MarcoPolo Motorsports Welcomes Road Course Races with Virginia Double Header

MarcoPolo Motorsports Welcomes Road Course Races with Virginia Double Header

Following two challenging street course race events in the SRO Motorsport Group’s GT4 America series, MarcoPolo Motorsports returns to permanent road course competition this weekend for the next round of the Sprint championship at VIRginia International Raceway (VIR). This weekend will be the first time at VIR for driver Nicolai Elghanayan and the No. 71 KTM X-BOW.

“I’m excited to attend the next event at the famous VIR,” said Elghanayan. “I have never been to this track before, but everyone has claimed that it’s one of the most beautiful tracks they have been to. The configuration itself looks great. I’m a little worried about our car’s straight line speed on the long straights, but either way I’m looking forward to our first road course of the season.”

The back to back street courses were filled with attrition for the California based team and race car driver Nicolai Elghanayan. A mechanical issue in race one at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg led to the No. 71 KTM X-Bow launching into a concrete wall, totaling the GT4 machine. Elghanayan escaped mostly unharmed, and the Muellerized crew worked all night to have the team’s back up car ready for race two, where Elghanayan finished a relatively drama-free race.

At the Long Beach Grand Prix, Elghanayan kicked off his home race weekend with multiple public appearances, attending four local schools, one children’s hospital and two street festivals. Under the mentorship of IndyCar champion Paul Tracy and with an expertly prepared race car from the Muellerized crew, Elghanayan qualified in fourth place overall and third in class, for what was to be his third ever street course sports car race. True to Long Beach form, the race was filled with cautions, which proved to be detrimental to the performance of the KTM X-Bow on the restarts. In the end, the car suffered contact and finished the event two laps down.

The green, rolling hills of Alton, Virginia will be a stark contrast from the flat, tight street circuits of downtown St. Petersburg and Long Beach. The 3.27 mile, 17 turn circuit offers a mix of straights and mid to high speed turns, with plenty of runoff area for the 44 GT4 cars competing this weekend.

The double-header weekend will consist of three practice sessions before qualifying on Saturday, April 27. The 15 minute qualifying session will determine the starting position for race one, and Elghanayan’s fastest lap during that race will determine his starting position for race two. Each Sprint race will run for 50 minutes, with no driver changes or pit stops. Races one and two, rounds and five, of the Sprint championship will stream live on Saturday, April 27 at 1:05PM Eastern, and Sunday, April 28 at 10:00AM on the GT World YouTube channel. For live timing and full event information, visit www.gt4-america.com.