STEAM CORNERS, Ohio — Oscar Tunjo and Westin Workman completed weekend sweeps in the pair of IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge races at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
At least for Tunjo, it was a different experience compared to his flag-to-flag win from pole on Saturday.
Due to the wet weather conditions for qualifying on Saturday morning, the Le Mans Prototype 3 (P3) grid was set by the fastest lap times in Saturday’s Race 1 on a damp-but-drying track. Although Tunjo had solid pace in the No. 1 Gebhardt Motorsport USA Inc. Duqueine D09, his best race lap was only fifth fastest in Race 1 which left him out of position for Sunday’s second 45-minute race of the weekend.
Tunjo gained a spot before the race even started as one car in front of him failed to present to the false grid in time. After the green flag, he leapt to third into Turn 4 on Lap 2, got to second by Lap 3 and then chased down polesitter Gian Buffomante in his No. 30 Toney Driver Development Ligier JS P325.
Buffomante led the opening 10 laps before Tunjo made his move, using his more extensive LMP3 experience to his advantage. As Buffomante was balked exiting Turn 1 catching traffic, Tunjo darted to the inside in the Keyhole (Turn 2) on Lap 11 to secure the lead.
Tunjo quickly built his lead and despite a full-course caution that wiped out the lead, drove away on a restart to his fifth total and fourth sprint win of 2026 by 11.337 seconds.
“Super happy for this race and result,” Tunjo said. “We’ve been fast but today was a bit strange starting from the back. We made our way forward, and it was good battles up front.”
The battle for second came down to the final lap, although contact occurred between Buffomante and Danny Soufi in his No. 11 PINAXIS-ZONE 4 Racing Duqueine D09. The incident was reviewed with no further action and Soufi made it through into second, while Buffomante was delayed in the gravel. Toney’s second driver made it to the podium with Lincoln Day advancing to third in his No. 95 Ligier JS P325 entry.
“Fun race; I thoroughly enjoyed it,” said Soufi, who advanced from sixth on the grid. “I wasn’t sure if the safety car would help me or not. It was full attack mode, and traffic towards the end made it interesting.”
In fourth and capturing the Bronze Cup win was Slade Stewart, making his IMSA P3 debut this weekend in the No. 29 Riley Ligier JS P320. Stewart is a past race winner in IMSA’s Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America series.
Westin Workman’s win streak continued into the sixth round of Grand Sport X (GSX) competition, following another authoritative victory at Mid-Ohio.
In today’s race, he again started from pole, led flag-to-flag, and captured the checkered by a winning margin of one lap in his No. 8 RAFA Racing Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2.
He set a new GSX record for fastest race lap of 1 minute, 25.958 seconds (94.566 mph), which was more than 1.6 seconds faster than anyone else in class.
“At the end it was everything I had,” Workman said. “The goal is to improve each race, because if you do the same thing every lap, every race, you won’t get better. I want to be the best one out there and that’s the goal. With Toyota Gazoo Racing and RAFA Racing, what a combo. Super blessed and thankful to be out here.”
The battle in GSX most of the race was a strong three-way battle for second. Bronze Cup winner Rob Walker started and finished second in his No. 53 Kingpin Racing Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2, holding off the consistent advances of Justin Di Benedetto and Ismaeel Ellahi in a pair of Porsche 718 GT4 RS CS cars. Di Benedetto finished third in his No. 4 Di Benedetto Racing Porsche ahead of Ellahi in fourth in his No. 25 CSM Porsche.
