Loftsgard Dominates on Debut to Win Season Opener

Photo: Ford Racing

Cole Loftsgard continued his dominance of the opening Mustang Challenge North America event of the season to take victory in the first race at Sebring International Raceway.

The Round 3 Racing driver jumped into the lead at the start and was never headed thereafter as he made an impressive opening to his life in the IMSA-sanctioned single-make series.

He was aided by fellow front-row starter Devin Anderson immediately coming under pressure from Michael Tosi.

The Wheelhouse Motorsports driver went side-by-side with Anderson through the opening few turns before sealing the deal as Anderson instead fell into the clutches of Sandy Satullo.

Up at the front, Loftsgard maintained an advantage of around 1.5 seconds for the first third of the race as Tosi kept a watching brief.

But then Loftsgard began to stretch his advantage and he had doubled his lead by lap nine of 20.

Further back, the battle for the final place on the podium occupied the most attention. Satullo spent the first couple of laps pressuring Anderson before his Wheelhouse Mustang Dark Horse R seemed to momentarily falter and he dropped back to 10th.

It was therefore Satullo’s team-mate Will Lucas who was next to challenge the TechSport Racing machine of Anderson.

He eventually sealed the move on lap 11 when Anderson was slightly wide out of Turn 16 and Lucas pounced on the subsequent Ullman Straight.

Lucas did close in slightly on the leaders but was unable to mount a challenge with Loftsgard extending his advantage to six seconds at one point before crossing the line 4.435 seconds ahead of Tosi’s Wheelhouse Motorsports Mustang.

Lucas eventually finished almost 13 seconds further back, while Anderson had to settle for fourth.

Reigning Dark Horse Legends champion Alex Bachoura began his title defense in the best possible fashion as the Spark Performance driver topped the class in fifth, and was right on the tail of Anderson at the flag.

Further back, Satullo recovered from his earlier apparent car woes in the latter stages to complete the top-six.

Tom Tait (Wheelhouse) was runner-up in the Legends division in tenth overall, while late entrant Chris Clarke (Paley Motorsport with AAG Racing) survived a couple of spins to still complete the class podium.

Ford CEO Jim Farley started at the back in a VIP Wheelhouse entry and climbed to 13th by the finish.