Hardwick Wins Thrilling Am/LB Cup Race 1 at Vallelunga

In a duel of class champions, Dream Racing Motorsport driver Ryan Hardwick made a daring move past Florian Scholze with just a few minutes to go to take Lamborghini World Final Am/LB Cup Race 1 at Vallelunga.

Manuel Lauk qualified the No. 69 Doerr Motorsport car on pole and pulled away to a substantial lead in the early going before turning the car over to Scholze just past midway.

Raffaele Giannoni and Hardwick, who both drove solo, started to make up ground on the lead car during Scholze’s stint despite being locked in an intense duel of their own, which Hardwick finally won with 10 minutes remaining.

Hardwick trailed Scholze, the 2018 European Am class champion, by over a second after making the pass around Giannoni and into the runner-up spot, but quickly tracked down the race leader.

The newly crowned Super Trofeo North America Am champion made several aborted attempts to make the pass for the lead in a thrilling battle that lasted the better part of of ten minutes and finally made the move stick in the waning moments.

Giannoni completed the podium in third, followed by Davide Roda who came from eighth on the starting grid to finish fourth.

Justin Price, also racing out of the Dream Racing Motorsport stable, won the LB Cup class race with an 11th place overall finish.

He found himself in the class lead when P1 Motorsports driver Brett Meredith pulled off track from the race lead in the final minute.

Joseph Collado and Gerard Van der Horst completed the class podium in LB Cup.

Race is scheduled for 10 a.m. local time.

RESULTS: Am/LB Cup Race 1