Ciglia Passes Gomez to Win Am/LB Cup World Final Opener

Massimo Ciglia won the opening race of the Lamborghini World Final in the Am/LB Cup group after an entertaining Saturday evening battle against Victor Gomez at Misano.

Pole-sitter Ciglia led the opening stint, but Gomez reeled in and passed the Oregon Team driver in traffic with nine minutes of the 50-minute contest remaining.

Approximately four and a half minutes later, a recovering Ciglia planted his Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO down the inside of Gomez’s Change Racing machine at the Quercia left-hander to retake a lead that he would maintain until the checkered flag.

The Italian’s victory came despite a 0.66-second post-race penalty that reflected the amount of time he spent under the required 103-second minimum during his pit stop.  

Ciglia was also involved in an incident at the start of the race that saw Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America competitor Jordan Missig crash heavily on the fast run down to the Turn 11 kink.

Missig, who had started from third on the grid, attempted to draw alongside Ciglia on the back straight but stepped out onto the grass as the Oregon Team driver moved across to defend his lead.

Missig ended up veering back across the track and into the left-side barrriers. The American driver walked away from the incident but his Wayne Taylor Racing car was stranded with damage, resulting in a safety car period that ate into much of the opening stint.

Ciglia controlled the restart ahead of Andrzej Lewandowski in the No. 16 Vincenzo Sospiri Racing Lamborghini, with Gomez following the pair closely.

The lead gap extended to around three seconds heading into mandatory pit stops, with Ciglia and Lewandowski staying out until the end of the mid-race stopping window.

Gomez emerged in second position after successfully undercutting Lewandowski, who fell into the clutches of Missig’s WTR co-driver Ashton Harrison.

The closing stages of the race were marked by separate battles for first-second and third-fourth between cars from the European and North American Super Trofeo championships.

Europe prevailed in the battle for the win as Ciglia recovered from Gomez finding a way past him on the run out of Turn 3 to claim the maximum score of 15 points.

In the duel for second, Harrison found a run on Lewandowski near the end of the lap, only for the Polish driver to shut the door which resulted in a five-second time penalty.

Harrison fought back from losing ground in that incident and managed to slip underneath Lewandowski at the Turn 5 right-hander a few minutes later, but was also handed an extra five seconds for bumping the VSR car in one of her attempts to get past.

Harrison and Lewandowski crossed the line in third and fourth, but were demoted to fourth and fifth in the final classification due to their penalties.

Gabriel Rindone inherited the final podium spot worth 10 points in his Leipert Motorsport Lamborghini.

Raffaele Giannoni was sixth, ahead of Han Hulin and Gerhard Watzinger.

Super Trofeo North America regular John Hennessy took a commanding victory in the LB Cup class from pole position.

The US RaceTronics driver finished two Am cars ahead of his nearest LB Cup challengers in Bart Collins and Michael Mennella, who shared the No. 104 MCR Racing car.

The first Pro/Pro-Am race of the World Final is due to get underway at 6:50 p.m. CEST (12:50 p.m. EST). Both of Saturday’s races were pushed back to later in the day after a series of red flags interrupted the afternoon qualifying sessions.

RESULTS: Am/LB Cup Race 1 (provisional) / Standings