Loftsgard Wins Again After Allaer Incident in Race 1

Photo: Wes Duenkel/Ford

Cole Loftsgard claimed his fourth Mustang Challenge North America victory of the season in the first race of the weekend at Mid-Ohio.

The Round 3 Racing driver took his No. 42 Ford Mustang Dark Horse R to the win over the second-placed No. 22 TechSport entry of Devin Anderson after ending under full-course caution due to an incident for a Dark Horse Legends contender.

The race wasn’t easy going, however, for pole-sitter Loftsgard, who lost the lead at the start to the No. 3 Spark Performance Mustang of Nolan Allaer, who showed an early pace advantage.

However, the former Indy NXT driver dropped to fourth on Lap 8 after a violent single-car off-course excursion in Turn 1 that tore off the car’s floor and damaged the Mustang’s right-front corner after briefly catching air.

It gave clear sailing to Loftsgard to continue his winning ways and extend his points lead in the Dark Horse class.

The No. 7 Wheelhouse Motorsports Mustang of Sandy Satullo completed the podium in third, ahead of Will Lucas, who got around Allaer for fourth just past the halfway mark.

Allaer nursed his wounded car home in fifth, ahead of series debutant Ethan Low in Flying Lion Motorsports’ Mustang.

Paolo Salvatore broke through to claim his first career class victory in DHL, after issues struck the class pole-sitting No. 37 Birdhouse Racing Mustang of Dave Luaces before the drop of the green flag.

The Torre Racing driver finished ahead of the No. 63 Wheelhouse entry of Joe Dederichs, with Joe Koenig coming home third in the No. 70 Round 3 machine.

Tom Tait, who was challenging for the final podium position late in the running, beached his No. 8 Wheelhouse Mustang in Turn 4 with less than two minutes to go, resulting in the race ending under yellow.

Class points leader Chris Clarke had a Saturday to forget, with the No. 9 Paley Motorsport With AAG Racing entry, who started from the rear of the field due to bringing out a red flag in qualifying, was handed a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility with Tait, who was spun around on Lap 3.

Clarke then pitted his car before it went behind the wall with unspecified issues.

Race 2 is set for Sunday at 9:05 a.m. EST 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