Sonoma is naturally a circuit where its difficult to overtake, and the winners of the Blancpain GT World Challenge America weekend, the No. 61 R. Ferri Motorsports Ferrari 488 GT3 and the No. 58 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R, took advantage of this combined with some good strategy.
In Race 1, a somewhat forceful move into Turn 1 kept the No. 61 R. Ferri Ferrari in front and made the No. 58 Wright Porsche go down to third. Scott Hargrove in the No. 58 was decided to find an opening into the No. 3 K-PAX Bentley, so Hargrove eventually settled down until the pit window.
Both the No. 58 and the No. 61 lost time in the pits, so it was a double win for K-PAX Racing, with the No. 3 Bentley staying in second while the No. 9 Bentley took third position. The gap to the No. 61 R. Ferri Ferrari wasn’t exactly that much, though the Bentleys would have to rely on the backmarkers to slow down Toni Vilander.
Another noteworthy performance was from the No. 42 RealTime Acura, which was in the Pro-Am lead and fifth overall, being capable of putting pressure in the Pro Cup entries.
The Bentleys didn’t have much to do against the No. 61, so they basically settled for second and third while Vilander cruised for victory.
The No. 43 RealTime Acura won the Pro-Am Cup unchallenged, while the No. 7 Garage Italia Ferrari did the same in the Am Cup.
In Race 2, The No. 91 Wright Porsche jumped ahead of the No. 61 R. Ferri Ferrari to take the lead, while the No. 58 Wright Porsche was on close pursuit in third. It was really busy in the midfield, which eventually led to the first caution, with a crashed No. 19 One11 Ferrari stopped in the grass.
With Matt Campbell driving the No. 91 Wright Porsche, the Pro-Am Cup entry was able to stay in the lead, and extending his track time was part of the strategy to give them the opportunity possible. The pit window benefited Wright Motorsport a lot, as their two Porsches were doing a 1-2, with the two cars switching positions, so the Pro Cup No. 58 could benefit of some clean air while the Pro-Am Cup No. 91 would keep its class lead, and with this Anthony Imperato relinquished the second overall to a stronger Miguel Molina in the No. 61 R. Ferri Ferrari.
Molina was chasing Hargrove and was closing the gap while keeping as safe as possible, with a pair of yellow flags helping the Spanish driver. Both Wright Porsches were on pressure to lose their class leads, with the No. 91 in fact being relegated to second in Pro-Am as the No. 14 GMG Porsche passed to not get out of it, with the No. 43 RealTime Acura taking advantage and going through too.
With the No. 61 not taking too much risks, the No. 58 Wright Porsche still kept the top spot and saw the checkered flag first.
Having past the halfway mark of the series, the competitors’ next destination is on the other side of the country, as Watkins Glen will hold the next event on August 30th and September 1st.
PHOTOS - SRO
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