Regulator Racing and P1 Groupe with RENNtech Motorsports Break Through for Maiden Victories with Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing Sunday at VIRginia International Raceway
DANVILLE, Virginia – First-year Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing teams Regulator Racing and P1 Groupe with RENNtech Motorsports each broke through for their first race wins with the Silver Star Sunday at VIRginia International Raceway (VIR). Jeff Burton and Philip Ellis co-drove the No. 91 Regulator Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 to the overall and Pro-Am class win in Sunday’s featured Fanatec GT World Challenge powered by AWS 90-minute race while Alex Vogel and Matt Bell improved an award-winning 23 race positions in the No. 43 P1 Groupe with RENNtech Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 to secure a come-from-behind Pro-Am class victory in the one-hour Pirelli GT4 America race. The victories highlighted a competitive run of six podium finishes across three SRO America racing series for Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing teams this weekend at VIR.
Veteran SRO America “Am” competitor Burton and top-rated Mercedes-AMG Motorsport professional driver Ellis hit it off in their first race together at last year’s Intercontinental GT Challenge Indianapolis 8 Hour. They reunited for a full-season campaign in this year’s Fanatec GT World Challenge Pro-Am division with the new Regulator Racing entity, and both the team and its drivers made headlines since the very first race weekend as the first competitors to fully embrace this year’s new rule opening up race-starting driver selections.
In previous seasons, the professional drivers, like Ellis, in each Pro-Am pairing were required to start each weekend’s Sunday race in addition to filling the second or race-closing driver slot in the opening round of each doubleheader event schedule.
While the majority of the competition has held to the traditional rotation, Regulator has shaken things up with its reverse driver strategy. Ellis starts each weekend’s first race and then steps in as the closer in the final contest, racing against primarily Silver and Bronze Am drivers both days. Burton in turn has honed his skills battling in his race stints against mainly professional drivers.
The strategy has come close to paying off several times this year but clearly worked the best to date at VIR where Burton, showing solid and improved pace, turned some of his most competitive laps of the season. The team finished third in Saturday’s opening race to set the stage for Sunday’s victory.
After a strong opening stint by Burton, Ellis took over and immediately controlled the competition. He moved the No. 91 into first in Pro-Am just minutes into his stint and clearly had the pace to race into the overall lead. The team and drivers didn’t hesitate in going for it, and Ellis passed the winning Pro-class competitor with 11 minutes to go and went on to seal the first overall win for a Pro-Am team in GT World Challenge America this season with a 1.290 seconds margin of victory.
The P1 Groupe with RENNtech Pirelli GT4 win earlier on Sunday saw a similar charge to the front by Vogel and Bell. Rebounding from a disastrous weekend up to that point – the No. 43 twice returned to the paddock on the back of a wrecker and Vogel didn’t have a chance to qualify Saturday due to car damage – it all came together for the P1 Groupe and RENNtech team and drivers in Sunday’s final 60-minute race.
Starting from the back but staying out of trouble in his race-opening stint, Vogel passed several cars while keeping the No. 43 clean and avoiding the numerous contact and off-course incidents that sidelined many competitors. Bell took over at halfway and soon worked his way into the Pro-Am top five.
The final run to the front came after a late restart with just six minutes remaining, and Bell passed four competitors in the span of just over two laps to seal the first win for he and Vogel and the P1 Groupe operation.
Both winners were presented with the EBOOST Super Fuel Hard Charger Award for improving the most positions in their respective races. In addition to Vogel and Bell passing 23 cars, Burton and Ellis earned the honor for advancing five positions in the GT World Challenge race.
All three competing Mercedes-AMG GT4 teams at VIR reached the podium at some point in the weekend’s Pirelli GT4 races. In addition to P1 Groupe’s win, Michael Auriemma and co-driver Matheus Leist finished second in Pro-Am Saturday in the No. 89 RENNtech Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT4. In the same race, Jake Cowden drove solo to a third-place Silver-class finish in the No. 34 JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT4. Cowden was permitted to drive solo in this weekend’s race after his teammate Demi Chalkias was sidelined due to an illness.
