Nicole Havrda overcomes adversity to secure top-five finish at VIR in IMSA Airbnb Endurance Challenge

Nicole Havrda continued her rookie LMP3 campaign with another top-five finish in the IMSA Airbnb Endurance Challenge at VIRginia International Raceway, overcoming a difficult weekend marked by technical issues and an unfortunate penalty to secure fifth place overall and fourth among Bronze entries alongside teammate Travis Hill for Shopify Racing.

Photo credits: TWOth Autosport

Nicole Havrda continued her rookie LMP3 campaign with another top-five finish in the IMSA Airbnb Endurance Challenge at VIRginia International Raceway, overcoming a difficult weekend marked by technical issues and an unfortunate penalty to secure fifth place overall and fourth among Bronze entries alongside teammate Travis Hill for Shopify Racing.

The Canadian arrived at the third round of the IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge season continuing her transition from single-seaters to endurance racing; after building her reputation through a championship-winning Formula Pro US campaign in 2023, competing in Formula Regional Americas and racing in F1 Academy during 2025, Havrda committed to prototype racing for 2026 and has steadily gained experience behind the wheel of the #2 Ligier JS P325.

The duo opened their endurance campaign with a strong fifth-place finish at Sebring before a more challenging outing at Circuit of The Americas resulted in seventh place despite showing competitive pace. Heading to VIR, Havrda and Hill were eager to convert their growing experience into another strong result.

However, the weekend got off to a difficult start. The Shopify Racing by TWOth Autosport squad was limited in practice running after battling persistent brake issues throughout the weekend. The problem significantly reduced valuable track time as the team worked relentlessly between sessions to identify and solve the issue.

Despite numerous attempts, the problem continued into the later practice sessions, leaving the team facing a race against time ahead of qualifying. In a tremendous effort by the crew, the underlying issue was finally located and repaired shortly before the qualifying session, allowing Travis Hill to head out and post a representative lap.

The fix immediately paid dividends, as Hill delivered an excellent qualifying performance, recording a lap of 1:44.616 to secure fourth place on the grid, just half a second shy of third position and placing the green Shopify Racing Ligier on the second row for the race.

Photo credits: TWOth Autosport

Hill made an outstanding start when the race got underway: launching brilliantly from the second row, he immediately jumped into second place behind polesitter Valentino Catalano in the Gebhardt Motorsport Duqueine. Through the opening laps Hill comfortably held the runner-up position while Catalano led the field.

Early drama struck when Siddiqi and Balogh collided on the second lap. Balogh spun but was able to continue, initially bringing out only local yellow flags. One lap later, however, debris from the incident required a Full Course Yellow intervention.

At the neutralization, the order remained Catalano from Hill and Kujala.

Racing resumed on lap four. Hill immediately came under pressure from Kujala, with the Finnish driver finding a way through on lap five to demote the Shopify Racing entry to third place.

The team's strategy then came into play and as soon as the pit window opened 21 minutes into the race, Hill brought the #2 Ligier into pit lane. The team became the first car in the field to complete its driver change, with Nicole Havrda taking over the car for the middle stint.

Unfortunately, the strategy was compromised by a pit lane infringement, with the team failing to meet the required minimum pit stop time and subsequently handed a drive-through penalty. Havrda served the penalty on lap 11, a setback that dropped the car a lap behind the leaders and damaged hopes of fighting for an overall podium position.

Nevertheless, Havrda settled into her stint and focused on delivering consistent laps, running in the 1:48 range and improving consistently over her stint.

The race then swung again when Jon Hirshberg crashed into the barriers on lap 26, triggering another Full Course Yellow period.

Race leader Catalano was able to pit immediately before the caution was deployed, while the subsequent pass-around procedure helped compress the field once again.

When the green flag returned with 58 minutes remaining, Havrda was running sixth, albeit still one lap down. She briefly lost the position to Thienes on the restart before regaining sixth when Jagger Jones ran off the road on lap 32.

Photo credits: TWOth Autosport

More drama followed shortly afterwards as Wyatt Brichacek crashed at Oak Tree Corner and found the barriers. Just before another caution period unfolded, Havrda brought the #2 Ligier into pit lane to hand the car back to Hill for the run to the finish.

Brichacek's incident was soon followed by Hirshberg also going off at the same corner, resulting in lengthy Full Course Yellow period while both cars were recovered.

Once racing resumed, Hill immediately demonstrated competitive pace. With several competitors making pit stops, Hill focused on maximizing the car's speed and quickly set a new personal benchmark for the team; he first recorded a 1:45.5 before lowering the car's best race lap to an 1:45.0.

Although Patrick Kujala remained ahead, Hill consistently produced strong lap times and established a comfortable margin over the cars behind. Throughout the second half of his stint, Hill regularly lapped in the low 1:46 range, steadily increasing his advantage over Jagger Jones. However, despite the strong pace, the gap to Kujala remained too large to overcome, growing to approximately 13 seconds.

With the earlier drive-through penalty having effectively removed the team from overall podium contention, the focus shifted toward maximizing the final result.

Hill brought the car home in fifth place overall, securing another top-five finish for the Shopify Racing by TWOth Autosport pairing and fourth among the Bronze entries.

Considering the early setbacks in the weekend, there were plenty of positives to take away. The team overcame technical issues that had severely limited practice running, qualified on the second row, ran near the front in the opening stages, and demonstrated competitive race pace throughout the event, with potential for an overall podium finish looking possible.

The result strengthens Havrda and Hill's position in the championship, with the duo now sitting sixth in the IMSA Airbnb Endurance Challenge standings.

Next up for Havrda will be the final endurance round of the endurance season at Road America on 14-15 August, where the Canadian will aim to convert her growing confidence in the car into a first podium finish in LMP3.