It has been a remarkable season for Grizzly Motorsports that ended in the team celebrating the VSCA SportsCar Championship at Road Atlanta, after taking second place in the ten-hour endurance classic.
The #7 BMW went a perfect eleven top tens in eleven races this season, and on top earned an impressive nine top-five finishes and two wins.
The team’s two wins came at Watkins Glen and Indianapolis. Watkins Glen also marked a turning point for Grizzly Motorsports, as the team took the points lead in the championship after the six-hour race in upstate New York.
In Saturday’s Petit Le Mans, the #7 BMW M Hybrid V8 with drivers Joshua Wolf and Treavor Vavrosky was looking to be on its way to season win number three, when a late-race penalty set the team back one lap.
But in the end, the team still finished second, which was enough to secure the LMDh series title by 115 points over 24 Hours of Daytona champions #3 Mayer Simspeed Performance.
"We knew going into Petit Le Mans that the championship was ours to lose, really.", said Joshua Wolf.
"We had a very consistent year; maybe not all the wins we were hoping for, but we were fairly consistent fighting at or near the front."
So what was the team’s key for success this season - their first in the series and immediately jumping to Mount Everest that VSCA has to offer?
"I think staying out of trouble was key and although we did have our mistakes and had some things happen that were out of our control, I felt like we executed all year long and it paid off in the end.", Wolf added.
Speaking of himself and team-mate Treavor Vavrosky, Wolf said:
"We were both really excited to come into Road Atlanta, in control of the championship. It definitely helped keep us a bit more relaxed, if you will."
Championship meaningful to the team
It is every VSCA competitor’s dream to win a championship. Only few get to experience what it’s like. Wolf, on what this championship means to him and the team:
"Obviously, we are super excited about winning the championship. Treavor and I were really close last year (driving for Torque Freak Racing) in LMP2 and to be able to come out in the first season with LMDh and Grizzly Motorsports and get the championship is amazing."
"It’s all about teamwork. I can't thank all my team-mates enough and everybody who had a part in this. I want to give special thanks to Dawson Brock for figuring out the setup at Daytona and giving us a good stepping stone for our setups from that point on for the rest of the season. He found some magic in the setup that we were able to use most of the season when tuning our setup for each race and it made our car feel so consistent even in the hot summer races.", Wolf continued.
"Also big thanks to the organizers at VSCA and to the competitors that we had fun competing against this entire year. It means a lot."
Grizzly Motorsports has not yet confirmed whether the team will return to the series in 2024 to defend its championship title.