The VIR weekend’s other podium player was GT America powered by AWS championship contender Jason Daskalos who recovered from an early incident, due to a technical malfunction, which sidelined him in Saturday’s race for a third-place finish Sunday in the No. 27 CRP Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3.
Next up for Mercedes-AMG Motorsport customer teams in SRO America competition is an all-series weekend at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, August 16 – 18.
Jeff Burton, Driver – No. 91 Regulator Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3: “It is nice that something finally worked out for us. Philip took the Pro-Am lead, but we wanted to go for it all and get the overall win too. It has been a lot of work, but it is just so much fun to race with a guy like Philip out there, who is just unbelievable, and with the relationship we have built. What a great teacher he is. He can really help somebody like me, an ‘Am’ driver. There are really just no words to say how cool this is.”
Philip Ellis, Driver – No. 91 Regulator Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3: “This is perfect. This is the opportunity we have all been waiting for with our reverse-driver strategy. It didn’t quite work out in the first race, but on Sunday it was actually quite perfect. It was really a fun race, and Jeff did a great job as well. We have been working hard to get us together on pace. We struggled a bit in our first race at Sonoma but since then it has just been an uphill trend, and it shows. We didn’t hesitate to go for the overall win and never would.”
Jason Daskalos, Driver – No. 27 CRP Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3: “We had a left-rear ABS wheel sensor issue on Saturday at the start of the race and went sliding into a tire barrier at 100 mph. The crew guys were literally up all night, they didn’t get back until almost 4 a.m., but these CRP guys are amazing. We got back on track today and built back some of our championship cushion. It was down to two points after Saturday, we got it back to eight with Sunday’s finish, but we have built the lead to 15 points before, and we will do it again. That’s what we are going to do.
Alex Vogel, Driver – No. 43 P1 Groupe by RENNtech Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT4: “We made the RENNtech guys’ jobs really hard. Saturday was a fiasco, and they had to do a lot of work to get it back. They did an amazing job. Matt told me to just shake Saturday off, stick with these guys and do what the car will do, and what you know how to do, and as the race went on, I started to build confidence. It was great. Everything went as good as it could go.”
Matt Bell, Driver – No. 43 P1 Groupe by RENNtech Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT4: “Alex did an awesome job, particularly after one of my mistakes in qualifying that kept him from qualifying, and we had to start in the back. Alex just followed some other fast guys around that were also back there, and he did a great job keeping the tires clean. When I got in, the car still felt super fresh. The predictability and the endurance in the Mercedes-AMG GT4 are really its strong points. The platform is amazing. We have pieced this thing back together all weekend, and it is as strong as a tank. It has been a while since I felt like a race car driver. My last professional start since this season was in 2017, but I just did a lot of driver coaching and met a lot of amazing people along the way. If you are not in there doing this stuff regularly in competition, your competitive edge does fade, it softens, but these guys have given me the opportunity this year and given me a good enough car that I can gain some of that confidence back.”
Michael Auriemma, Driver – No. 89 RENNtech Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT4: “The RENNtech Mercedes-AMG GT4 was running really well this weekend. Matheus and I both had really good lap times, good competitive times. It was good to be back up on the podium.”
Matheus Leist, Driver – No. 89 RENNtech Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT4: “All in all, a very good weekend. We put in on pole, Michael was second in his qualifying and his pace overall was amazing. The Mercedes-AMG GT4 was very good, we had a lot of pace, and felt like we could fight for the lead.”
Jake Cowden, Driver – No. 34 JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT4: “It was an awesome race Saturday, but I really missed my teammate Demi out there. We hope she gets better soon. Our Mercedes-AMG GT4 was feeling great. I burned off the tires a little bit early on, trying to keep up with the leader, but through the heat we held it together and brought it home in P3. This was a huge confidence booster. Thank you so much to John Farrow and the entire JMF Motorsports team.”
