Antonio Garcia Wins Third IMSA SportsCar Championship This Season at the Virginia International Raceway

Make that No. 3 for Antonio Garcia

The 37-year-old Spanish professional race car driver and Jan Magnussen won at the Virginia International Raceway on Sunday for their third IMSA SportsCar Championship victory of the season.

Arnold Garcia & Jan Magnussen

Garcia took the lead in the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R with just more than 12 minutes remaining in the 2-hour, 40-minute race when Alexander Sims — who had dominated with Bill Auberlen in the No. 25 BMW — made a late pit stop.

Garcia finished 12.031 seconds ahead of the No. 67 Ford GT of Ryan Briscoe and Richard Westbrook, and they increased their season lead to 16 points over Sims and Auberlen.

“It’s unbelievable for us to come away with a win,” Magnussen said. “Honestly, in the middle of the race, it kind of looked like a situation of, ‘OK, we aren’t losing too much in the championship, a couple of points here, a couple of points there, but we would still stay in the lead of the championship.’

“Then, for things to turn around like they did in the last half hour with the BMW coming up short [on fuel] and the Ferrari falling off, it was a crazy, absolutely crazy result. Such a fantastic result for the whole team.”

Toni Vilander and Giancarlo Fisichella were third in the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE.

Sims and Auberlen ended up fourth.