Carazo: “Mind-Blowing” Winning Pro-Am Title On Tiebreaker

Precision Performance Motorsports driver Sebastian Carazo said it was “mind-blowing” for him and Bryan Ortiz to beat teammates Bryson Lew and John Castro Dubets to the Lamborghini Grand Finals Pro-Am title on a tiebreaker decided by a fastest lap.

Carazo and Ortiz came away with the championship with a seventh place finish in the deciding contest, having won the first race of the weekend on Saturday.

The Sunday race was an exact reversal of the finishing order on Saturday, with Dubets and Lew coming home in seventh while Carazo and Ortiz won the race.

With the two entries tied on 17 points in the standings, the championship was decided in favor of Carazo and Ortiz because the No. 147 Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2’s best race lap of 1:44.517 was faster than the 1:44.927 set by the sister car.

“It was definitely something we weren’t expecting,” Carazo told Sportscar365.

“I just came into the pits, just about to get out of the car. I was just about to disconnect the radio and heard, ‘You guys are P1’. I said, ‘What?’

“It was mind-blowing to be able to win on a tiebreaker with your own team on a quickest lap done in the middle of the race, not thinking about doing quick laps but just thinking about going up through positions.”

The fastest lap of the race was set by co-driver Ortiz, who took the race start and ran in third place in class before handing over to Carazo halfway, but a longer stop compared to its rivals meant the car dropped out of the top three.

“I was a little frustrated when I jumped out of the car,” Ortiz said. “We were in a very good position to have the championship without having to be really stressed.

“Sebastian came from the back and started making his way up. I did not expect it. I knew it was going to be tight with the whole field, because it was a little sharp from yesterday’s race.

“But I didn’t expect that we were going to be tied and then how the tiebreaker was with the fastest lap, I didn’t know it was the fastest lap. It all came and it was positive for us.”

Castro Dubets, who took the No. 146 car to victory in the Pro-Am class, told Sportscar365 that he was unaware a faster lap time was necessary, noting he would have pushed for a quick lap during his stint otherwise.

“Every driver is here to win and I think when we looked at it, I was out 11 seconds in the lead and we were kind of conserving tires,” he said.

“If we knew we needed a fast lap, I would have tried for one. Not to say we could have gotten it done, but we didn’t even try.

“That’s a little bit of the heartbreak in that, because that is what ultimately broke the tiebreaker.

“If anything, I should just bank on putting on in all the time. Go by the book of Spinelli, as we should say, and make sure we’re up top.

“That would have secured the spot for us. It will probably hurt a little bit more once we get home and put that second-place trophy on the mantle.”

Despite the defeat, Castro Dubets was able to take consolation from the fact that the tiebreaker was decided in favor of another car from the PPM stable, as opposed to a different team.

“We kind of came into this race thinking that they would find themselves in the position and if we found ourselves in the way, then we might sacrifice ourselves to see the team back on top,” he said of Ortiz and Carazo.

“Bryan Ortiz has done an amazing job and so has Sebastian Carazo. In the main season championship it was a tight battle right to the end and we were able to inch out on that one.

“If it had to go to someone else, I couldn’t be happier for it to go to someone under the same tent as us.”