Mustang Challenge Title Showdown Set for COTA

Photo: Bob Chapman/Ford

Champions will be decided in both the Dark Horse and Dark Horse Legends classes this weekend at Circuit of The Americas, in the final two rounds of the Mustang Challenge North America season.

The IMSA-sanctioned single-make series, featuring the Ford Mustang Dark Horse R, will support the FIA World Endurance Championship Lone Star Le Mans event for the third consecutive year, but for the first time, will close out its season in the Lone Star State.

With seven wins from ten races, Cole Loftsgard heads into the weekend on the verge of the title in his rookie season, although with a 170-point lead over Devin Anderson, the championship can still go either way.

The Round 3 Racing driver will need to score fourth place class finishes or higher in each race to clinch the Dark Horse title, no matter where TechSport Racing’s Devin Anderson finishes, or scores extra points for pole positions.

Loftsgard has only finished off the podium once this season, with a fourth place result in Race 2 at Watkins Glen International in June.

He salvaged a third place result last time out at in Race 2 at Virginia International Raceway after spinning from the lead after an early race battle with Anderson, who was handed a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility.

The fight for third place in the championship, meanwhile, will go down to the wire between Sandy Satullo and Will Lucas, who claimed his maiden Mustang Challenge win in the hotly contested Race 2 at VIR.

Wheelhouse Motorsports driver Satullo is just 20 points ahead of teammate Lucas, with Automatic Racing’s Tate Pritt fifth in the standings.

The battle for the Dark Horse Legends title has similar points implications as in the top class, with Wheelhouse driver Tom Tait holding a 180-point advantage over Chris Clarke of Paley Motorsport with AAG Racing.

That means Tait will also need to record top-four finishes, regardless of where Clarke qualifies or finishes, to take home the class championship.

A total of 15 entries are set to do battle at COTA, including several changes since VIR.

TechSport has added a third Mustang for Mazda MX-5 Cup driver Justin Gravett, boosting the Dark Horse grid to nine cars.

Additionally, Round 3 Racing team owner Brad McCall will make his series debut in the No. 70 entry, in place of Oleg Gorshkov, who scored four class wins out of four races entered this season.

Another team owner, Dan McKeever of Wheelhouse, is also set to make his first start in the single-make series.

Of note, Nick Smither and Walter Bobko are not entered for the season finale.

Track action begins on Friday with a pair of practice sessions, followed by qualifying on Saturday morning, Race 1 at 6:30 p.m. CST and Race 2 on Sunday at 9:50 a.m. CST.

Both races will be streamed live on Peacock, as well as Ford Racing and IMSA’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