Pintos, Broll Sweep Weekend in Comeback Drive

Tommy Pintos and Cooper Broll swept the McLaren Trophy America weekend at Road America after a comeback charge for the Spaniard in the second phase of the race on Sunday.

Broll started the 50-minute contest from eighth overall and third in Pro, but swift work in the pits and a strong stint from Pintos saw the No. 919 Skip Barber Racing McLaren Artura Trophy Evo close in on John Dempsey and Alexandra Hainer, who were scrapping over both the overall and class lead after both drivers overtook Neil Langberg on his out lap.

Pintos overtook both Dempsey and Hainer in the closing stages and opened up a gap in his Skip Barber machine to take the checkered flag 9.249 seconds ahead of Dempsey, who finished runner-up overall to secure the Pro-Am victory alongside Andrew Davis in their RWE Motorsports Artura after surviving staunch pressure from Hainer behind.

Hainer took the checkered flag just 0.35 seconds off of Dempsey’s bumper to finish the race second in class and on the final step of the overall podium in the No. 43 Motorsports In Action McLaren she co-drives with Jesse Lazare.

Colin Harrison secured the Am class victory in his solo-driven TechSport machine in fourth overall, with Joe Osbourne completing the overall top five to finish second in Pro after being drafted into the team’s lineup overnight.

At the start of the race, Andrew Davis leaped past RWE teammate James Li on the opening lap to steal second place overall in his Pro-Am-leading No. 10 McLaren before setting his sights on Kevin Madsen in the overall lead.

Davis made the move into first over Madsen in the first ten minutes of the race and before the round of mandatory mid-race pit stops.

Li applied pressure to Madsen for second before their respective pit stops, which saw Casey Dennis lose significant ground, sitting stationary in his pit box after climbing aboard the No. 74 with a mechanical issue, before eventually rejoining the field and finishing the race in seventh overall.

Hooper Street Racing’s Bob Stockard pulled his No. 56 Am class Artura Trophy Evo behind the tire wall with just over a half-hour to go and would fail to return to the field.

During the mid-race stops, the No. 17 Riley Motorsports McLaren of Tom Kopczynski came under review for “pit lane procedures” while handing the ‘Pills Mafia’-liveried Artura over to co-driver Eric Filgueiras.

The team was assessed a five-second post-race time penalty after Filgueiras was released into the path of the No. 5 Dark Horse Racing McLaren as Deniz Teoman was diving into his pit box to hand the car over to Jeff Cook.

Cook brought his Dark Horse machine back into pit lane later in the race for retirement, despite showing strong pace in the second phase of the race.

Forte Racing’s No. 24 entry of Tanner Harvey and Patrick Liddy did not take the start following a heavy qualifying crash for Harvey in this morning’s qualifying session.

RESULTS: Race 2