Noaker Wins Attrition-Filled Race 1 at Road America

Robert Noaker dominated the first of two Mustang Challenge races of the weekend at Road America, with podium contenders falling by the wayside in a race of attrition which saw three full-course yellows.

The Ford Performance Junior Team driver and Dark Horse class points-leader survived a pair of restarts in the 45-minute contest, leading every racing lap from pole position, ultimately taking the victory under yellow over Dark Horse Legends winner Alex Bachoura in second overall after a late accident for Sam Paley triggered the race’s third full-course caution.

Bachoura secured second after fending off pressure from the No. 18 McCumbee McAleer Racing entry of Marcos Vento, who claimed the final spot on the overall podium and finished second in DH.

Automatic Racing’s Tate Pritt came home in fourth, ahead of Corbin Collins, who rounded out the top five in his No. 20 MMR Mustang.

Zachry Lee’s seventh-place finish was enough to finish second in DHL, just ahead of NV Autosport’s Drew Neubauer, who finished third in class.

The field fell under yellow before the end of the first lap after Sandy Satullo spun on the curbs exiting Turn 1 after going side-by-side with Devin Anderson, collecting Alfonso Diaz’s No. 15 TechSport Mustang on his way into the barriers.

Diaz’s car required recovery on track, though the Robert Noaker Racing driver was able to bring his No. 7 Mustang into pit lane under his own power.

Satullo rejoined the field one lap down, carrying significant front and rear cosmetic damage on his RNR machine, before having to make another trip down pit lane after being handed a drive-through penalty for responsibility in the Lap 1 incident. Satullo would not rejoin.

While Devin Anderson and Paley battled for second behind Noaker on the restart, the pair went wheel-to-wheel, eventually resulting in Anderson’s TechSport machine going wide off-track at Turn 7, losing front bodywork, and coming to a stop in the runoff, triggering the second yellow.

Paley initially pressured Noaker on the second restart before taking to pit lane to serve a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility with Anderson.

While making up time late in the race, Paley suffered a heavy crash at Turn 5 after a mechanical failure, burying the front end of his No. 26 Paley Motorsports Mustang in the tire barriers after losing traction under braking. Paley pitched the car into a slide to attempt to slow his momentum, resulting in contact with the inside wall before he went through one tire bundle and came to a stop at the end of the runoff.

Paley climbed from the car under his own power.

Colin Harisson did not make it to the starting grid after also failing to set a qualifying time on Saturday.

Scott Thomson pulled his LAP Motorsports Mustang behind the wall at Turn 13 midway through the race, which saw 13 cars make it to the finish.

Race 2 is scheduled for Sunday morning at 8:20 a.m. CST with live coverage on Peacock as well as Ford Performance and IMSA’s YouTube channels.

RESULTS: Race 1