Formal Hunts Down Petersson to Claim Third Consecutive Win

Danny Formal successfully hunted down a penalty-laden Lucas Petersson to continue his and Kyle Marcelli’s winning start to the Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America season in Race 1 at Watkins Glen.

The No. 88 Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2 of Petersson and Giano Taurino led Friday’s 50-minute contest from start to checkered flag but dropped behind the Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport pairing in the classification due to a time penalty.

Taurino and Petersson were handed an additional 1.767 seconds to their race time for undercutting the minimum pit stop time by the same amount, and Formal managed to get his No. 1 car within sufficient range to be declared the winner.

Marcelli started from fourth on the grid and overtook Ryan Norman on the opening lap before settling in behind Pro-Am leader John Capestro Dubets and pole-sitter Taurino.

Taurino established a lead of around four seconds over Capestro Dubets while the gap between the two cars went out to almost 10 seconds once the pit stop cycle had fully shaken out.

However, Petersson’s advantage was pegged back by a Full Course Yellow period caused by an accident at Turn 1 for Todd Coleman, who was one of several drivers to spin under damp conditions caused by the arrival of light rainfall.

Capestro Dubets’ co-driver Tom Capizzi also got into trouble at Turn 5, handing second place to Formal and dropping the Pro-Am leading car to fifth overall.

When the race restarted with eight minutes to go, Formal moved ahead of three back markers before grinding away at Petersson’s four-second lead.

The Costa Rican driver set the fastest lap of the race on the final tour to bring the gap underneath the crucial 1.7-second threshold that ensured a third consecutive victory for the No. 1 WRT Andretti Lamborghini in as many races this season.

Capestro Dubets and Capizzi took Pro-Am honors for Precision Performance Motorsports, while David Staab prevailed in Am for the same team.

LB Cup honors went to Forte Racing Powered by US RaceTronics driver Mark Wilgus.

The second Super Trofeo North America race of the weekend is scheduled for 11:10 a.m. ET on Saturday.

RESULTS: Race 1