Lamborghini ST World Champions Crowned at Sebring

World Champions have been crowned at the Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo World Final in five classes, including four North American entrants in the Huracán PRO-AM, AM and Gallardo classes.

Patrick Kujala (pictured above) has secured the overall Huracán PRO championship, while Corey Lewis (Huracán PRO-AM), Ryan Ockey (Huracán AM), Jake Rattenbury (Gallardo PRO-AM) and Brandon Gdovic (Gallardo AM) gave North America four out of four World Championships.

Race winners in Sunday’s second of two World Final races – and third and fourth overall in all series, and all classes – included Patric Niederhauser (Huracán PRO), Lewis, Cedric Leimer and Laurent Jenny (Huracán AM) and Andres Josephson and Ricardo Vera (Gallardo).

Niederhauser, one of the fastest drivers all week, finally enjoyed a trouble-free race devoid of any penalties in order to secure his first win from pole in the No. 109 Raton Racing Lamborghini Huracán LP 620-2.

He won by 8.480 seconds over Kujala, who delivered a solid drive in the No. 132 Bonaldi Motorsport entry, to add the overall Lamborghini ST World Final title to his season-long title in the Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo Europe championship.

Kujala needed only to stay ahead of his direct competition – the No. 115 Antonelli Motorsport entry of Loris Spinelli and Daniel Zampieri, and Niederhauser’s Raton Racing teammate Alberto Di Folco in the No. 190 Huracán – in order to score enough points for the title. With first and second, Kujala banked 27 points over two days.

Spinelli and Zampieri completed the Huracán PRO podium, a spot ahead of O’Gara Motorsport’s Richard Antinucci and Edoardo Piscopo, who advanced from 12th on the grid to fourth by the checkered flag. An excellent pit stop gained the No. 50 car four spots, in addition to Piscopo making up four spots on his own in his stint.

Lewis, meanwhile, drove another controlled race in the Monster Energy-backed No. 29 Change Racing USA Huracán, advancing into the lead following the pit stop cycle when previous leader Cedric Sbirrazzuoli pitted and handed over the Dream Racing-liveried No. 07 STR Huracán to Lawrence DeGeorge.

Lewis finished 11th overall behind 10 combined PRO entries from Europe, North America and Asia, but the result was enough to give him his fourth win in as many races at Sebring this week, and the PRO-AM World Championship.

The young American has now won 12 straight PRO-AM races, having only lost out this season at the North American season opener at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca back in May.

Prestige Performance made it onto the podium with Kevin Conway and Andrea Amici delivering a good drive in their No. 10 Huracán, and the No. 102 Leipert Motorsport Huracán (Mikko Eskelinin and Kelvin Snoeks) completed the class podium.

Lamborghini ST Huracán PRO/PRO-AM

RESULTS: Huracán PRO
RESULTS: Huracán PRO-AM

Ockey, Rattenbury and Gdovic (pictured above) emerged as champions earlier in the day, following a chaotic 50-minute first race of the day.

A pre-race rainstorm and three full-course cautions during the race threw the race off kilter a bit, and delayed the mandatory 10-minute pit window until the final 13 minutes and change.

Ockey, driver of the No. 89 O’Gara Motorsport Lamborghini Huracán LP 620-2, enjoyed a clean drive from second on the grid to finish in the same position. He inherited the win in Saturday’s race one following a post-race penalty assessed to BAD Lambo Racing.

Ockey ended Sunday behind dominant race winners X-BIONIC Racing Team, with drivers Cedric Leimer and Laurent Jenny in the No. 163 Huracán.

The No. 163 car made the ultimate pass for the win on Lap 5, at Turn 15, to the inside of Jurgen Krebs in his No. 113 Sportec Motorsport Huracán, who ended fourth in class.

Asian entrant Direction Racing, which made its first pit stop just prior to the second full-course yellow and the initial opening of the pits at the 20-minute mark, leapfrogged from 19th on the overall grid to fifth overall and third in Huracán AM with Akira Mizutani and Hajime Noma in the No. 239 car.

Ockey’s brother Damon Ockey started from pole in the No. 09 O’Gara entry, started on pole but retired due to an incident.

In the Gallardo class, the title changed hands on the last lap thanks to a pass for the win between two European entrants.

The No. 134 Bonaldi Motorsport Lamborghini Gallardo LP 570-4 of Andres Josephson and Ricardo Vera got around the prior leader, the No. 174 Imperiale Racing Gallardo of Ivan Benvenuti. The No. 134 car posted a final lap of 2:18.839, to the 174 car’s time of 2:24.104.

Meanwhile Gdovic, who’d run as high as third overall, slipped from fifth to 10th overall on the final lap in his No. 46 Mitchum Motorsports Gallardo after an even worse final lap of 2:30.139. Nonetheless, he still ended third in class, and secured enough points to edge Benvenuti by two points (22 to 20).

Had Benvenuti won the race, he would have won the Gallardo title by one point.

Saturday winner and the weekend’s dominant driver in class, Josh Hurley of Musante-Courtney Racing, pitted after seven laps following contact from another car.

Lamborghini ST Huracán AM/Gallardo

RESULTS: Huracán AM
RESULTS: Gallardo