Vilander, Molina Take Race 2 Win at Lime Rock

Photo: PWC

Toni Vilander and Miguel Molina have extended their Pirelli World Challenge GT SprintX championship lead with victory in Race 2 at Lime Rock Park.

The R. Ferri Motorsport duo cruised to the win Monday afternoon, in a dominant run for the No. 61 Ferrari 488 GT3.

Molina took the lead from the start after pole-sitter Raffaele Marciello hit trouble on the pace lap, with an electrical issue to his No. 2 CRP Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3.

While Race 1 winner Michael Christensen held the Spaniard at bay, a call to pit the No. 24 Alegra Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R prior to Molina’s stop did not play to their benefit this time.

Once back on track, Spencer Pumpelly lost second to a hard-charging Alvaro Parente in the No. 9 K-PAX Racing Bentley Continental GT3, who got around the Algera Porsche with 27 minutes to go.

Molina pitted shortly after, with Vilander retaining the lead, despite a slow stop.

The Finn claimed a 2.489-second win over Parente, who finished second.

It marked the team’s third SprintX victory of the season, with championship rivals Scott Hargrove and Wolf Henzler finishing fourth and losing further ground on the Ferrari factory drivers.

The two Porsches of Pumpelly and Hargrove enjoyed a late-race fight, although the positions were unchanged.

Baptista, Soulet Take Pro-Am Honors

K-PAX’s Rodrigo Baptista and Maxime Soulet picked up Pro-Am class honors with a fifth place overall finish for its No. 3 Bentley.

The Brazilian finished more than 25 seconds clear of the second-place class-finishing No. 19 TruSpeed Autosport Audi R8 LMS GT3 of Parker Chase and Ryan Dalziel, which claimed class victory in Race 1.

Wei Lu and Jeff Segal completed the Pro-Am podium in third in their No. 31 TR3 Racing Ferrari.

The race ran caution-free with no on-track incidents, other than Maricello stopping on the pace lap, which led to an additional lap prior to going green.

RESULTS: Race 2

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John