Weekend Racing Roundup, 7.14

Another busy Sportscar365 Weekend Racing Roundup this week with all the IMSA support races from Canadian Tires Motorsport Park, the Italian and British GT championships racing at Mugello and Spa-Francorchamps, as well as the GT Asia Series from a rather wet Fuji Speedway.

Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo Series
Dillon Machavern led the final 15 laps in Round 7 of the Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo Series at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park to record his first victory of the season. Change Racing teammates Victor Gonzalez and Kevin Conway rounded out the podium.

Heavy rains Sunday made for a challenging race two of the weekend, as Gonzalez survived the storms for his first win of the year in Round 8. First-time series competitors Aaron Povoledo and Corey Lewis were second with Thomas Pichler in third.

Race 1 – 1. Mitchum Motorsports (Dillon Machavern), 2. Change Racing (Victor Gonzalez), 3. Change Racing (Kevin Conway)

Race 2 – 1. Change Racing (Victor Gonzalez), 2. Musante Motorsport (Aaron Povoledo/Corey Lewis), 3. Jota Corse (Thomas Pichler)

IMSA Porsche GT3 Cup USA
Sloan Urry and Jesse Lazare took the pair of IMSA Porsche GT3 Cup USA wins north of the border at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. Both wins were their first of the season.

Urry’s race one win, in Round 9 of the season, came at a season-high margin of victory of 12.966 seconds. Colin Thompson, who swept Watkins Glen, came second with Christina Nielsen recording her second podium of the year. The NGT team’s Porsche GT3 Cup program continues even though its TUDOR United SportsCar Championship program has stopped outside of Austin.

Lazare, who switched to GT3 from USF2000 open-wheels last year, held off Thompson by 0.173 of a second in Round 10 after leading all 31 laps.

Race 1 – 1. JDX Racing (Sloan Urry), 2. Kelly-Moss Motorsports (Colin Thompson), 3. NGT Motorsport (Christina Nielsen)

Race 2 – 1. Door Doctor/Moorespeed (Jesse Lazare), 2. Kelly-Moss Motorsports (Colin Thompson), 3. Formula Motorsport/Avid Motorsport (Angel Benitez Jr.)

IMSA Cooper Tires Prototype Lites
Remo Ruscitti had a banner Saturday at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. He took his first Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge win (ST class Porsche Cayman) earlier, then followed it up with his a win on debut in Cooper Tire Prototype Lites for 8Star Motorsports. 8Star also won the Master’s Class (Lamont Harris) and finished third overall (Christian Potolicchio) on Saturday.

As if the weekend wasn’t good enough, Ruscitti completed the weekend sweep with a win in Sunday’s race two, by 16.749 seconds over Mikhail Goikhberg.

Race 1 – 1. 8Star Motorsports (Remo Ruscitti), 2. Performance Tech Motorsports (Robert Alon), 3. 8Star Motorsports (Christian Potolicchio)

Race 2 – 1. 8Star Motorsports (Remo Ruscitti), 2. JDC Motorsports (Mikhail Goikhberg), 3. ONE Motor Sports (John Falb)

Mazda MX-5 Cup
Kenton Koch’s winning streak in Mazda MX-5 Cup carried into Canada, to extend to five in a row after his victory in Friday’s Round 7 and again in Saturday’s Round 8.

On Friday, Koch won over Nathaniel Sparks, while Patrick Gallagher rebounded from a practice accident to record his first podium of the year for CJ Wilson Racing in third. Koch held off Sebastian Landy and Ara Malkhassian on Saturday, with Landy and Malkhassian each scoring their best results of the season.

Race 1 – 1. Alara Racing (Kenton Koch), 2. Sick Sideways Racing (Nathaniel Sparks), 3. CJ Wilson Racing (Patrick Gallagher)

Race 2 – 1. Alara Racing (Kenton Koch), 2. Atlanta Motorsports Group (Sebastian Landy), 3. Alara Racing (Ara Malkhassian)

GT Asia Series
An action-filled first race at Fuji ended with a victory for the Mok Weng Sung and Keita Sawa in the Clearwater Racing Ferrari 458 Italia GT3. Contact on the first lap resulted in an early safety car, with Sawa keeping Rob Bell behind at the restart. After the pit stops Mok Weng Sung kept Hiroshi Hamaguchi’s McLaren behind and after 33 laps the gap was 2.5 seconds between the two Clearwater cars.

Rain caused treacherous conditions for race two, with Hamaguchi losing the lead to the BBT Ferrari of Anthony Liu into the first corner. In the rain Liu nearly went off and Hamaguchi fought his way back into the lead. A four-second longer stop resulted in Sawa taking the lead after the stops, but Christopher Mies starred in the rain and eventually caught and passed Sawa.

Race 1 – 1. Clearwater Racing (Sawa/Mok) Ferrari, 2. Clearwater Racing (Bell/Hamaguchi) McLaren, 3. BBT (Rizzo/Liu) Ferrari

Race 2 – 1. Absolute Racing (Lee/Mies) Audi, 2. Clearwater Racing (Sawa/Mok) Ferrari, 3. Craft-Bamboo Racing (Yu/Mücke) Aston Martin

Avon Tyres British GT Championship
Trackspeed won the first race of the British GT Championship at Spa-Francorchamps in extremely difficult conditions. It was raining in the pit area, but dry elsewhere. Jon Minshaw and Phil Keen. Keen caught Oman Racing Team driver Michael Caine during his stint, passing the Aston Martin driver with four laps remaining.

Nissan GT Academy Team RJN and Ecurie Ecosse battled for the lead in race two, which was interrupted by two safety cars. After the second restart and pit window Nissan’s Chris Hoy was in the lead ahead of Alexander Sims. Sims eventually passed Hoy, who went on to take his first ever podium finish in British GT.

Race 1 – 1. Trackspeed (Minshaw/Keen) Porsche, 2. Oman Racing Team (Al Harthy/Caine) Aston Martin, 3. Oman Racing Team (Smith/Butcher) Aston Martin

Race 2 – 1. Ecurie Ecosse (Attard/Sims) BMW, 2. Nissan GT Academy Team RJN (Reip/Hoy) Nissan, 3. FF Corse (Eastwood/Carroll) Ferrari

Italian GT Championship
Marco Mapelli and Thomas Schoeffler won the first race of the Italian GT Championship round at Mugello. Andrea Amici and Giacomo Barri led during the first stint, but retired following front splitter damage on lap 14. Mapelli moved his Audi R8 LMS ultra into third place on lap 19 and finished in that position, but he inherited the win after Casè and Magli were penalized for pit stop infringements.

Mapelli got the lead at the start of race two, ahead of Robert Renauer and Alessandro Pier Guidi. Positions remained the same until the pit stops. After the driver changes Luigi Lucchini, replacing Pier Guidi, was in the lead ahead of Renauer’s teammate René Bourdeaux. Easy Race driver Luigi Ferrari moved into the lead, but would be given a time penalty for racing on his own. Lucchini and Pier Guidi therefore claimed the win.

Race 1 – Audi Sport Italia (Schoeffler/Mapelli) Audi, 2. Scuderia Baldini 27 (Casè/Giammaria) Ferrari, 3. Easy Race (Ferrara/Magli) Ferrari

Race 2 – 1. BMS Scuderia Italia (Pier Guidi/Lucchini) Ferrari, 2. Scuderia Baldini 27 (Casè/Giammaria) Ferrari, 3. Tonino Team Herberth (Renauer/Bourdeaux) Porsche