Taurino, Spinelli Victorious in Opening Race at Road America

Giano Taurino and Loris Spinelli claimed victory in a yellow-filled opening race of the weekend for the Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America series at Road America which ended under full course caution. 

A lengthy early yellow extended the opening of the pit window and Spinelli took advantage on the restart, going long in his opening stint in clear air as the leaders dove to pit lane.

After eventually making their mandatory pit stop, the No. 88 Taurino Racing by D Motorsport Lamborghini Super Trofeo EVO2 cycled out of the pits in the overall lead with Taurino behind the wheel.

Taurino would take the checkered flag behind the second of two safety car periods. 

The first yellow was brought out to clear the No. 13 O’Gara Motorsport/Change Racing/USRT LB Cup machine of Ofir Levy, which stopped on track with an apparent mechanical issue. 

During the stoppage, track workers also laid down a significant amount of oil dry across a large section of the track spanning from Turns 5 to 12.

The lengthy safety car period extended the opening of the pit window, as starting drivers spent roughly 30 minutes at reduced speed. 

Danny Formal initially led the field to green in his pole-sitting No. 1 Prestige Performance with Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini and held onto the lead in the opening laps. 

Just behind, Patrick Liddy took his Pro-Am No. 8 O’Gara/Change/USRT machine passed the solo-driven No. 30 ANSA Motorsport Pro class car of Nelson Piquet Jr. through Turn 1 to claim second place overall.

After the initial caution, the race would see roughly 15 minutes of green flag running before the race would finish under yellow for incidents with multiple cars.

Those impacted including the No. 14 Flying Lizard Motorsports entry of Slade Stewart and the No. 18 NTE Sport machine of Tiger Tari who made contact going wheel-to-wheel through the carousel.

Stewart got going on his own, while Sellari had to be extracted from the exit of Turn 9. 

Nearly simultaneously, the No. 99 ANSA Motorsports car of Jordan O’Brien spun at the final corner. The former Olympic snowboarder was able to slide his way out of the gravel.

After leading the opening section of the race, the Kyle Marcelli and Formal came home in second place, while the No. 50 O’Gara/Change/USRT car of Edoardo Piscopo and Patrick Kujala took the final step of the podium.

In Pro-Am the No. 46 Precision Performance Motorsports entry of Bryson Lew and John Dubets claimed victory in class. The front-running No. 8 O’Gara/Change/USRT of Liddy and Oakey shuffled back to fourth in class after the yellow flag restart. 

David Staab and Nikko Reger took their No. 48 PPM car to an Am class win and the No. 54 Dream Racing Motorsports car of Jason Gagne-Keats and Charlie Martin won in LB Cup after late dramas for Stewart.

Race 2 will go green at 1:55 p.m. CT (2:55 p.m. ET) following the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race, with live coverage provided by Peacock and IMSA.tv.

RESULTS: Race 1