2021 GT Challenge at VIR

International Motor Sports Association's (IMSA) president John Doonan confirmed the race was part of the schedule for the 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship (IMSA SCC) in September 2020. It was the eighth consecutive year it was part of the IMSA SCC.^[1] The 2021 Michelin GT Challenge at VIR was the eleventh of twelve sports car races of 2021 by IMSA, and it was the eighth round held as part of the WeatherTech Sprint Cup.^[2] The race was held at the seventeen-turn 3.270 mi (5.263 km) Virginia International Raceway in Alton, Virginia. As in previous years, the event was also the second GT-only round of the IMSA SportsCar Championship season, in which only the GTLM and GTD classes were scheduled to compete.^[3]

Originally scheduled to run on August 22, 2021, the race was set to clash with the 24 Hours of Le Mans after the event was postponed from its original date in June to August.^[4] As a result, IMSA rescheduled the event to October 9, 2021, and moved Petit Le Mans to November 13, 2021.^[3][5]

On September 30, 2021, IMSA released the latest technical bulletin outlining Balance of Performance for the event.^[6] In GTD, the Lexus RC F GT3 received a 10 kilogram weight break. No changes were made in GTLM.

Before the race, Antonio García and Jordan Taylor led the GTLM Drivers' Championship with 2917 points, 160 points ahead of Tommy Milner and Nick Tandy followed by Cooper MacNeil in third.^[7] With 2570 points, the GTD Drivers' Championship was led by Zacharie Robichon and Laurens Vanthoor, ahead of Madison Snow and Bryan Sellers.^[7] Chevrolet and Porsche were leading their respective Manufacturers' Championships, while Corvette Racing and Pfaff Motorsports each led their own Teams' Championships.^[7]

A total of 18 cars took part in the event, split across 2 classes. 3 cars were entered in GTLM, and 15 in GTD.^[8] In GTLM, Kévin Estre would be joining Cooper MacNeil in the #79 WeatherTech Racing entry. GTD saw various changes after the previous round, as Alegra Motorsports would return after skipping the previous 3 rounds.^[9] Gilbert Korthoff Motorsports also returned for the first time since the Road America race with Mike Skeen partnering Guy Cosmo.^[10] Compass Racing withdrew from the event in order to focus on the Indianapolis 8 Hours.^[11] Mario Farnbacher subbed for Marc Miller, who was injured, in the Gradient Racing #66.^[12]

There were two practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Saturday, both on Friday. The first session lasted one hour on Friday morning while the second session on Friday afternoon lasted 75 minutes.^[13]

The first practice session took place at 8:00 am ET on Friday and ended with Kévin Estre topping the charts for WeatherTech Racing, with a lap time of 1:41.124, ahead of Nick Tandy in the No. 4 Corvette.^[14] The GTD class was topped by the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 of Bill Auberlen with a time of 1:44.391. Franck Perera in the No. 19 Lamborghini was second fastest followed by Ross Gunn in the No. 23 Aston Martin.^[15]

The second and final practice session took place at 11:55 am ET on Friday and ended with Kévin Estre topping the charts for WeatherTech Racing, with a lap time of 1:41.124. Tommy Milner's No. 4 Corvette was second fastest followed by Jordan Taylor in the No. 3 Corvette.^[18] The GTD class was topped by the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 of Jack Hawksworth with a time of 1:44.407, ahead of Ross Gunn in the No. 23 Aston Martin.^[19]

Qualifying was broken into two sessions.^[13] The first was for cars in the GTD class. Robby Foley qualified on pole for the class driving the No. 96 car for Turner Motorsport, beating Madison Snow in the No. 1 Lamborghini by 0.236 seconds. Trent Hindman was third in the No. 16 Wright Motorsports Porsche followed by Roman De Angelis in the No. 23 Aston Martin.^[22]

The final session of qualifying was for the GTLM and GTD classes. Tommy Milner qualified on pole in GTLM driving the No. 4 car for Corvette Racing, besting teammate Jordan Taylor in the sister No. 3 Corvette Racing entry by less than 0.010 seconds.^[23] Cooper MacNeil in the No. 79 Porsche rounded out the GTLM field.^[24] Ross Gunn set the fastest time in the GTD points paying session driving the No. 23 car for Heart of Racing Team and earned 35 championship points. Gunn was 0.141 seconds clear of teammate Alex Riberas in the sister No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin.^[23] Jack Hawksworth was third in the No. 14 Lexus followed by Bryan Sellers in the No. 1 Lamborghini.^[24]

Pole positions in each class are indicated in bold and by ‡.

Pos.	Class	No.	Team	Driver	Time	Gap	Grid
1	GTLM	4	Corvette Racing	Tommy Milner	1:40.263	_	1‡
2	GTLM	3	Corvette Racing	Jordan Taylor	1:40.266	+0.003	2
3	GTLM	79	WeatherTech Racing	Cooper MacNeil	1:41.445	+1.182	3
4	GTD	96	Turner Motorsport	Robby Foley	1:43.809	+3.546	4‡
5	GTD	1	Paul Miller Racing	Madison Snow	1:44.045	+3.782	5
6	GTD	16	Wright Motorsports	Trent Hindman	1:44.145	+3.882	171
7	GTD	23	Heart Of Racing Team	Roman De Angelis	1:44.161	+3.898	6
8	GTD	39	CarBahn Motorsports with Peregrine Racing	Richard Heistand	1:44.230	+3.967	7
9	GTD	14	Vasser Sullivan Racing	Aaron Telitz	1:44.358	+4.095	8
10	GTD	9	Pfaff Motorsports	Zacharie Robichon	1:44.423	+4.160	162
11	GTD	12	Vasser Sullivan Racing	Frankie Montecalvo	1:44.447	+4.184	9
12	GTD	28	Alegra Motorsports	Michael de Quesada	1:44.712	+4.449	10
13	GTD	32	Gilbert Korthoff Motorsports	Guy Cosmo	1:44.790	+4.527	11
14	GTD	27	Heart Of Racing Team	Ian James	1:45.274	+5.011	183
15	GTD	66	Gradient Racing	Till Bechtolsheimer	1:45.662	+5.399	12
16	GTD	19	GRT Grasser Racing Team	Misha Goikhberg	1:45.699	+5.436	13
17	GTD	88	Team Hardpoint	Rob Ferriol	1:46.416	+6.153	14
18	GTD	44	Magnus Racing with Archangel Motorsports	John Potter	1:46.959	+6.696	15
Sources:[25][26][27]

• ¹ The No. 16 Wright Motorsports entry was moved to the rear of the GTD classification for violating competition rules regarding the car's ride height.^[28]
• ² The No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports entry was moved to the back of the GTD classification as per Article 40.2.9. of the Sporting regulations (car was touched by the crew during qualifying without permission by the officials).^[29]
• ³ The No. 27 Heart of Racing Team entry was moved to the back of the GTD classification for violating competition rules regarding the car's rear wing.^[30] Additionally, the team elected to change tires after qualifying.