the position back by darting to Ellis’ inside into Turn 4, the next left-handed turn. But as Gamble was unable to make the corner successfully, he ran wide and tracked out, contacting Ellis through the corner. Gamble was assessed a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility.
Ellis brought the car home by 6.413 seconds over Robby Foley and Patrick Gallagher, who finished second in the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO.
Frederik Schandorff and Brendan Iribe took advantage of the fracas to finish third in the No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 EVO. Iribe unofficially moves back to the lead in the Bob Akin Award standings with this result as well.
The two penalized GTD entries, Gamble and Barrichello in the No. 27 Aston Martin and Formal and Trent Hindman in the No. 45 Lamborghini, finished fourth and fifth.
Ellis walked through the pair of pivotal moments in the Winward pair’s third straight win.
“To be honest, didn’t really think we could catch (the 27),” Ellis explained. “They looked extremely strong in practice and were good on tires. Once we cleared the Lamborghini – or he cleared himself – we tried to hunt him down. I’m not sure if (the No. 27) didn’t have the Paul Miller BMW in front of him if it would have worked out.
“I bided my time, tried into Turn 3, overcooked it myself, and then I was still on the outside. It’s a bit unfortunate it ended like that. I would have liked a clean ending without penalties.
“I was close enough to know he was weak braking into Turn 3,” Ellis continued, “so I took my chance, went up the inside. I overcooked it enough for the undercut. I was far enough next to him to be outside for 4, then be in position for 5 and 6. I don’t think it was intentional by Tom by any means. He just was struggling on the brakes. No bad intentions.”
Ward was careful to be too confident now moving ahead, after being 300 points behind the lead just three races ago.
“It’s just a swing in luck,” he said. “It’s really tight in the points. There’s still a lot of fight left. I don’t want to comment too much about it.”
Gallagher and Foley are second in points, 36 behind, still absent a win but with a third podium of the year.
“The most blue-collar second place you can get,” Gallagher said.
“We probably weren’t the fastest car. We definitely weren’t the second fastest car either, but the guys and girls at Turner Motorsport do such a great job at just getting and maximizing everything we can.”
Barrichello, who watched as Gamble ended fourth, felt unfulfilled despite a run from 11th on the grid to as high as second in stint.
“It was good fun, but we didn’t complete the job, and we haven’t completed the job,” said the Brazilian rookie who now sits third in points, 56 back.
Barrichello does have IMSA experience at the penultimate round of the season, which is the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The two-hour, 40-minute race is Sunday, Sept. 20.