Zach Hillman finished third in the 2014 Eastern States Championships at Road Atlanta after a DQ ahead of him bumped him up from his fourth-place finish. Hillman came to VIR looking for more in 2015.
From his pole position, Hillman had lap times 3 seconds faster than Lawrence Gibson, who started in second, and Luke Pardi in third on the grid. However, even fourth-place starter Michael Sousa was in the mix because his lap times were within .500 seconds of the second- and third-place cars.
When the green flag dropped, Hillman drove the wheels off his Porsche 944, led the whole race and took home the win and the Championship.
“We got the start that we wanted,” Hillman said. “We just maintained from there. A lot of guys switched up their tires and tunes. We knew the first lap would be important, and we were able to control the pace. My crew put in a lot of prep work for this race. All the work paid off and we finally won it! I want to thank all my guys back at home.”
The battle for second and third was the one to watch. Michael Sousa sprang from his fourth spot on grid and ran in second for most of the race until his secondary fuel pump began malfunctioning. That let Gibson flash by, leaving Sousa to defend Pardi for third. Gibson finished second and Sousa crossed the finish in third. However, Sousa was disqualified after the race, which moved Pardi up to third.
