Lind “Surprised” to Storm Through From 28th to Fifth

Dennis Lind admitted to being “surprised” to be able to storm through the field from 28th to fifth in the second Lamborghini World Finals Pro/Pro-Am race at Monza after teammate Elias De La Torre was spun by Jaden Conwright.

The TR3 Racing pair won the opening race on Saturday but already faced an uphill task to take World Finals glory as De La Torre had only been able to qualify 13th for Race 2.

Newly crowned Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America champion De La Torre had successfully risen to eighth on the opening lap before a safety car period lasting almost 15 minutes hampered any further progress.

When racing resumed, the No. 129 Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2 was spun by Conwright into the first chicane and dropped to the rear of the field.

De La Torre then handed over to 2016 World Finals conqueror Lind as soon as the pit window opened and the Dane set about charging up the order.

Despite overtaking proving tricky around the Monza circuit, he was able to rise to finish fifth at the flag, but that was not enough to prevent race winners Brendon Leitch and Nicolas Stati from taking the title.

Lind said he “put my head down” and took plenty of risks to recover as many places as he could.

“I didn’t really have to think about too much other than racing and driving fast,” he told Sportscar365.

“I was being told before I didn’t have to conserve anything and it’s not often you get that.

“It was basically just extract everything from any situation I could find and I think if I would’ve crashed, it would’ve been fine.

“It was one of those races where you get into that mindset where everything is fine — you just have to drive and do the best you can.

“When I caught the pack up with Will Bamber and Giano Taurino and these guys in it, I was a little bit surprised because we were quite far back after the spin.

“It’s a bit of a bummer because if the spin wouldn’t have happened I don’t think I would’ve been able to tap into whatever I tapped into!”

Lind was naturally disappointed by the result as he felt it was “definitely in the books that we could’ve taken it this year,” but added: “I don’t think with the hand we were dealt that we could’ve done much different.

“I don’t think there’s much left in me either, I was pretty exhausted after the race.

“It’s so hard to overtake here but I think it’s really a matter of momentum.

“If you can get a good draft off of the other cars and you get a little bit lucky and they make mistakes because they’re fighting in a pack already and you come with a lot of speed, then you get to see early on what happens.

“I really didn’t have any time to decide if there was going to be an overtake or not, I just went for it!”

Of the incident with Conwright that dropped Lind and De La Torre out of contention, Lind felt the contact was a “little bit unnecessary,” but said it was very easily done around Monza.

“There was a big accordion effect, we were still all together,” he added.

“I don’t even blame the other driver too much, these things happen — I’ve done it a million times and it will happen a million more times.

“I feel immensely sorry for Elias because he had a great start and got up to eighth.”