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The Pfaff Motorsports duo of Andrea Caldarelli and Sandy Mitchell had a smooth run to victory from the pole in their Lamborghini Temerario in the IMSA WeatherTech Championship sprint at the VIRginia International Raceway on Sunday. A second straight victory moved the Canadian team’s drivers into contention for the GTD Pro championship. “You need some time for a new car to come alive,” said Caldarelli of the Lambo that made its debut at Sebring. “Our target is always to win. It would be nice to bring back a championship.” In GTD, the Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Windward Racing rolled to a third straight victory and fourth this season for drivers Russell Ward and Philip Ellis. That moved the duo into the points lead. Two contenders for championship titles may look back on the track that rises and falls through the farm country in southwest Virginia as the place where their aspirations ran into a Left Hook. AO Racing’s Nick Tandy was penalized for contact at Turn 4, aka Left Hook, during his final stint while defending against the BMW of Connor De Phillippi and then the Lexus of Vasser Sullivan driven by Ben Barnicoat. A potential gain on the class-leading BMW squad of Paul Miller Racing turned into a drive-through penalty for the veteran, whose Porsche 911 GT3 R co-driven by Harry King fell to ninth in class at the finish. In the closing minutes, a battle for the class lead and the GTD class championship resulted in Tom Gamble of The Heart of Racing pushing off Ellis at Left Hook, which followed their side-by-side duel in the preceding corners. The contact resulted in a drive-through penalty and dropped the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo to fourth in class. Gamble was called for a penalty in the closing minutes for the second straight race. Gamble’s co-driver Dudu Barrichello had a strong drive in the Aston Martin after a post-qualifying penalty for exceeding power limits put it 11th on the grid. But he dropped from being the points leader to third. With two rounds remaining, Windward’s tandem leads by 36 points, unofficially, over the Turner Motorsports duo of Patrick Gallagher and Robby Foley. The latter two finished second in class in Sunday’s Michelin GT Challenge, six seconds behind the winners. After some early season setbacks, Ellis credited Windward’s win streak to the pace of its Mercedes. “We’re just making other people make mistakes and pick up the points,” he said. The Ford Mustang GT3s of Ford Racing took the remaining two steps on the Pro podium. In the No. 64 Mustang, Ben Barker closed to within 1.517 seconds of the Lambo at the finish after a later pit stop by the Multimatic crew produced better tire wear. In addition to Barker’s co-driver Dennis Olsen, Christopher Mies and Fred Vervisch landed on the podium, moving up to third when the RLL Team’s McLaren 720S GT3 EVO pitted for fuel shortly before the checkered flag. The Corvettes had a difficult day in both classes. Alex Sims made heavy contact with the tire wall outside the Esses in the No. 3 Z06 GT3.R on the opening lap after misjudging an overtake of the AO Racing Porsche of King. Sims was uninjured by his wild ride on the tire wall, which resulted in a 20-minute caution to open the race. The title-contending Corvette No. 4 of Nicky Catsburg and Tommy Milner ran into untimely problems that left it mired in traffic. Catsburg dropped a wheel before his pit stop, then Milner’s pit road exit was delayed by a faulty door latch. Milner ran out of tires in his final stint, losing the fight for fifth to the BMW of De Phillippi, who leads the championship along with co-driver Neil Verhagen by 23 points, unofficially, over the No. 4 Corvette duo. The two Pfaff drivers moved up to third, 56 points behind the leaders. Casper Stevenson brought DragonSpeed its first GTD pole, but his Corvette was knocked askew by the Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 EVO of Lorenzo Patrese moments after the green flag. The Corvette lost five laps while the steering was repaired in the garage. Patrese received a drive-through penalty, one of three in the two hour, 40-minute race.