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Mancinelli Takes Win in Wild Long Beach Street Fight

Daniel Mancinelli, TR3 Racing claim victory in incident-filled PWC street fight in Long Beach…

Photo: Brian Cleary/PWC

A late-race pass from Daniel Mancinelli on Toni Vilander has given TR3 Racing its first overall Pirelli World Challenge victory of the season in an incident-filled street fight Sunday at Long Beach.

The Italian took his No. 31 Ferrari 488 GT3 to a 2.179 second win over pole-sitter Vilander, following a fierce battle between the two Prancing Horses in the 50-minute race.

Mancinelli, who hounded Vilander’s No. 61 R. Ferri Motorsport Ferrari after the final restart, got around the Finn with a rather aggressive, but fair Turn 1 pass with 7 minutes to go.

The move that saw slight side-to-side contact did not result in a penalty, with Mancinelli cruising to the win over Vilander in a Ferrari 1-2.

Alvaro Parente finished third the No. 9 K-PAX Racing Bentley Continental GT3, his and the team’s first podium of the year, courtesy of numerous penalties and incidents in the rough-and-tumble race.

The No. 41 GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Alec Udell, who was running fourth at the time, was forced to serve a one-minute stop-and-hold penalty for contact with Mike Sullivan’s Competition Motorsports Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport MR, which slammed into the wall to bring out the race’s only full-course caution.

Once action resumed, the No. 24 Alegra Motorsports Porsche of Michael Christensen was handed a drive-through for spinning championship leader Scott Hargrove, while battling for third.

Electrical issues, meanwhile, for the No. 2 CRP Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Daniel Morad dropped the Canadian out of contention with 20 minutes to go.

Hargrove recovered to a fourth place finish in the No. 96 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche.

Wild Final Lap Gives Harata GTA Win

Yuki Harata claimed his first career GTA class win following a wild final lap between the Japanese former downhill skier and Martin Fuentes.

Contact between Fuentes’ No. 07 Scuderia Garage Italia Ferrari and the class-leading Dream Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 resulted in Harata spinning, in an incident that also collected Hargrove.

While Fuentes briefly grabbed the class lead, Harata retook the position in a drag race to the checkered flag between the two damaged cars.

The margin of victory was just 0.163 seconds at the line.

Harata and Fuentes finished fifth and sixth overall, due to the numerous incidents from the pro-class GT cars.

GT4 Invitational class honors went to the No. 78 Compass Racing McLaren 570S GT4 of Paul Holton, in a flawless run for the reigning PWC TC champion.

Holton finished one-second clear of Harry Gottsacker’s No. 69 Racers Edge Motorsports SIN R1 GT4, with Spencer Pumpelly completing the class podium in third.

RESULTS: Long Beach

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

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