Steven Aghakhani Scores Daytona VP Racing Challenge Sweep

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – MLT Motorsports’ Steven Aghakhani took the lead away from Cody Ware with 10 minutes to go Sunday (Jan. 21) and held on late to score the IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge weekend sweep at Daytona. It marks two wins in as many races.

Aghakhani’s margin of victory was 4.036 seconds over FastMD Racing’s Marco Kacic. Escuderia ABRO’s Miguel Villagomez was third, then US RaceTronics’ Brian Thienes and Mirco Schultis.

By virtue of the fastest lap on Saturday, Aghakhani started from pole and opened up a small gap. Meanwhile, Ware bombed his No. 51 into West Bend too quickly with cold tires and cold brakes.

The move allowed Ware to move up from fifth to second. Thienes then ran into the side of Ware’s car and spun himself out. Thienes was able to continue, but lost a lot of ground.

Ware was determined to be responsible for the incident. However, instead of a pass-through penalty, he was accessed a 10-second penalty that would be added to his race time at the end of the event. The argument here is that Ware didn’t cause the spin, but Ware placing his car in the fashion that he did contributed to the incident happening.

Ware was every bit as quick as Aghakhani and held on Aghakhani’s tail until they encountered slower GSX traffic. 20 minutes into the race, Ware made the move entering West Bend to take the lead.

At this point, Ware was already aware of the penalty against him, so the goal for the remainder of the race was to try to open up a 10-second lead on Aghakhani.

Much like how Ware got the lead, lapped traffic came into play once again. Ware got held up by Angus Rogers and Jim Jonsin exiting the International Horseshoe. That allowed Aghakhani to get a run. The two drivers split Rogers, but Ware was balked by Jonsin entering the Kink, which allowed Aghakhani to get the lead back with 10 minutes to go.

Shortly afterwards, Performance Tech Motorsports’ Alex Kirby went too hot into the Le Mans chicane and spun into the grass. He was then unable to get restarted, forcing IMSA to put out the full course yellow.

There was only time for a one-lap shootout once the incident was cleared. Aghakhani was able to get a good jump over Ware and pulled away to clinch the weekend sweep. Ware ended up finishing second on the road, seven-tenths of a second behind Aghakhani.

Due to the penalty, Ware ended up being classified eighth, the last driver on the lead lap. Afterwards, Ware was clearly…