Kuppens Wins Am/LB Cup Race 1 After VSR Penalty

Boutsen VDS driver Renaud Kuppens was declared the winner of the opening Lamborghini World Finals Am/LB Cup race after a post-race penalty for Piergiacomo Randazzo.

Kuppens’ No. 2 Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2 crossed the line 0.608 seconds behind the No. 66 Vincenzo Sospiri Racing machine of Randazzo, but the Italian was dropped to third after a five-second penalty was applied for contact with Anthony McIntosh.

Randazzo, McIntosh, Kuppens and the No. 3 ASR Lamborghini of Andrzej and Adrian Lewandowski were engaged in a four-way battle for the lead after a late safety car restart.

This came after Changwon Lee crashed the No. 263 SQDA-GRIT Motorsport Lamborghini at Turn 5.

When the race restarted, Randazzo led from McIntosh and Kuppens, with the No. 169 Wayne Taylor Racing machine challenging the No. 66 car for the lead on the final lap.

McIntosh appeared to have completed the move when Randazzo ran him off the track at Turn 9, allowing both Kuppens and Lewandowski to slip by.

However, stewards awarded Randazzo a five-second penalty for the incident, promoting Kuppens to the race win.

The No. 3 car of the father-and-son Lewandowski pairing was initially classified second, but was given a 30-second penalty for overtaking under yellow flags and dropped to 19th overall.

As a result, Randazzo and co-driver Stephane Tribaudini were classified third behind McIntosh and Glenn McGee.

Huilin Han was fourth in the No. 39 Target Racing Lamborghini, ahead of the No. 27 CMR machine of Stephane Lemeret and Rodrigue Gillion.

Lemeret led the race into the pitstop window after he overtook Tribaudini on the opening lap, but CMR subsequently lost the lead when Randazzo beat Gillion out of the pits.

The Belgian subsequently struggled for pace as he fell down the order and was classified fifth partially thanks to penalties for Lewandowski as well as Shota Abkhazava.

The Kazakh driver was en route to an overall top-ten result and the LB Cup win until he was given a pair of penalties for overtaking under the safety car and for contact with Precision Performance Motorsports driver David Staab.

Instead, Holger Harmsen picked up the LB Cup victory aboard his No. 90 GT3 Poland Lamborghini, crossing the line in eleventh overall.

RESULTS: Race 1