Yahoo Autos North American Super Trofeo teams grab two wins in World Finals opener
Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America teams claimed victory in both classes of the first single-make series’ World Finals race for the Am and LB Cup classes today, but their counterparts in the Pro and ProAm classes didn’t fare as well in their race.
Anthony Mcintosh and Glenn McGee, the North American Am season champions, held off stiff competition to win the World Finals Am race in the No. 169 Precision Performance Motorsports, Lamborghini Palm Beach Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo Evo2. In the same race, North American LB Cup season champ Mark Wilgus was a surprise class winner in the No. 150 Forte Racing Powered by US RaceTronics, Lamborghini Beverly Hills Huracán after Forte Racing teammate Blake McDonald was spun while leading in the final corner on the final lap of the 50-minute race.
In the Pro/ProAm race that followed, the best North American finishers were two-time North American Pro champions Danny Formal and Kyle Marcelli (No. 101 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport, Lamborghini Palm Beach Huracán), who finished sixth overall and in the Pro class, and Andy Lee and Slade Stewart (No. 114 Flying Lizard Motorsports, Lamborghini Newport Beach Huracán), who placed fifth in ProAm.
McGee started from the overall pole in the 40-car Am/LB Cup race but dropped to third place when the green flag waved. He fought his way back to the lead within 15 minutes, turning the No. 169 Huracán over to McIntosh in front during the mandatory pit stop cycle.
McIntosh drove brilliantly from there, holding off Super Trofeo Europe driver Ibrahim Badawy (No. 62 Huracán) on a pair of late restarts from full-course cautions to win. Badawy was levied a 10-second penalty for incident responsibility earlier in the race, so the margin of victory for McGee and McIntosh wound up at 1.93s over Gabriel Rindone (No. 21 Huracán).
“Glenn nailed it! He gave me a perfect position and a perfect car,” McIntosh said. “Tires were good, team was good, everything.”
“And he had massive restarts!” McGee added about his co-driver. “Our biggest competitors (for the World Finals championship) took a big hit, so it puts pressure on them and takes it off of us for (the second race) tomorrow.”
Wilgus was resigned to finishing no better than third in LB Cup until some late fireworks. European driver Shota Abkhazva (No. 75 Huracán) passed McDonald (No. 171 Forte Racing, Lamborghini Beverly Hills Huracán) for the class lead on the final restart with two minutes remaining, but Abkhazva was facing his own 10-second time penalty for incident responsibility earlier in the race as well.
That meant McDonald, a winner in Thursday’s North American ProAm race when he teamed with Patrick Liddy, was set to win the World Final LB Cup race driving solo. Until, that is, he was tapped from behind while exiting the final turn and stranded on track.
Wilgus came home with the LB Cup win, with Forte Racing teammate Jon Hirshberg just 0.346s behind in the No. 186 Lamborghini Rancho Mirage Huracán.
“We qualified way in the back so I thought, ‘All right, stay clean’ and got a favorable start. Then it was kind of workmanlike working my way through the field and then there were just a couple real favorable incidents right in front of me. I feel fortunate but I’m also pretty excited about this.”
The second World Finals races stream live on the Lamborghini Squadra Corse YouTube page starting at 5:55am ET (Am/LB Cup) and 8:50am (Pro/ProAm) Sunday.
World Finals Pro/ProAm Race 1 Results
