Pintos, Broll Declared Winners in Weather-Shortened Race 1

Tommy Pintos took an early checkered flag at the head of the field to win his first race of the season alongside Cooper Broll in a shortened Race 1 of the McLaren Trophy America weekend at Road America, with the presence of lightning in the surrounding area.

The race went green with Pintos leading from the pole in his No. 919 Skip Barber Racing McLaren Artura Trophy Evo he shares with Broll, just as a weather cell moved over the 4.048-mile road course, sprinkling Road America in light rain.

Pintos quickly fell to fifth, however, handing the lead to Dark Horse Racing’s Jeff Cook, who was leading the Am class. While Cook paced the field for a few laps, he suddenly lost pace and dop to the rear of the 15-car field and eventually into pit lane for retirement.

James Sofronas then briefly took over the overall race lead, before a charging Pintos reassumed his starting position at the head of the field after making up the ground he lost at the start.

In total, the first ten minutes of the race saw three different overall leaders before running was halted by a full-course caution with wet weather conditions intensifying.

Dennis was on the move early, climbing a pair of positions at the start into second in the opening stages in his No. 74 ‘Lightning McLaren’-liveried Artura, taking the early checkered-flag second overall and in the Pro class.

So too was Pro-Am pole-sitter Tanner Harvey, who moved up into the overall podium spots, maintaining control of the class, taking the premature checkered flag in third overall and first in Pro-Am in the new-to-the-series No. 24 Forte Racing McLaren he shares with Patrick Liddy to secure hardware for both the class win and the overall podium.

Sofronas finished fourth overall on the road in his GMG Racing Artura to secure the Am class win.

Just behind, Alexandra Hainer completed the overall top-five in the No. 43 Motorsports In Action McLaren she co-drives with Jesse Lazare.

Robby Stockard’s sixth-place finish earned him the Papaya Cup victory in the condensed race.

The field fell under full-course caution for weather conditions with 40 minutes remaining, with the red and yellow ‘slick conditions’ flag also being displayed on the start-finish straight.

Six minutes later, the red flag officially halted racing due to the presence of lightning in the surrounding area before race officials displayed the checkered flag, bringing an early end to the scheduled 50-minute contest.

Half points will be awarded after Race 1, which did not reach the half-distance threshold necessary to award full championship points. However, despite the limited amount of overall running, results from the ten minutes of action under green were enough to yield official race results and a final running order.

Race 2 of the weekend is scheduled for Sunday morning at 10:15 a.m. CST with live coverage on SRO’s GT World and McLaren Automotive’s YouTube channels, and is preceded by the second qualifying at 8:05 a.m.

This report was updated at 1:38 following further clarification from McLaren.

RESULTS: Race 1