NEWS

The championship battles intensified in Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America action upon its return to Road America, which at 4.048 miles is the longest circuit on the schedule. In front of a packed house of fans around the facility, the 35 cars across the four Lamborghini Super Trofeo classes of Pro, Pro-Am, Am and LB Cup all put on a show.

Wayne Taylor Racing’s Danny Formal and Hampus Ericsson repeated their accomplishment at the season-opening Sebring International Raceway weekend with a sweep of the two Pro class races. Nick Groat of ONE Motorsports did the same in LB Cup.

WTR also won in Pro-Am with Trent Hindman and Jackson Lee on Saturday, while TR3 Racing’s Conrad Geis and Jason Hart broke through in class on Sunday.

Finally, after three straight runner-up finishes, RAFA Racing’s Lindsay Brewer and Jem Hepworth scored an overdue first victory in Am in Sunday’s second race of the weekend. That followed on from David Staab’s win for Precision Performance Motorsport in race one.

Unofficially, the No. 29 TR3 Huracán (Pro), No. 11 MLT Huracán (Pro-Am), No. 10 WTR Huracán (Am) and No. 57 ONE Huracán (LB Cup) entries lead the respective class championships with two race weekends and four races to go. But the margins in both Pro and Pro-Am appear to be razor thin.

The series resumes with Rounds 9 and 10 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with track activity Sept. 18-20.  

Pro

Race 1: From the pole position, Danny Formal and Hampus Ericsson led flag-to-flag to secure their third win of the season, and first since a weekend sweep of all possible points in the season-opening weekend at Sebring International Raceway in March. First Formal, then Ericsson controlled the pace out front.

Driving the No. 1 Wayne Taylor Racing, Lamborghini Palm Beach, Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo Evo2, Formal gapped the field by more than seven seconds in his stint, pitted halfway through the pit window with 26 minutes complete, with Ericsson bringing the car home to the finish 8.153 seconds clear of second place. Will Bamber and Elias De La Torre finished second in their No. 29 TR3 Racing Huracán with Scott Huffaker and Jaden Conwright third in their No. 22 World Speed Motorsports Huracán.

Race 2: Formal’s speed in a Huracán Super Trofeo car was on display here as he overcame a 10-second penalty assessed to Ericsson for a jumped start. Formal set three consecutive fastest laps of the race on Laps 8, 9 and 10 with an ultimate best lap time of 2 minutes, 5.270 seconds, and pushed the gap beyond the needed 10 seconds in the subsequent laps. 

Even with the penalty applied, the No. 1 car still won ahead of championship rivals Bamber and De La Torre in the No. 29 TR3 Racing Huracán and Conwright and Huffaker in third in the No. 22 World Speed Motorsports Huracán to complete an identical podium to Saturday's Race 1.

Pro-Am

Race 1: The No. 69 Wayne Taylor Racing, Lamborghini Palm Beach, Huracán enjoyed a clean run to win from pole position. The only time this car lost the lead was during the pit stop sequence. WTR drafted in Trent Hindman, Danny Formal’s full-time teammate in its IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2 variant, and Jackson Lee, who’d started races this year with Forty7 Motorsports. Hindman kept the car out front in his stint and Lee regained the lead after the pit stop cycle was complete, winning by 25.907 seconds. MLT Motorsports’ Darius Trinka and Tadas Karlinskas was second in the No. 11 Huracán ahead of Sebastian Vasan and Coby Shield, in the No. 81 RAFA Racing Huracán.

Race 2: The Pro-Am class saw the championship battle rage between the contending TR3 Racing and MLT Motorsports entries. After three earlier podium finishes this season and after surviving a spin on Saturday, the pair of Conrad Geis and Jason Hart broke through for their first win of the year in the No. 67 TR3 Racing, Lamborghini Miami, Huracán. They won by 11.836 seconds over Trinka and Karlinskas in the No. 11 MLT Huracán with ANSA Motorsports’ Nicky Hays and Antoine Comeau in the No. 30 Huracán third.

Am

Race 1: The second-place rivals in points vied for the win. David Staab in the No. 48 Precision Performance Motorsports, Lamborghini Palm Beach, Huracán made the winning pass on Lindsay Brewer’s No. 2 RAFA Racing Huracán for the lead on Lap 17 of 23. Staab held off RAFA’s all-female lineup of Brewer and Jem Hepworth by 1.814 seconds to score his second win of the year and deny Brewer and Hepworth their first, although they scored their third straight runner-up result and fifth podium in the last six races. TR3’s Dean Neuls was third in his No. 70 Huracán.

