Win at VIR puts Jamie Holtom, Chevy into Championship Leads

Courtesy Josh Kive

Driving with Eric Curran, Jamie Holtom won his first race of the year last weekend in the Grand-Am Cup 200 at the infamous VIRginia International Raceway, where weather along with an 84-car field made for interesting, strategic racing.

“Having so many cars on the track all at once in the rain made for some very interesting racing. Luckily we were able to survive the carnage and give the car to Eric in without a scratch on it for the second half of the race.”, Jamie said, “Georgian Bay Motorsports and the guys from the GM Performance Division did an awesome job calling the strategy, giving us the best possible track position so we didn’t have to take too many chances out on the track.”

In a race in which the majority of the time spent was under Full-Course-Yellow conditions, survival was the key. At the start Jamie held position and waited for the race to come to him.

“I knew the race was going to ‘go yellow’ early and often so I just drove my own race and kept the car up front. Our goal for the weekend was to get as many points as possible for Chevrolet in the manufacturers chase. It’s too bad that qualifying was rained out. The guys from GBMS and GM had the 01 ClearSCADA Chevrolet Cobalt SS Supercharged on rails in the rain; I know we could have challenged for pole.”

After placing fourth at the season opener in Daytona, the win in Virginia puts Chevrolet into the lead of the Manufacturers Championship and Holtom and Curran into the Drivers Championship points lead.

“With Georgian Bay Motorsports and the GM Performance Division working on our cars, I always know that my Chevy Cobalt SS Supercharged will be dynamite. It’s great that Eric and I can reward their hard work by giving them the Manufacturers, Team and Drivers Championship lead early in the season.”, stated Holtom.

This win marks Jamie’s third in Grand-Am Cup competition.

The next event for the Jamie and Eric will be at the U.S. Sports Car Invitational the weekend of May 5 -7 at Laguna Seca Raceway, in Monterey, California, where they look to solidify their leads in the Drivers, Manufacturers and Team Championships.