Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA
Jaguar Jones carried his strong form in the VP Racing Sports Car Challenge LMP3 class over to Virginia International Raceway. The 22-year-old grandson of motorsports legend Parnelli Jones won his sixth of seven starts in Saturday's 45-minute race, which was part of the Michelin GT Challenge at VIR weekend.
Jones' No. 87 FastMD Racing with Remstar Duqueine D08 Nissan escaped uninjured after a mid-race collision that sent both GSX competitors spinning. That near miss allowed P3 championship leader Steven Agahani (in his No. 6 MLT Motorsports Ligier JS P320 Nissan) to briefly challenge Jones for the lead while weaving his way through lapped GSX traffic.
But Jones recovered from the crisis to re-open a 1.5-second lead over Agahani 20 minutes into the competition.
With a comfortable lead in the championship, Agahani slowed his pace in the closing stages and finished 4.551 seconds behind Jones. Miguel Villagomez took third place in the No. 23 Escuderia Abro Ligier to claim Bronze Cup Driver honors.
Agahani leads the P3 standings by 560 points over Brian Tiennes (No. 77 Forte Racing Ligier), who finished fifth on Saturday. Jones is 570 points back of the leader, and that gap is due to him sitting out the championship's opening two races at Daytona International Speedway.
Luca Mars may have been disappointed that the nine-second lead he had over GSX in the first 10 minutes of Saturday's race was negated by a short full-course caution.
Instead, Mars got back to work, as he pushed his No. 59 KohR Motorsports Ford Mustang GT4 to within 45 seconds of the GSX field and, thanks to timing at the finish, beat Marc Brummond (No. 25 Auto Technik Racing BMW M4 GT4) by one lap to claim GSX Bronze Cup driver honors.
Mars entered the weekend 190 points ahead of Jesse Lazard in the GSX standings. Lazard crashed his No. 21 Motorsports in Action McLaren Artura GT4 during Friday practice and sat out Saturday's race, but the win nearly tripled the 18-year-old Pennsylvania native's points lead.
Mars currently has a 520-point lead over Patrick Wilmot, who finished third on Saturday in the No. 88 Split Decision Motorsports BMW, with Lazare trailing by 540 points.
Sunday's race will begin at 8:40 a.m. ET and will be streamed live in the U.S. on Peacock, and internationally on IMSA.tv and YouTube.com/IMSAOfficial.
Results: Race 1
