Noaker Takes Over Points Lead With COTA Race 2 Win

Photo: Wes Duenkel/Ford

Robert Noaker has taken over the Mustang Challenge points lead following his second victory of the season in Sunday’s round at Circuit of The Americas.

Noaker took his No. 13 Robert Noaker Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse R to a 0.918-second win over The No. 22 McCumbee McAleer Racing entry of Jeremy Fletcher in the 45-minute contest that saw early race drama for Tyler Maxson.

Maxson, who entered the weekend as the championship leader in the Dark Horse class, sustained front-end damage after contact with Race 1 winner Trenton Estep, who lost control of his car on the opening lap and ran off track.

Estep rebounded to finish third, although Maxson pitted his No. 74 RNR Mustang while under the race’s first full-course caution for repairs and came home seventh in class after a late-race recovery drive.

Reid Sweeney, who took the final restart second, dropped to fourth in his No. 31 RNR Mustang, with Max Opalski completing the top-five in the No. 2 MMR-run car, with Marcos Vento sixth in the No. 18 JV Racing Team entry.

Zachry Lee continued his dominant mark in Dark Horse Legends, taking his seventh consecutive class victory in the No. 48 MMR entry.

Lee, who came home seventh overall, finished ahead of Alex Bachoura and Mike Stillwagon completing the podium for Spark Performance and Skip Barber Racing, respectively.

The race saw two yellows, the first for the No. 10 NV Autosport Mustang of Stephen Vajda, which stopped in Turn 20.

An off-course excursion for Sam Paley in the No. 26 Southern Paley Motorsports entry, who got stuck in the Turn 12 gravel trap, set up a seven-minute shootout to the finish.

RESULTS: Race 2

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