ALTON, Virginia – Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing teams JMF Motorsports and Dome Motorsport each turned in double-podium performances Saturday and Sunday in the SRO America race weekend at VIRginia International Raceway (VIR). The No. 34 JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 team, and co-drivers Mikael Grenier and Michai Stephens, finished third and second in the Pro class, respectively, in each of the GT World Challenge America races on Saturday and Sunday, but it was the first-year Dome Motorsport team that made the weekend’s breakout statement with twin second-place Pirelli GT4 America race finishes with team drivers Marc Miller and last-minute substitute Nate Cicero in the No. 37 Dome Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT4.
Cicero was a late call up only on Thursday to fill in for Dome Motorsport team owner and driver Eddie Killeen, who was sidelined from driving this weekend with a knee injury.
A highly regarded emerging talent on the North American sports car racing scene, Cicero immediately drove to Southern Virginia from his native New York to join the Dome team. Cicero’s addition elevated the No. 37 from the Pro-Am division the team runs with the Killeen and Miller combination to the top-tier Silver class for primarily professional drivers.
Despite driving only a handful of laps in practice, Cicero went out and promptly won the pole for Saturday’s first 60-minute Pirelli GT4 race earlier that morning in qualifying. Under threatening skies, Cicero led the field for the opening lap of the late afternoon race only to see a red flag shown to the field when lightning emerged around the VIR circuit.
With the clock running, competitors sat out the lightning delay for more than half the race, with the field firing up with less than 10 minutes remaining for what amounted to a trophy dash to the finish.
Adding to the drama was that all the teams had to complete their mandatory driver changes, which all opted to do in the yellow flag laps that immediately followed the stoppage and before the race returned to green.
Quick pit work by the Dome crew put closing driver Miller back in the race in second. He took the lead soon after the green flag was shown and then battled with some of his peer top GT4 drivers before taking second-place honors both overall and in the Silver class.
Sunday’s path to the repeat Silver-class runner-up finish came after a hard-fought opening stint by Miller, another top pit stop from the Dome crew and a charge into the lead battle by Cicero.
Miller started ninth on the grid but was shuffled back into the thick of the field after more than one competitor in his line was slow to get on the gas when the green flew. After momentarily dropping out of the top-12, Miller clawed back to ninth and ran in a tight train with the rest of the GT4 contenders before handing off to Cicero at mid-race.
Cicero then went on a charge of his own after running as low as 14th overall as the field cycled through green-flag pit stops. He was soon battling for the class and overall lead in the race’s closing minutes, pulling off the pass for second in the Silver division just before time ran out.
The JMF team delivered the top GT World Challenge America results of the three Mercedes-AMG GT3 entries competing at VIR. The team started and finished third in the Pro class in Saturday’s opening race but in between overcame an unfortunately timed pit stop that forced Grenier to fight his way back to the front. Grenier took the checkered flag in the No. 34 fifth overall in the close field while securing the third-place showing.
The JMF team and drivers improved their performance for Sunday’s final 90-minute race. Starting driver Grenier and race-closer Stephens held second in the Pro class throughout the race, with the No. 34 taking the checkered flag not only P2 in class but in the overall runner-up position as well.
Meanwhile, the No. 27 CRP Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Isaac Sherman and Jason Daskalos recorded fifth-place Pro-Am finishes in both GT World Challenge America races, the team’s best results since a second-place class finish at Circuit of The Americas (COTA) in April. The Saturday result earned the No. 27 team and drivers the Hard Charger award for improving the most race positions.
The No. 91 Regulator Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 of championship contenders Jeff Burton and Philip Ellis unfortunately endured the team’s most challenging race weekend of the season at VIR. An untimely yellow flag in Saturday’s opening race thwarted the team’s patented reverse driver strategy, resulting in a seventh-place Pro-Am finish, while a contact incident early in Sunday’s final round forced the team to retire the car from the race.
Next up for Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing teams in SRO America is another full weekend of series competition at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, August 15 – 17.
Michai Stephens, Driver – No. 34 JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3: “Certainly, a word of the weekend was ‘hot’ followed by ‘heavy,’ but our performance was once again a testament to the JMF Motorsports team and the Mercedes-AMG platform. We are fortunate to be able to just continue to fight, and that’s what’s so beautiful about not only this JMF organization, but its partners as well. No matter the height of the mountain, we still climb. The other manufacturers brought their A-game like we did, but that just gives us the motivation to continue to press on and bring our best performance again to the next round at Road America. The pursuit continues.”
Mikael Grenier, Driver – No. 34 JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3: “A good weekend in general. I think on Saturday we were just unlucky with the pit stop, so we went from P5 to P10. Then it was a hard race to come back into the top five overall and P3 in the Pro class where we started. So, we lost time with that, but I think more was possible. On Sunday we achieved the maximum. Early in the race, some of the other competitors were quick, so we tried to just save the tires in case of a restart, which happened at the end. I was trying to be smart because there were some Pro-Am cars in front that I knew would fall back. Michai did an amazing Sunday stint, especially the first part of the run. He was very strong. We improved the car from Saturday, so we got better on the long run, and that was a good job from the team.”
Marc Miller, Driver – No. 37 Dome Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT4: “I’m proud of the guys and everyone on the team at Dome Motorsport. This entire effort was started only in November of last year, which is very quick to organize it all and put a team together to do this. More importantly, we are absolutely delighted that we can show Eddie he can stand here and be proud to see his team perform at this level and compete for wins. We came into the weekend with an unfortunate incident with Eddie not being able to drive. Thankfully, he said ‘hey, we tested Nate. Let’s call him and see if he wants to come down.’ So, Nate turned around up in New York on his way to a go-kart race and drove straight to Virginia, and we are very thankful for the effort. Nate’s a phenomenal talent as a driver and also just an absolutely wonderful kid to be around and fits right in with our program. He did an awesome job, put it on pole in his debut and did everything right. Almost 10 years ago, I got my first IMSA GS win here in the rain. So, when I saw it was going to rain on Saturday I was like ‘we got a good shot at this.’ I was pretty comfortable with the car, I like running in the rain, and I knew what to do to keep third place back there. At the same time, I was pushing to close the gap on the leader to see if he would make a mistake big enough to capitalize on. Huge thanks to Eddie for making this all possible, and our Mercedes-AMG GT4 was absolutely great. The Dome Motorsport guys put a great car under us. Just a great job by the team putting all the pieces together, making the right pit stops and preparing the car perfectly.”
Nate Cicero, Driver – No. 37 Dome Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT4: “Thank you to Dome Motorsport for giving us the opportunity to do this. It’s very nice to get a couple of podiums on the board for the team, Eddie, Marc and myself in SRO. There’s always a little bit of ‘but it’s just one spot away from the win’ feeling but you have to be happy with the results. Our car was awesome. The Mercedes-AMG GT4 was performing really well, super easy to drive and get around some people and fight with some other cars. I have been in a couple of different GT4 cars this year, but this Mercedes-AMG GT4 is incredible to drive. It’s super well balanced, and easy to get acclimated with, which is important because I think I had five laps in total in practice. I drove here late down from New York on Thursday after I got the call. We are all wishing Eddie a speedy recovery, but I am just thankful for the opportunity, for getting the call and trusting me. Getting two second place finishes and the pole in qualifying I hope is something to repay them.”