C8.R pole-winner Tommy Milner in the #4 Corvette C8.R maintained his advantage at the start of the race on the damp but drying 17-turn, 3.27-mile Virginia International Raceway but only until the first corner.
On the exit of Turn 1, teammate Jordan Taylor in the yellow #3 ’Vette got on the inside and found traction on a dry strip to easily out-accelerate the gray sister car to move ahead.
By Lap 6, they looked unopposed the WeatherTech Porsche 911 RSR was over half a minute down and MacNeil pitted on Lap 9 to hand off to Kevin Estre.

Milner, running barely half a second behind, pitted on Lap 15 to hand off to Nick Tandy.

The #3’s first stop didn’t come until Lap 30, and it was a bad one, apparently due to having the rear tires ready but the wrong way around so that Taylor’s co-driver Antonio Garcia emerged some 25sec behind Tandy. It also left him only 10sec ahead of the charging Estre.
These gaps closed up on Lap 42 when the full course yellow flew for a GTD Acura in the tires.

When the pits opened, the trio pitted, and the #3 having stopped far more recently needed just a splash of fuel and no new tires, allowing it to jump the #4 into the lead. Tandy could also now expect opposition from Estre’s Porsche

The green flag came with 66min45sec to go, and Tandy’s initial attack on Garcia allowed Estre to draw alongside the Briton, but found himself run out of road by the #4 Corvette.

It took less than a lap for Estre to remount an attack, and this time he out fumbled Tandy and immediately applied the pressure on leader Garcia.

It took until Lap 57 for Estre to slot the Porsche into the lead at Oak Tree Bend, but both of them lost momentum, so that Tandy not only found a way around his teammate, he was also able to elbow Estre onto the grass, so that he moved into the lead and leading a Corvette 1-2.

Once Estre cleaned up his tires, he delivered the fastest lap of the race so far purple in all three sectors three-tenths faster than the #3 Vette, and on Lap 61 the Porsche was back up to second but now 2.5sec behind Tandy.
That move prompted Garcia to pit for the final time, and this time he did take new tires.

Meanwhile, Estre lost time stumbling and sliding wide as he caught GTD traffic, so that on Lap 62 he was over 7sec in arrears of Tandy with 40mins to go.
Three minutes later, Estre was off the road at Turn 11 and gently in the tires.

Yet just in case there was a caution, Corvette pulled Tandy in, which allowed Estre to briefly take the lead.
However, there was no caution, and the WeatherTech Porsche pulled in, IMSA Radio reporting that he was missing his left-hand mirror and had a slightly dented nose.
He was now half a minute off leader Tandy, who had a 2sec margin over Garcia, although the #3 car started shaving the deficit in every sector.

But with 10mins to go, Tandy was still around 2sec in front, and Garcia suffered loss of traction, misjudging a lapping maneuver on the GTD-leading BMW, spinning the pair of them & allowing the sister car an easy 3rd straight IMSA GTLM SportsCar Championship win, by 17.8sec.
Estre came home 38sec off the lead.