A Near-Miss on Sunday Prevented a Weekend Sweep in the No. 12 Beacon Building/Daxxon Gray Motorsports Lamborghini Huracan
ELKHART LAKE, Wisconsin (August 6, 2023) – Valkyrie Velocity’s Dominic Starkweather earned a belated first career IMSA victory on Saturday and experienced the heartbreak of a narrow miss on Sunday in Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America action at Road America.
Starkweather’s No. 12 Beacon Building Products/Hardpoint/Daxxon Gray Motorsports Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2 crossed the finish line in second place of the Am class during Saturday’s race, but as elevated to the win on Sunday morning after the car he was chasing was deemed to have improperly completed the mandatory pit stop.
On Sunday, Starkweather started third overall and on the pole for the Am class and led handily for the first 46 minutes of the 50-minute race. On a very late restart with under four minutes to go, Starkweather had contact with an LB Cup-class competitor who was a lap down but restarting near the front of the field. That subsequent spin left Starkweather just off the podium and with a fourth-place finish.
Valkyrie Velocity Pre-Race News and Notes
- Saturday’s race continued to improve overnight for Starkweather, who was elevated to the win after the No. 69 Lamborghini Huracan who crossed the line ahead of him originally was assessed a time penalty. The 44-second penalty was officially for failing to serve a drive through penalty after entering a closed pit, but came because the rival car had not made it to pit lane prior to the caution coming out and the pits closing.
- The Valkyrie Velocity team made their mandatory pitstop with Starkweather two laps after the second full course caution of the race. Both cars ahead of Starkweather at the time tried to dive to pitlane soon after, but the third full course caution had already been displayed. That left both with a penalty, dropping them down the final results.
- Starkweather had already moved from third, where he ran prior to the first pit stop, to second on the race track. He was closing on the race leader on the final lap, but time expired before he could make the pass on the track.
- The 21-year-old happily celebrated with his crew on the podium with his second IMSA trophy, following a third in the season-opening weekend at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. Sunday morning’s first-place trophy was a pleasant surprise.
- Sunday’s race was even more impressive. He had earned the class pole in qualifying two and was starting third overall, behind only two Pro-class cars. From there, he led a significant portion of the race before the last lap incident.
- Starkweather, along with his coach and Watkins Glen co-driver Tyler Cooke, sent the Valkyrie Velocity crew home to the Hardpoint shop just outside the gates of Virginia International Raceway with some setup homework prior to Road America. The team responded, and the car came to life at Road America. Both expect that momentum to continue into the next doubleheader at VIR, later in August.
- That doubleheader, August 25-27, is the home race for the Valkyrie Velocity race platform. The team utilizes Hardpoint crew members and the team’s shop, based in the motorsports technology park at team owner Rob Ferriol’s home track.
Valkyrie Velocity Quote Board
Dominic Starkweather Driver, No. 12 Lamborghini Huracan: “Saturday was a weird race, with the cautions and restarts, but we fought the whole way. We executed well, nailed our pit strategy, followed the procedures and it came together for us as it should. I was content with second place but knew we had more and to hear that we got it at the end was great. Today was a bittersweet moment and more on the bitter side. We ran up front overall, executed again flawlessly on pit road. The last restart, turn three, a couple of cars came together and I fell victim to it. We could focus on the negatives but there were a lot of positives to take away this weekend. We found so much in the car, I found a lot in my driving, and we’ll build on that moving forward.
“I said it yesterday, this Valkyrie Velocity team has one of the hardest working crews I’ve seen. It’s all love from me. We couldn’t have done what we did this weekend without Zach Henson, Dre Joyner and all of the guys on the car. They had a lot of work to do at the shop, and they did it and it showed this weekend.”
