Motorsport News

GEBHARDT Claims VP Racing Challenge 1-2 at Daytona

Valentino Catalano slows for the International Horseshoe during IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge Race No. 2 at Daytona International Speedway, 1/19/2025 (Photo: Phil Allaway)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — GEBHARDT Interlogistics Motorsports’ Valentino Catalano overcame an off-course excursion to take his second straight IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge victory Sunday (Jan. 19) at Daytona International Speedway. Of the 47 laps of racing this weekend in the series, Catalano led all but one of them.

“It was good. I was really happy with my car,” Catalano told Frontstretch after the race. “The situation was really tricky. It was wet in the beginning. The grip was there, then the track dried up. With the new rain tires, the grip was going down and down all the time [which] made the track worse and worse.”

Catalano won by 2.273 seconds over teammate Markus Pommer. MLT Motorsports’ Jonathan Woolridge was third, then Forte Racing’s Brian Thienes and Jon Hirshberg.

The start of the race was delayed by a few minutes due to heavy rains that resulted in the previous IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship session getting cutoff early. By virtue of the fastest second-best lap in qualifying Saturday morning, Catalano once again started on pole.

LMP3 cars are historically tricky in the wet. They do not have an anti-lock braking system and a much more rudimentary version of traction control as compared to the GTDX and GSX cars.

Catalano led until he slid off the track in the International Horseshoe. He later explained that this was the moment where the grip started to go away.

That gave the lead to Pommer. However, Pommer locked up his brakes at turn 6 and slid off, giving Catalano the lead back. While Pommer did not slide into the tires, he had to back up in order to continue. As a result, he ended up falling back to fifth overall.

Shortly afterwards, MishuMotors’ Mirco Schultis slid off-course and hit the tires in the International Horseshoe to bring out a full course yellow. Schultis was ok, but done for the day.

In GTDX, AF Corse’s AJ Muss started from pole in his Ferrari. Adam Adelson, who dominated the class in Race No. 1 Saturday afternoon, was alongside and giving chase. The two drivers dueled hard on the first lap before Adelson swept past in the Le Mans chicane and trapped Muss behind Mirco Schultis’ LMP3 car.

On the third lap of the race, Muss spun out in turn 1, dropping him well down the order. The incident dropped him well down the order.

GMG Racing’s Kyle Washington inherited second, but was quite a distance behind Adelson. When the caution came out for Schultis’ crash,…

Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at …