ALTON, Va. (AP) Porsche North America teammates Nick Tandy and Patrick Pilet raced to their third straight GT Le Mans class victory Sunday, leading all 92 laps in the IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship event at Virginia International Raceway.
Tandy started the 2-hour, 40-minute race from the pole in the No. 911 Porsche, handed the car over to Pilet, then took over during the team's final pit stop. Tandy finished 27.267 seconds ahead of Porsche teammate Earl Bamber in the No. 912 entry he co-drove with Joerg Bergmeister.
''The last time I got to race for a win overall it was a Le Mans,'' said Tandy, who won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June co-driving a Porsche prototype with Bamber and Formula 1 driver Nico Hulkenberg. ''The next time we're going for an overall win, we got it here. It feels something special to see the checkered flag drop on your car after a long, grueling race. It might have looked easy at the end, and there at the end it might have been, but the first two stints were really tough.''
The victory moved Pilet into the lead in the GT Le Mans standings. He has a five-point advantage, 248-243, over No. 3 Corvette co-drivers Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia with two races left in the season.
After winning at VIR each of the past two years, the No. 62 Risi Ferrari team finished third with drivers Pierre Kaffer and Giancarlo Fisichella.
In the GT Daytona class, Townsend Bell and Bill Sweedler won in the No. 62 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari. It was the first win for both drivers since the 24 Hours of Daytona to open the 2014 season. Christina Nielsen and Kuno Wittmer were second in the No. 007 TRG Aston Martin.
Nielsen, who entered the race with a two-point lead over No. 48 Audi co-drivers Dion von Moltke and Christopher Haase, extended her advantage to six points over Bell and Sweedler, 232-226. Haase and von Moltke finished fifth in the race.
