Finger Lakes

Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing teams in both the GT and GTS classes turned in a competitive performance this weekend in the Pirelli World Challenge SprintX event at VIRginia International Raceway (VIR) that was highlighted by a Sunday overall and GT-Pro victory by co-drivers Mike Skeen and Scott Heckert in the No. 80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3.

The win followed the first front-row qualifying sweep for the Mercedes-AMG GT3 in North American competition on Saturday that saw Skeen join the pole-winning No. 2 CRP Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Daniel Morad on the front row for Race 1 of the weekend doubleheader. Edging Skeen on his final qualifying lap by just .088 of a second, Morad's time of 1:41.953 is a new Pirelli World Challenge GT record on the 3.27-mile VIR circuit.

The Mercedes-AMG GT3 is a perfect two-for-two in Pirelli World Challenge SprintX qualifying this season. Skeen won the pole in the Lone Star Racing No. 80 in the season-opening doubleheader at Circuit of The Americas (COTA) in March.

After a challenging Saturday opener for both teams, Race 2 on Sunday quickly moved off to fast start for both CRP and Lone Star. Morad's co-driver Fabian Schiller took the lead at the race start while Scott Heckert, Skeen's co-driver, quickly jumped from fifth to fourth place.

Schiller led every lap of his stint but a loose front splitter on the No. 2 created some handling issues for closing driver Morad. The No. 2 car ultimately crossed the finish line in fourth place.

Heckert in turn handed off to Skeen and, after a perfectly timed pit stop, the No. 80 returned to the race just behind the overall leader. Skeen steadily closed and made the winning pass in the run through Turns 3 and 4 just under three minutes from the end of the race.

The win was the first for Lone Star Racing's Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the team's second year with Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing.

A third Mercedes-AMG GT3, the No. 63 DXDT Racing entry, also raced at VIR with David Askew solo-driving to second-place results in each of the weekend's GT Am races.

In GTS, Robinson Racing and Murillo Racing combined to give the Mercedes-AMG GT4 its first pole and first one-two qualifying result Saturday in the car's debut season of North American competition.

Shane Lewis, who co-drives with Gar Robinson, took the No. 74 Robinson Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4 to the class pole position with a lap time of 1:53.396. He was joined on the front row by Matt Fassnacht, who co-drives with Christian Szymczak, after qualifying second with a lap time of 1:53.783 in in the No. 34 Murillo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4.

The best result for each team in the weekend's pair of races was sixth in Pro/Am Saturday for Lewis and Robinson and eighth Sunday for Fassnacht and Szymczak.

Next up for Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing teams is this weekend's IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, May 4 – 6.

The next Pirelli World Challenge event weekend is May 18 – 20 at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park.

Mike Skeen, Driver – No. 80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3: "The Mercedes-AMG GT3 was great. We had good, long-run pace and I was doing qualifying laps the whole stint and the car was incredibly consistent and fast. It was awesome all the way to the end. The crew did an awesome job preparing the car, maximizing the setup and doing a perfect pit stop. Scott had an awesome starting stint and then it was just my job to go hunt down the last couple of guys. I was able to get a pass done for the lead right at the end and it was great to end the weekend on such a positive note.”

Contacts:

Jochen Übler Tel.: +49 (0) 7144 302-92 470 [email protected] 
Robert Moran Tel.: +1 770-705-2270 [email protected]

Further information from Mercedes-Benz, Mercedes-AMG and Mercedes-Benz USA is available on the Internet: www.media.daimler.com, www.mercedes-benz.com and www.mbusa.com.

For more information on AMG Customer Sports, please visit www.mercedes- amg.com/customerracing.

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