FOURTH PLACE FINISHES IN GS AND GTD
ALTON, V.A. (August 24, 2025) –Jake Walker delivered a dominant performance at VIRginia International Raceway, winning all three races for Turner Motorsport over the weekend. Vin Barletta earned his first GTDX podium of the season, while both the GS pairing of Francis Selldorff and Dillon Machavern and GTD duo of Robby Foley and Patrick Gallagher secured strong fourth-place finishes.
The weekend featured three races for VP Racing SportsCar Challenge – its usual two, plus a make-up race for the one postponed due to weather at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in July. Coming off a win at CTMP, Walker picked up right where he left off, putting his No. 6 BMW M4 GT3 on pole and managing traffic well to win by over 7.5 seconds. Barletta claimed second in Bronze Cup in his No. 95 BMW M4 GT3.
Walker repeated his performance in race two, again starting from pole and winning with a gap of over four seconds. Barletta improved to third in class and took the top step of the Bronze Cup podium.
The third and final race – serving as the CTMP make-up – capped off a perfect weekend for Walker. The 19-year-old battled twice with the championship leader but made the challenging passes, and never looked back, winning the final 45-minute race by over seven seconds. Barletta added another second-place Bronze Cup finish to close out his weekend.
“It felt great,” said Walker. “We made some adjustments after practice and throughout the weekend to deal with changing track conditions, but Turner Motorsport and BMW gave me a fantastic car. The competition was strong, and I’m excited for the final two races at Road Atlanta.”
In Michelin Pilot Challenge, smart strategy allowed the No. 95 BMW M4 GT4 EVO to gain early track position. Machavern pitted just before the first caution of the Virginia is for Lovers 120, and after starting 10th in class, he moved into the lead by the end of his stint Selldorff took over and fought to maintain the lead, but a late caution bunched up the field, and made it a challenging sprint to the checkered. The duo ultimately finished with a solid fourth. The No. 96 of Foley and Barletta gained nine positions to finish seventh.
“Once again, Francis showed he’s got the pace,” said team owner Will Turner. “This is only his second season in GS, and he continues to impress. Unfortunately, the yellow at the end let some experienced, championship-winning drivers put the pressure on and catch him.”
“Everyone at Turner Motorsport did a perfect job to give me the car in the lead,” said Selldorff. “Dillon did an awesome job, and Don beat the yellow in. From there, we didn’t look back, and we were looking really good until we got the late yellow. I tried my best, but I wasn’t able to stay in the lead. We made the best out of it, learned from it, and came away with a good result.”
In WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Gallagher started the No. 96 BMW M4 GT3 EVO from sixth. An unfortunate penalty forced the team to the back of the field, but Gallagher was able to conserve fuel and handed the car off to Foley from 11th. Thanks to some clever strategy calls by Don Salama and a pair of timely cautions, Foley was able to battle from mid-pack up to a very strong fourth-place finish.
“This race definitely shows that anything can happen,” said Turner. “When we were running around in the back of the pack due to, what I consider an undeserved penalty, we thought it might be game over. However, Don ‘The Iceman’ Salama took some strategy risks that paid off. Finishing fourth was better than I would have expected, considering the circumstances, but I’m happy we matched our best finish of the year. I’m looking forward to the next two races to move forward.”
“It was a crazy day at VIR,” said Foley. “The early penalty at the beginning looked like it was going to set us back, but Patrick did a great job to refocus and save us some energy, which opened up some strategy options. Then Don did one of his famous Salama strategy tricks and gambled, which ultimately took us from last to the middle of the field to be able to make up a few positions on the restarts and settle into what was a crazy race at the end.
One spot away from podium is disappointing, but it was definitely a great recovery and the car was good. I’m looking forward to taking some momentum into Indy.”
The IMSA season resumes September 19-21 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Indiana for the penultimate IMSA weekend featuring the six hour endurance race in WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
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