BRASELTON, Ga. — All that Steven Aghakhani and Luca Mars needed to do to clinch their respective class championships Thursday in the IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge was be on the starting grid for the 45-minute race at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
Neither was satisfied with just “showing up.” Both drivers locked up titles with drives to victory lane.
Aghakhani was the overall and Le Mans Prototype 3 (P3) winner in the No. 6 MLT Motorsports Ligier JS P320. He crossed the finish line second to Jagger Jones in the No. 87 FastMD Racing with Remstar Duqueine D08, but Jones was assessed a 10-second postrace penalty for a false start at the beginning of the race and scored in fourth place in the finishing order.
Mars, meanwhile, cruised to the Grand Sport X (GSX) class victory by 8.749 seconds in the No. 59 KohR Motorsports Ford Mustang GT4.
Aghakhani was emotional and joyful as he exited the car to celebrate the victory with his father, Armik, and the MLT crew.
“To have my entire racing career and not have a single championship, but now to finally secure that, it’s an unreal feeling,” the 21-year-old Californian said, “especially to be sharing it with my dad. I’m absolutely blessed for this opportunity.
“For us it wasn’t just take a championship home,” Aghakhani said of his strategy for Thursday’s race that resulted in his fourth win of the season. “For us it was a prove why we’re here, and I think we absolutely did that.”
Aghakhani finished 4.936 seconds ahead of Markus Pommer in the No. 31 Gebhardt Interlogistics Motorsports Duqueine. Pommer and teammate Valentino Catalano (No. 30 Duqueine) put on an impressive display to finish second and third in the VP Racing Challenge debut for both drivers.
Mars started from the GSX pole and was never threatened, even following a full-course caution that forced a late restart. There was plenty of battling behind him, with Patrick Wilmot (No. 88 Split Decision Motorsports BMW M4 GT4) holding off Tyler Hoffman (No. 9 Kingpin Racing Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO) for second place following a spirited back-and-forth.
“It feels great to still have one race left in the season and already have the championship locked up,” said Mars, who won for the sixth time in 11 outings. “I want to thank all the Ford Performance guys and everyone at KohR Motorsports for all their hard work this year. They really gave us their all and it’s paying off.
“We started with this car brand new and kept developing it and getting better with it every weekend. To be here and keep racking up the wins, it feels great.”