Pfaff Motorsports is making a grand exit from the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Series.
Three weeks after announcing a pause for 2027 on its GTD Pro program, the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini Temerario GT3 scored its second consecutive victory.
Andrea Caldarelli and Sandy Mitchell led nearly the entire two-hour, 40-minute race Michelin GT Challenge at Virginia International Raceway. The event marked the only time this season that IMSA would featured only the GT cars.
The GT Cars fought it out at VIR!
— IMSA (@IMSA) August 23, 2026
Here are your unofficial results for the 2026 Michelin GT Challenge! 🏆 pic.twitter.com/SxG859iuXX
Caldarelli started from the pole as the No. 9 led 69 of 84 laps. Pfaff, which also won on Aug. 2 at Road America, has 14 IMSA class wins. It’s the first win at the Alton, Virginia, road course for Lamborghini.
Ford Mustang GT3s took the other two spots on the podium with the No. 64 Ford Mustang GT3 of Dennis Olsen and Ben Barker and the No. 65 of Frederic Vervisch and Christopher Mies.
In the championship battle, the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO increased its lead on the No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R. The No. 9 Lamborghini moved up to third in the points despite the new Temerario program being introduced only five months ago by Lamborghini Squadra Corse.
“We’ve been learning a lot in the last couple of races,” Mitchell said. “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.”
Said Caldarelli: “I’m not saying that we were looking at a championship at Sebring when the Temerario program started. 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.”
In GTD, the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes took the class victory and championship lead as Philip Ellis snatched the lead of the race and standings from the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 EVO driven by Tom Gamble with 7 minutes left. Gamble was penalized for avoidable contact shortly before the final lead change.
“It’s a bit unfortunate it ended like that,” Ellis said. “I would have liked a clean ending without penalties. I was close enough to know (Gamble) was weak braking into Turn 3, 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.”
With the team’s 15th IMSA win and third consecutive this season, Ellis and Russell Ward have rallied from a 300-point deficit two months ago to takea 36-point lead with three races remaining.
Robby Foley and Patrick Gallagher took second in the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO, and Frederik Schandorff and Brendan Iribe were third in the No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 EVO. Gamble and Dudu Barrichello were fourth, falling from first to third in the points.
Results from the 2026 Michelin GT Challenge at VIR
- Results
- Results by class
- Fastest laps by driver
- Fastest laps by driver after race (over the weekend)
- Fastest laps by driver and class after race
- Race distance and average speed
- Fastest lap sequence
- Leader sequence
- Lap chart
- Race analysis by lap
- Stint analysis
- Time cards
- Pit stop time cards
- Best sector times
- Flag analysis with race control messages
- Weather report
