Bamber, De La Torre Triumph in Race 1 at The Glen

Will Bamber and Elias De La Torre won the opening race of the Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America weekend at Watkins Glen International after a late penalty for Wayne Taylor Racing.

WTR’s Danny Formal wasted no time getting to the head of the field, overtaking the pole-sitting Bamber into Turn 1 on the first lap and opening up a small gap to the TR3 Racing driver behind.

Formal maintained his advantage at the head of the field before handing the car off to teammate Ericsson in the pits, who stayed in the lead after a late safety car restart with just over five minutes remaining. However, Ericsson would be forced to hand the lead to De La Torre as one of six cars made to serve drive-through penalties for a short pitstop.

At the checkered flag, De La Torre finished 1.802 seconds clear of Jake Walker’s No. 77 Forty7 Motorsports Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2 to secure the win with co-driver Bamber in the No. 29 TR3 machine.

Nick Persing finished on the podium for WTR in his No. 8 Pro-class Lamborghini ahead of Alliance Racing’s Luke Berkeley and Ernie Francis Jr in fourth. ANSA Motorsports’ Colin Queen rounded out the overall top five with co-driver Enzo Geraci.

Brendon Leitch was handed an early drive-through penalty for a “non-participating second driver,” forcing him to relinquish the Pro-Am lead to ANSA Motorsports’ Nicky Hays in the opening laps.

Although TR3’s Conrad Geis would emerge from the pit cycle as the class leaders after taking over from co-driver Jason Hart, a late charge up the order from Tyler Gonzalez would see him share the Pro-Am class with fellow series debutant Harry Gottsacker in the No. 81 RAFA Racing Lamborghini.

One Motorsports’ Anthony Bullock started Race 1 from the Am class pole and initially began to pull a gap to his fellow class competitors before WTR’s Graham Doyle began to reel him in and challenge for the lead as pit stops got underway.

However, an incident with Kaizen Autosport’s Seth Henry dropped him out of contention, paving the way for Doyle and Glenn McGee to take the Am win. Henry would serve a late drive-through penalty for incident responsibility.

Drama struck LBCup leader Tom Capizzi, who pulled off the race track with just over 30 minutes to go in his No. 49 Forte Racing Lamborghini, pulling behind the wall with an apparent mechanical issue and handing the class lead to RAFA’s Rocky T Bolduc before the pit window opened.

Though with most of the class front-runners having to serve drive-throughs for short pit stops, the No. 52 Forty7 Lamborghini of Mark Brummond came through to take the class victory following a late push to climb up the order in the final laps.

An incident from Salde Setward and Leitch came under review from race control after the pair banged doors on their way towards the pit entry.

Dominic Starkweather later struck the tire wall and then the guard rail exiting the Inner Loop. The Precision Performance Motorsports driver would get back up to speed before going off at the exit of Turn 1, requiring recovery and triggering a full-course yellow in the final 15 minutes.

38 cars started Friday’s race after Stephen Sorbaro’s No. 94 LBCup ANSA entry failed to make the start.

Race 2 of the Super Trofeo North America weekend goes green at 4:10 p.m. EST and will feature live coverage on Peacock as well as Lamborghini Squadra Corse and IMSA’s YouTube channels.

RESULTS: Race 1