Li, Neser Take Road America Race 1 Win

Photo: Dan Bathie/McLaren

James Li and Sam Neser claimed overall victory in the opening McLaren Trophy America race of the weekend at Road America.

On a drying track, Li drove his No. 74 RWE Motorsports McLaren Artura Trophy EVO to a 14.036-second win over the No. 100 Forte Racing entry of Am class competitor Cooper Broll, marking the duo’s second win of the season.

The pole-sitting No. 74 McLaren was one of the cars to stay on wet-weather Pirelli tires for the entirety of the 50-minute contest.

Neser stretched out into an early lead from the green flag over the No. 8 Forte machine of Paul Holton, with several cars having incidents in inclement weather.

Jon Miller, a last-minute sub for Neil Langberg, charged from 18th on the grid to second in the No. 53 Relapsing Polychondritis Motorsports/Forte Racing entry until the race came under full-course yellow conditions due to the No. 6 Motorsports In Action entry of Kenneth Gregg that found the Turn 14 gravel trap.

The yellow caught roughly half the field out from making their mandatory pit stops, which saw Matt Bell, in the No. 65 Hooper Street Racing McLaren taking the lead on the restart with 17 minutes to go.

However, Bell then served a stop and four-minute and 44-second penalty for an improper pass-around, which handed the lead back to Li in the run to the checkered flag.

Kevin Madsen in the No. 53 RPM/Forte entry, completed the overall podium in the guesting Pro class entry.

Several cars that opted to change to slicks ultimately lost out due to the time lost on pit lane, while others gained time in the closing stages.

It included Zach Lumsden, on Pirelli slicks, who got around Spencer Schmidt to finish fourth overall in the No. 413 Colorado Motorsport with Flying Lizard entry.

Pro-Am class honors, however, still went to the No. 47 RWE machine of Schmidt and Alex Pollard.

The No. 812 RAFA Racing Team McLaren of the all-Papaya Cup lineup of Michael Steeves and Keegan Massey was sixth at the line, ahead of Kaia Teo in the No. 8 Forte McLaren.

Race 2 is scheduled for Sunday at 10 a.m. CST with live coverage on McLaren Automotive and SRO’s GT World YouTube channels.

RESULTS: Race 1

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