Anderson Takes Controlling Race 1 Win at COTA

Photo: Wes Duenkel/Ford

Devin Anderson scored his third Mustang Challenge North America victory of the season in a controlling performance in the opening race of the weekend at Circuit of The Americas, which ended under full-course caution.

The TechSport Racing driver took a flag-to-flag win in the penultimate race of the campaign, finishing ahead of Dark Horse points leader Cole Loftsgard, who saw his 160-point lead after qualifying reduced to 130 points with a second place finish.

With Anderson also claiming pole for Race 2 by setting the fastest lap in tonight’s race, it means Loftsgard will unofficially need to finish eighth or higher in the nine-car Dark Horse field to be crowned series champion on Sunday.

Will Lucas made late-race pass on Tate Pritt for third in his No. 34 Wheelhouse Motorsports Ford Mustang Dark Horse R.

It came after alternator issues forced the No. 25 Flying Lion Motorsports into the pits just past halfway while running third.

Pritt came home fourth in the No. 98 Automatic Racing entry, with Sandy Satullo completing the top-five.

Dark Horse Legends honors looked set to go the way of Dan McKeever until his Wheelhouse entry went straight into the Turn 1 tire barriers with less than five minutes to go.

It resulted in the yellow, and handed the class win to Chris Clarke in the No. 9 Paley Motorsport with AAG Racing entry, his first series victory.

Clarke made a significant points haul on championship leader Tom Tait, who pitted on Lap 9 with smoke coming from the left-rear of his Wheelhouse Mustang while running fourth in class.

Tait ended up finishing sixth in class and now only holds a 70-point lead over Clarke heading into tomorrow’s title-deciding race.

Round 3 Racing team owner Brad McCall took second in class after passing Paolo Salvatore for initially third place in class before McKeever’s race-ending crash.

The only other on-track incident came after the completion of the opening lap when Ryan Persing’s Paley with AAG entry stopped on track in Turn 1.

Persing limped the car through Turn 10 before pulling off course.

The season finale is set for a 9:50 a.m. CST start time with live coverage on Peacock as well as Ford Racing and IMSA’s YouTube channels.

RESULTS: Race 1

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John