Norman Seeking Elusive First Win as Series Heads to VIR

It hasn’t been for lack of effort that Ryan Norman has yet to win in his rookie season of Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America.

Through the first six races of the campaign, Norman has challenged for victory on most occasions, finishing second three times and third once.

The problem is the main competition to overcome comes from within the same Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport stable. Namely, defending Pro class champions Kyle Marcelli and Danny Formal, who’ve swept the table thus far this year.

As the Super Trofeo series heads to Virginia International Raceway this weekend for its fourth doubleheader round, Norman feels he’s coming off his best weekend to date – even though it ended with his No. 84 WTR Andretti Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo EVO2 in the wall at Road America.

Battling for the lead late in the second race at the Wisconsin track, Formal (No. 1 WTR Andretti) and Norman encountered lapped traffic. When he applied the brakes heading into Canada Corner, Norman’s No. 84 Huracan slid slightly off track and was headed toward his teammate in front of him. He had a choice to make in a nanosecond.

“It was either take out my teammate, run into the back of them,” Norman recalled, “or I knew at that point I was done, so I made the decision last second to just turn right and wherever I ended up, I ended up.”

That was in the wall, out of the race and with the chance for victory slipping away once more. Still, Norman felt emboldened leaving Road America with his first two pole positions and potent race pace throughout the weekend.

“I think that definitely clicked for me at Road America finally,” he said, “where I was able to get that extra little percent out of the car.”

He’ll bring that confidence boost to VIR along with a rebuilt Huracan following the crash.

Still to overcome, he reminds, is the three-second difference he must make up due to series regulations mandating minimum pit stop times for solo drivers be three seconds longer than for two-driver entries.

“We knew it was going to be a challenge being a single driver,” said Norman, the 2020 IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge champion in the Touring Car (TCR) class.

“Having that three-second penalty is quite big, especially at the Pro level, where guys just get in the car and can do their job instantaneously… I definitely feel like we might have won the two races at Road America if it wasn’t for that. But at the end of the day, I’ve got to do what I can with the situation.”

Norman knows his best chance of beating his teammates is to out-qualify them and build enough of a lead on the opening stint to overcome time lost on the pit stop.

“If we just continue to be there for those wins,” he said, “it’s bound to fall into our lap at some point. Can’t let Danny and Kyle sweep the whole season, got to get some for myself there, too.”

Halfway through the season, Formal and Marcelli have what could be an insurmountable 33-point lead over Giano Taurino and Lucas Petersson (No. 88 TR3 Racing) in the Pro class, with Norman one point farther back.

Other class leaders heading to VIR are Keawn Tandon (No. 42 NTE Sport, Lamborghini Broward Huracán) in ProAm, Anthony McIntosh and Glenn McGee (No. 69 Precision Performance Motorsports) in Am and Mark Wilgus (No. 50 Forte Racing) in LB Cup. Thirty-four cars are entered among the four classes.

Following two practices on Friday, qualifying for both races starts at 9:25 a.m. ET Saturday. Race 1 is at 2:30 p.m. Saturday and Race 2 at 11:25 a.m. Sunday. Both races stream live on Peacock and IMSA.com/TVLive.