Race 2: Am saw a breakthrough winner, in the form of the all-female lineup of Brewer and Hepworth in the No. 2 RAFA Racing, Lamborghini Austin, Huracán. After three straight runner-up finishes, the No. 2 car went one spot better courtesy of a move from Hepworth on Graham Doyle’s No. 10 WTR Huracán on the run to Turn 5, with Doyle running slightly wide on corner exit. Hepworth extended the gap to 14.789 seconds by the end of the race ahead of championship leaders Doyle and Glenn McGee, with Saturday’s winner Staab (No. 48 PPM Huracán) third.

LB Cup

Race 1: Nick Groat scored his fourth win of the year in LB Cup in his No. 57 ONE Motorsports, Lamborghini Newport Beach, Huracán after several lead changes over the course of the race and is unofficially back atop the class championship. He settled into a rhythm out front post the pit stop cycle and netted out a lap ahead of second-placed Jon Hirshberg, who posted a season-best second place result in his No. 86 Forte Racing Huracán. Stephen Sorbaro was third in his No. 94 ANSA Motorsports Huracán.

Race 2: Groat completed a perfect weekend in LB Cup. In Race 2, he led flag-to-flag and won by 13.220 seconds en route to his fifth win of the season. Christopher Tasca (No. 66 Forty7 Motorsports Huracán) and Ray Shahi (No. 65 Forte Racing Huracán) completed the class podium.

Quotes:

Pro

Danny Formal (No. 1 Wayne Taylor Racing): (on Race 2 win) “Wow! This is my 25^th win in the Pro category of Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America and that was by far my favorite race. Hampus got the penalty unfortunately so I had to get the 10-second lead. I haven’t driven that hard every lap, pushing as hard as I could, in a long time. I think we’re a lot closer now heading to Indy. WTR and Lamborghini gave us a rocketship.”

Hampus Ericsson (No. 1 Wayne Taylor Racing): (on Race 1 win) “It’s good to be back on top. Now we’re really getting into the championship fight.” (on Race 2 win) “It was probably the best drive I’ve seen anyone do. He’s a different breed.”

Pro-Am

Jackson Lee (No. 69 Wayne Taylor Racing): “I've had a couple of podiums this year, but to be able to stand on the top step is awesome and it means a lot. To get one for the boys is great, but to team with Trent is amazing. I've learned so much from him and the team this week, so I'm just super thankful for this opportunity.”

Trent Hindman (No. 69 Wayne Taylor Racing): “Jackson's being entirely too nice to me. I've gained just as much from him. It's a good partnership because he’s been driving these cars a little bit throughout the year. It's been a while since I've been in one, so there's a lot of good two-way communication going on here.”

Jason Hart (No. 67 TR3 Racing): “The Lamborghini was operating at its best for us this weekend, and so we hope this’ll be a continuation the rest of the way.”

Darius Trinka (No. 11 MLT Motorsports): “It seems that one race they’re ahead, one race we’re ahead. Another super consistent race for us. Tadas was amazing as he dodged a lot of issues; we call him ‘the Matrix’ and I’m glad we stayed alive and brought the car home.”

Am

Jem Hepworth (No. 2 RAFA Racing): “That stint was the best stint of my life. I was chasing down P1, I knew I had time and had about 12 minutes on the clock. I thought, ‘Let’s not do anything outrageous and wait for him to make a bit of a mistake.’ Last night we were distraught with second; at the beginning of the season, we’d have been thrilled for it! We wanted the win, and we got it.”

Lindsay Brewer (No. 2 RAFA Racing): “Jem did an incredible job at the end. We gained a lot of positions at the start to bring it to P3 and Jem took it home. This is my favorite track, and it’s such an incredible place to have my first win here.”

David Staab (No. 48 Precision Performance Motorsports): “It was just super slick on Turn 6 where the No. 2 car just went a little bit wide there. I was able to capitalize on that and get in front. But she put pressure on me the whole rest of the race. It was a tough race and she drove well, but the PPM guys put together a great setup for me and the car was awesome out there.”

LB Cup

Nick Groat (No. 57 ONE Motorsports): (on Race 1 win) “I think we went our longest run all year without having a podium, which was three races, so we really wanted to get that right today.” (on Race 2 win)  “This was a big swing in the championship for us this weekend; I’d love to battle others, but we’ll take being ahead and a huge double win.”