Loftsgard Wins Opening Race of Weekend at Watkins Glen

Photo: Wes Duenkel/Ford

Cole Loftsgard picked up his fifth Mustang Challenge North America victory of the season in the first race of the weekend at Watkins Glen International.

The Round 3 Racing driver, who started on pole by virtue of being the Dark Horse points leader after the session was abandoned, drove to a 1.809-second win over the second-placed No. 22 TechSport Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse R of Devin Anderson.

Anderson briefly passed Loftsgard on the second lap after putting heavy pressure on the Mustang Challenge rookie in the early stages of the 45-minute race before fading slightly in the latter stages of the contest.

The No. 7 Wheelhouse Motorsports Mustang of Sandy Satullo completed the podium in third, ahead of Flying Lion Motorsports’ Ethan Low and Tate Pritt, who completed the top-five.

Pritt took over fifth with 13 minutes to go after a hard-fought battle with the No. 29 Paley Motorsport with AAG Racing entry of Ryan Persing, who ended up finishing sixth.

Dark Horse Legends class honors went to Oleg Gorshkov, in his series debut, aboard the No. 70 Round 3 Mustang.

Gorshkov, who was forced to start at the rear of the field due to the qualifying order being determined by points, worked his way through the field and passed the No. 9 Paley with AAG entry of Chris Clarke for the class lead on Lap 8.

He drove to a 21.215-second win over Clarke, with the No. 8 Wheelhouse entry of Tom Tait completing the DHL podium.

Gorshkov finished the race seventh overall, ahead of DH class runner Persing, who faded in the closing stages.

The race ran caution-free, with the No. 34 Wheelhouse Mustang of Will Lucas the race’s only retirement after he pulled off and behind the wall in Turn 8 after a suspected mechanical issue.

Race 2 is scheduled for Saturday at 8 a.m. EST with live coverage on Peacock as well as on IMSA and Ford Racing’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