Loftsgard Looking to Continue Strong Start to Season at Laguna

Photo: Bob Chapman/Ford

Cole Loftsgard will be looking to continue a strong start to his rookie season in Mustang Challenge North America, with the Round 3 Racing driver again amongst the favorites entering this weekend’s action at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

A total of 17 entries are set for the third and fourth rounds of the season, down from the 19 cars that took part last month at Sebring International Raceway.

While former Indy NXT driver Nolan Allaer is set for his series debut in Spark Performance’s Ford Mustang Dark Horse R, reigning Dark Horse Legends champion and current points leader Alex Bachoura will be skipping the event for family reasons.

Lou Gigliotti, who made his Mustang Challenge debut at Sebring and Bruce Griffin, who crashed out in practice in the opening weekend, are both not listed to take part this weekend, either.

Ford Motor Company CEO Jim Farley, however, will again be a VIP entry in the No. 17 Wheelhouse Dark Horse R.

With an impressive sweep of the season opening weekend, Loftsgard has jumped into a 60-point lead over Wheelhouse Motorsports driver Michael Tosi, with TechSport’s Devin Anderson sitting third ahead of Will Lucas, also of Wheelhouse.

Bachoura’s absence this weekend will almost certainly result in a new points leader in DHL, with Tom Tait and Chris Clarke currently tied on 620 points to Bachoura’s 740.

A pair of practice sessions kick off track action on Friday, followed by qualifying in the evening. Race 1 gets underway Saturday at 8:50 a.m. PST (11:50 a.m. EST), with the second race on tap for Sunday at 9:30 a.m. PST (12:30 p.m. PST).

Both 45-minute races will be streamed live on Peacock, as well as on IMSA and Ford Racing’s YouTube channels.

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