derBayerische November/December 2023 - 14

2 0 2 3 M I C H E L I N G T C H A L L E N G E A T V I R
■ (Above from Left) Turner Motorsports #95 and Francis Selldorff lead the VP Racing Series Championship. The corral visit with Turner Motorsports,
Will Turner, Robby Foley, Patrick Gallagher and Don Salama.
Officially the race weekend at
VIR (Virginia International Raceway)
sanctioned by IMSA (International
Motor Sports Association) is known
as the Michelin GT Challenge at VIR.
We have been fortunate to attend a
corral for this race organized by
the BMW CCA's Tarheel and National
Capital Chapters since 2014. See
Paul Seto's sidebar for his thoughts
on the corral.
The IMSA weekend consists of
a selection of races. There are two
races for GT4 cars where the M4 GT4
is a contender. The first is the VP
Racing Sports Car Challenge where
the M4 is in GSX and the second is
the Michelin Pilot Challenge where it
is in GS. The VP Racing series is a
developmental series for drivers
rated by the FIA (Federation
Internationale de l'Automobile) as
silver or bronze only. The series
includes a Bronze Drivers Cup to
acknowledge the best bronze drivers.
Two 45-minute races are included
each weekend. The intention is for
the VP Racing series to support the
Michelin Pilot Challenge which in
turn supports the WeatherTech
Sportscar Championship. Included
in the VP Racing series are LMP3
cars and in the Michelin Pilot
Challenge we have the GT4 cars and
Touring Cars. The GT4 car's specifications
are the same for both series.
For BMW the G82 M4 GT4 is the
newest model and the most prevalent
car of choice. In the VP Racing
series, we have cars from Turner
Motorsports, Stephen Cameron
Racing, Auto Technic Racing and
Split Decision Motorsports. While
in the Michelin Pilot Challenge we
have Turner Motorsports, Random
Vandals Racing, Stephen Cameron
■ (Below from Left) Close action in Turn 4A. Paul Miller Racing M4 GT3.
Racing and Fast Track Racing. For
the Michelin Pilot Challenge there is
one 2.5-hour race during the weekend.
Platinum rated drivers are not
allowed to participate in the Michelin
Pilot Challenge. Drivers can be FIA
rated gold or silver and are paired
with a bronze or even an unrated
driver or a silver can be paired with
another silver. Turner Motorsports is
prominent in both series with
Francis Selldorff leading the driver's
championship and Vin Barletta the
Bronze Cup in the VP Racing series.
In the Michelin Pilot Challenge,
Turner has had success with the
Robby Foley and Vin Barletta pairing
placing in second overall.
Of course, the primary event of
the weekend is the WeatherTech
Sports Car Championship. For this
race (as I've already mentioned) we
will not see the prototypes, just the
GT cars. We have three BMWs to
follow, two M4 GT3s from Turner
and one from Paul Miller Racing.
All three are in GTD with the #1 M4
GT3 from Paul Miller leading the
GTD championship points and Bryan
Sellers & Madison Snow leading the
Drivers' Championship. Turner has
a car for Robby Foley & Patrick
Gallagher and a second for Bill
Auberlen & Chandler Hull.
Race one for the VP Racing
series took place on Saturday morning
while race two happened on
Sunday morning. Race one was a
clean sweep for BMW with Francis
Selldorff winning, Greg Liefooghe
(Stephen Cameron Racing) in
second and Vin Barletta in third.
A great result for Turner. Race two
was taken by Liefooghe with
Selldorff in second. It was a good
points collection for the Turner and
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