Bamber, De La Torre Sweep Sebring Weekend

Photo: Jamey Price/Lamborghini

Will Bamber and Elias De La Torre completed a clean sweep of the opening weekend of Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America at Sebring International Raceway, with the TR3 Racing duo claiming victory in Friday’s Race 2.

Bamber out-dueled the No. 1 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2 of defending champion Hampus Ericsson in the final 15 minutes of the race, which was slowed by two full-course cautions.

While pole-sitter De La Torre jumped out into an early lead over Pro-Am class pace-setter Marc Miller in the No. 41 Flying Lizard Motorsports entry, Ericsson’s co-driver Nick Persing got around Miller following the second restart with 20 minutes to go.

An overcut strategy for the No. 1 WTR Lamborghini, which saw Persing stay out one additional lap once the delayed pit window opened, nearly paid off, as Ericsson exited the pits nearly side-by-side with an at-speed Bamber, who didn’t lift entering Turn 1 to retake the lead.

The Kiwi then managed the small gap to the finish of the race, 1.877 seconds ahead of Ericsson.

The No. 4 ANSA Motorsports entry of Colin Queen and Tommi Gore completed the overall and Pro class podium in third, ahead of the No. 46 Precision Performance Motorsports Lamborghini of Brandon Gdovic.

Danny Formal and Graham Doyle doubled up in Pro-Am, finishing fifth overall in their No. 10 WTR Lamborghini, which also won on Thursday.

Both the Nos. 46 and 10 cars were handed minor post-race time penalties for having not met the minimum pit stop times, and while it swapped the overall positions, it didn’t impact the class results.

TR3 celebrated a double victory on Friday, with Dean Neuls edging out Johan Schwartz and David Staab for the Am class victory.

The top three in class were separated by less than one-second at the line.

LB Cup honors went to Rocky T Bolduc after late-race drama for the No. 65 Taurino Racing entry of Ray Shahi, who was leading until making contact with the Turn 16 barriers with two laps to go.

Shahi, however, managed to bring hone a third place class result.

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