The 2025 VSCA SportsCar Championship has gotten off to a tumultuous start for Digital Chicane and their #79 Acura ARX-06 GTP entry. The Daytona Beach-based team, led by manager Ryan Koprowski, has shown flashes of brilliance but has also faced a string of unfortunate incidents in the opening rounds of the season.

The team's season kicked off with the Roar Before The 24, the non-points qualifying race for the 24 Hours of Daytona. Young driver Matthew Oravecz, a 21-year-old from Mentor, OH, qualified the car on the outside pole, showcasing the car’s pace. However, disaster struck almost immediately when Oravecz crashed in Turn 2 on the opening lap, relegating the team to an eighth-place finish.

One week later, in the 24 Hours of Daytona, things seemed to be going well for the #79 Digital Chicane Acura until a dramatic late-race incident. With just two laps remaining, 21-year-old Colton Salek of Tampa, FL, was involved in a three-wide collision with an LMP2 car, sending him hard into the wall. While the #79 Acura still managed to finish in second place, it was two laps down, a bittersweet result after running strong for the majority of the race.

Looking to rebound at the MV Skinlab Grand Prix of Long Beach, the team had another competitive outing. Salek was again at the wheel in the closing stages, running in third place with just two laps to go. However, as he attempted to pass a GT PRO car, he lost control in Turn 1 and crashed heavily into the wall, ending the race in sixth place.

Team manager Ryan Koprowski was vocal about his disappointment following Long Beach, stating, “We're glad Colton was okay following that large hit in T1. Obviously, the car was done, but to see Colton walk away from the accident was reassuring.”

Koprowski also acknowledged the team’s frustrations, adding, “We were frustrated at Daytona because we had a relatively good race for 23 hours and 55 minutes and then the incident with the LMP2 threw it out the window. Now to have the same driver wreck the car again with two laps to go requires some deeper examination, which we’ll hope to resolve before Sebring.”

Despite their early-season setbacks, Digital Chicane is still in the hunt for the championship. Sitting sixth in the standings, 73 points behind the leaders, the team remains optimistic. “Looking forward, we're going to run the best races that we can and hope for the best. We, in all honesty, are not that many points back and there is still a lot of racing to go to pull us back in,” Koprowski stated.

With talented drivers such as Salek, Oravecz, Wilson Brewer (23, Daytona Beach, FL), and Quinn Mitchell (22, Ijamsville, MD) behind the wheel, Digital Chicane has the potential to turn their season around. All eyes will be on the team as they head to Sebring for the next round of the championship, where they’ll be looking for a cleaner race and a shot at redemption.