Longtime teammates Patrick Long and Jörg Bergmeister reunited for the inaugural Pirelli World Challenge Sprint-X race today at Virginia International Raceway, a race format that features two teammates per car, a 60-minute race and a mandatory driver change. The first race of the new format caught a number of teams out with an odd minimum pit time rule; Long and Bergmeister’s No. 58 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R was among the teams penalized and were running in p2 at the time of the penalty.
The SprintX season-opener provided plenty of post-race drama, after seven teams, including the leading three cars, were handed drive-through penalties for not meeting the minimum pit stop delta of 60 seconds (for GT Pro-Pro) or 90 seconds (GT Pro-Am or Am-Am) in the race. It’s understood all of them were within 1.5 seconds from meeting the minimum time, which was measured from total time pit-in to pit-out.
Long re-claimed the championship lead and put distance between himself and Alvaro Parente, Alex Riberas, Bryan Sellers and Johnny O’Connell, who all finished behind the No. 58 in today’s race. Patrick and Jörg start Sunday’s race from p9 on the grid. Live streaming is available for the race here: https://www.motortrendondemand.com/detail/sun-apr-30-1-05pm-et-pirelli-world-challenge-sprintx-race-2-virginia-international-raceway-/0_rcbhjyzz/
