We wrapped up rounds seven and eight of the Toyota GR Cup North America season at Virginia International Raceway, and RVA Graphics Motorsports by Speed Syndicate had what can only be described as an unpredictable weekend.
We came into the event with plenty of data from our previous experience at VIR, which meant the cars rolled off the trailer with a great initial setup. Speed Syndicate’s Chris Vallee had given us three GR86 Cup cars that were prepared for success, and our solid performance in the first practice further increased our expectations for the weekend.
In qualifying for race one, Luke Rumburg set the 11th fastest time in the field. Unfortunately, contact with another car on the first lap of the race meant that solid qualifying position was never turned into a result to match. Luke was forced to pit after the contact knocked the car’s toe out of line.
However, Luke was undaunted, and when he got back on track, he was a lap down but right behind the top five cars. Lap after lap, Luke stayed with that lead pack, proving that even with damage, the car had speed and consistency. It was a chance for him to show off his skills in front of his large cheering section of extended family.
In race two, the drivers took coach Tom Long’s strategies for getting a great start to heart, getting solid launches off the line and putting the cars in the right spots on track to hold a defensive position.
In that race, it was Bennett Muldoon’s turn to demonstrate how strongly our cars were performing. He brought home the Hard Charger Award for passing the most cars throughout the race, making it the second time he has taken that honor this season. Passing was definitely a theme for us at VIR: between our three team cars and two races, we moved up a total of 42 positions.
Farran Davis had to do his racing without having turned a single lap in practice or qualifying. He was a last-minute substitute, jumping in when an illness left a gap in the driver lineup. Farran used race one as passing practice, moving up 14 positions during the 45-minute competition.
In all, VIR was one of those weekends in which the race results don’t reflect the incredible work the team and drivers put in, especially when you factor in damage from contact and a last-minute substitution.
One of the big takeaways from the weekend was that the RVA Graphics Motorsports cars have great long-run speed thanks to Chris’s expertise. We can go fast, lap after lap. That consistency should be a big advantage for us as we prepare for our next round, which will be at Road America. We have a wealth of data from our fantastic run at that track last year, so that will give us even more of a boost as we prepare to tackle Road America’s long straights and high-speed corners.
