The final three races of the 2026 Michelin Pilot Challenge season are up ahead, with the first of the trio coming tomorrow afternoon at Virginia International Raceway (VIR) for the two-hour Virginia Is For Racing Lovers Grand Prix.
Forty-two cars enter this weekend’s gauntlet at VIR, with 29 competing in the Grand Sport (GS) class and the remaining 13 featured in the Touring Car Racing (TCR) category.
Since the championship’s last outing at Road America two weeks ago, several programs have made noticeable changes for the remainder of the season.
One of the most noteworthy comes from the GS championship-leading effort of McCumbee McAleer Racing, which parted ways with one of its two championship-leading drivers, Nate Cicero, following his sudden departure from racing. The program tapped European Ford driver Finn Wiebelhaus to pilot the team’s No. 13 Ford Mustang GT4 for the remainder of the 2026 campaign alongside fellow championship leader Robert Noaker, as MMR and Noaker look to maintain their hold on the championship lead.
Other changes across the grid include a manufacturer switch for GS team CSM, which is moving from Porsche to Aston Martin. The Indianapolis-based effort made a soft launch with the British brand in VP Racing SportsCar Challenge, where Ismaeel Ellahi claimed a race win in the series’ most recent sprint race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
Now, Ellahi joins forces with team newcomer Ayrton Houk in the team’s second entry, the No. 3 Aston Martin AMR GT4 Evo. Morgan Burkhard and Gordon Scully will continue to share driving duties, but this time under the Aston Martin banner aboard their No. 2 Aston Martin AMR GT4 Evo.
Furthermore, Kingpin Racing rejoins the series with team owner Tyler Hoffman and Patrick Wilmot piloting the No. 53 Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2.
Finally in GS, Texas native Jacob Loomis replaces Athan Sterling in the No. 4 Medusa Motorsports Aston Martin AMR GT4 Evo. Sterling was involved in a scary incident at the end of the Road America weekend.
In TCR, only one notable change comes from Road America, with the No. 55 Gou Racing w/ Stallion Audi RS3 LMS. Eddie Gou and Celso Neto will swap spots into the No. 77 Cupra Leon VZ, which has run under the Stallion Motorsports w/ Gou banner this season following a partnership between the two TCR programs before the start of the season.
As mentioned, McCumbee McAleer Racing enters the weekend leading the GS championship with 1,810 points, albeit with an updated driver lineup. The Ford GT4 program holds a 100-point advantage over a pair of BMW M4 GT4 EVO teams in what has been a relatively wide-open title fight throughout 2026.
The No. 27 AutoTechnic Racing entry, ironically driven by MMR team owner Stevan McAleer and Austin Krainz, shares second place in the standings with the No. 95 Turner Motorsport pairing of Luca Mars and Dillon Machavern at 1,710 points.
Ten points behind them is the No. 44 Ibiza Farm Motorsport McLaren Artura GT4, driven by Moisey Uretsky and Michael Cooper, sitting outright in third. The No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT GT4 effort sits fourth, trailing the championship leaders by 160 points, while the No. 66 YRB Racing Aston Martin AMR GT4 Evo is 190 points behind the leading GS team.
In TCR, it is a three-way title fight at the top of the standings for Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb Agajanian. The trio of Hyundai Elantra Ns features the No. 33 effort driven by Mason Filippi and Bryson Morris leading the standings with 2,150 points. Behind the No. 33 is the No. 76, with Denis Dupont and Preston Brown trailing their teammates by 150 points in second, while the No. 18 sits in third with Harry Gottsacker and Lance Bergstein trailing by 300 points. MMG’s No. 93 Honda Civic FL5 also trails the leading No. 33 by 300 points, with Karl Wittmer and LP Montour piloting the effort.
Tomorrow’s two-hour Michelin Pilot Challenge race from VIR kicks off at 2:15 p.m. ET, with qualifying coming at 8 a.m. ET for GS and TCR. The race is set to be broadcast on Peacock, IMSA.tv and IMSA’s official YouTube channel.
