Roanoke, Virginia
Yesterday on November 15, was the Iracing Suzuka 1000km race for GT3 machinery, around the Suzuka International Circuit in Japan.
Agee Motorsports entered 2 GT3 cars in the event, a Corvette C8 GT3 #7, and a BMW M4 GT3 EVO #17. The cars would end up in different splits, with the Vette being in the higher split.
The #7 car would be piloted by Rob Cancian, Mark A. Wilson, and Todd Marimpietri. They would start in 35th, out of 56 cars, and would start Rob Cancian in the car, they would steadily work there way up trough the field, and were running well inside the top 10, looking to crack the top 5, when driver Mark Wilson, would suffer a minor technical problem, (electrical issue) that would force the team to the pit area, and would drop them to P 15! Over the remaining portion of the event Wilson would work his way back up to P11 at the finish. “We could have possibly finished 10th, but had to conserve fuel at the end”, said Wilson afterwards. All in all a great race, and the team could have possibly had a podium finish, or top 5 at the very least. Fuel would also affect the #17 BMW team at the end of there race.
The #17 car would start from 18th position out of 56 cars in there split, and Christoph Brandstetter, Nathan Lafayette, and Rene Reid would wheel the machine through the 1000km. Brandstetter would start the event, and do a double stint, Christoph had worked his way up to P3 when he pitted after his 2nd stint, as the team was using a fuel saving strategy that saw them run longer than most of there competitors on each stint. After the pit stop Nathan took over the wheel and exited the pits in P6!
Nathan would put in 2 flawless stints that would see him actually take the lead at around the halfway point due to the teams excellent fuel strategy, and ability to stay out on track as everyone else pitted. As Nathan approached his 2nd pit stop, he actually spun out of the hairpin attempting to pass a lapped car on cold tires, that would not see any damage, but would delay the pit stop.
Rene, would take over on the lap 121 pit stop that would see the team pit from P2, they would exit the pits running P6! Rene would put in a couple of flawless stints as well, and was actually running in P4 with just a couple laps to go, but had to slow down due to the team not getting enough fuel in the car on the last short pit stop. This would cause Rene to have to reduce pace, and allowed the pursuing driver to take over, and relegate the car to a P5 finish at the end! An absolutely fantastic finish for the BMW crew, in the grueling 173 lap race!!
Enjoy some photos of the race from both cars below! This concludes our 2025 Season, and preparations are already underway for next year, with some exciting new things underway for the organization.
Look forward to seeing everyone in 2026!!!