Long, Hargrove Score First Win of Season at Sonoma

Photo: Gavin Baker/SRO

Patrick Long and Scott Hargrove gave Wright Motorsports its first win of the Blancpain GT World Challenge America season with victory in Race 2 at Sonoma Raceway on Sunday.

Wright’s pair of Porsche 911 GT3 Rs led the entire 90-minute race between them, with Matt Campbell out front for the first stint in his Pro-Am Wright entry. 

Campbell’s co-driver Anthony Imperato came out of the pits still in the lead but the Bronze-rated driver was unable to defend from the faster Pros behind him, and eventually let teammate Hargrove past.

Race 1 winner Miguel Molina soon followed suit in his R. Ferri Motorsport Ferrari 488 GT3, with which he went on to finish runner-up along with co-driver Toni Vilander.

It marked Wright’s first win of the season and the first time a race has been won by a team other than R. Ferri or K-PAX.

Both of those teams managed to make it onto the podium, however, with K-PAX claiming third with its Bentley Continental GT3 shared by Andy Soucek and Alvaro Parente.

Sofronas, Werner Give GMG Pro-Am Class Honors

Imperato lost a few more positions as his stint progressed, and he eventually lost the Pro-Am class lead to James Sofronas during the final push to the line after last safety car period.

Sofronas shared his No. 14 GMG Racing-run Porsche 911 GT3 R with Dirk Werner, with the pair crossing the line sixth overall.

Imperato and Campbell were placed third in class after also being passed by Mike Hedlund in the closing stages.

Hedlund was earlier involved in an incident that brought out one of the race’s three safety car periods, coming together with Cesar Bacarella when the Squadra Corse Garage Italia driver dropped a tire onto the gravel and spun across the track.

The third safety car period was caused by David Askew hitting the tire barriers with 11 minutes on the clock, while the first one came after an incident for Andy Lally.

RESULTS: Race 2

Jake Kilshaw

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.