Norman Breaks Marcelli, Formal’s Win Streak in Race 1

Ryan Norman brought an end to Danny Formal and Kyle Marcelli’s undefeated streak in Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America by winning Race 1 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Norman, piloting the No. 84 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2, crossed the line 17.606 seconds ahead of Marcelli’s No. 1 sister car to claim his first win of the season.

Marcelli and Formal had gone undefeated since the start of the campaign by racking up eight consecutive victories, but came up short against their stablemate in an attempt to extend the streak to nine wins.

Formal started the race from pole position, but tripped up at the first corner and slid wide, allowing Norman to slip through and claim the race lead.

Giano Taurino also moved past aboard the No. 88 TR3 Racing car, although Formal regained second position some 15 minutes later.

By that stage, however, Norman extended his advantage over the championship leaders with the gap growing to six seconds when he came in for his mandatory pit stop.

Crucially, this allowed the No. 84 car to retain the lead even with the three seconds added to Norman’s stop for a single driver entry, with Marcelli slotting into second place 3.6 seconds down.

Any hopes of a ninth straight win then evaporated when Marcelli ran wide through the grass at Turn 6 while chasing Norman, which significantly increased the gap between the two cars.

While Norman controlled the advantage to claim his first win of the season, Marcelli came under pressure from the No. 30 ANSA Motorsports Lamborghini of Sebastian Saavedra in the closing stages but held him at bay to finish second.

Saavedra and co-driver Nico Jamin completed the podium in third place, with Taurino and Lucas Petersson finishing fourth in the No. 88 car.

Nate Stacy and Nick Persing rounded out the top five aboard the No. 8 WTR Andretti entry, capturing the Pro-Am class win in the process.

Stacy and Persing finished ahead of the No. 77 Forty7 Motorsports machine driven by Jake Walker, with Luke Berkeley and Keawn Tandon picking up second in Pro-Am with seventh place overall.

Tandon and TPC Racing’s Shehan Chandrasoma both made their way past the Sparklefarts-liveried No. 14 Flying Lizard Motorsports Lamborghini of Slate Stewart in late in the race, with Stewart eventually dropping back to twelfth overall and fifth in class.

Chandrasoma crossed the line in ninth overall to complete the Pro-Am podium behind Am class winners Anthony McIntosh and Glenn McGee despite a late collision with Ofir Levy.

Levy smashed into Chandrasoma’s No. 20 machine at Turn 1 and later received a drive through penalty for the incident.

The victory in LB Cup went to the No. 10 WTR Andretti Lamborghini of Graham Doyle, who finished 19th overall.

The second and final race of the weekend gets underway Sunday at 10:40 a.m. EDT with live coverage on Peacock and IMSA.tv.

RESULTS: Race 1