JEREZ, Spain – Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America teams showed their competitiveness on the opening day of the manufacturer’s single-make World Finals, recording second-place finishes Saturday in all four classes.
In the race featuring the Pro and ProAm classes, Loris Cabirou and Bryson Morris drove the No. 130 Ansa Motorsports, Lamborghini Broward Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo EVO2 to second place in the Pro class, while Nate Stacy and Nick Persing took second in ProAm wheeling the No. 108 Wayne Taylor Racing, Lamborghini Palm Beach Huracán.
Prior to that in the race for the Am and LB Cup classes, Glenn McGee and Tony McIntosh were Am runners-up in the No. 169 Wayne Taylor Racing, Lamborghini Palm Beach Huracán, and Jon Hirshberg finished second in LB Cup in the No. 186 Forte Racing, Lamborghini Rancho Mirage Huracán.
The World Finals gathers teams from Lamborghini’s three Super Trofeo regional series in North America, Europe and Asia. European representative Hampus Eriksson dominated the Pro/ProAm race, taking the overall and Pro win in the No. 31 Target Racing Huracán. Morris made a pass for third place on a late restart, and he and Cabirou moved up to second in the final standings when the car that finished ahead of them was assessed a 0.207-second postrace penalty for its pit stop not meeting the minimum mandatory time.
“We’ve been working on it all week to get the car in the right window,” Morris said. “We’ve got it now and it was amazing to drive. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get the win – always wanting more – but thanks to Loris for the amazing opening stint and (I) just made a few passes and up to P2.”
Stacy and Persing guided the No. 108 WTR Huracán to second in ProAm, finishing behind the No. 99 Leipert Motorsport Huracán shared by Brendon Leitch and Tony McIntosh – the same Tony McIntosh who finished second in the earlier Am race and was added to the Super Trofeo Europe No. 99 lineup this weekend with Leitch.
“Honestly even though it wasn’t a win, that was one of the better drives I’ve ever had,” Persing said after taking over the car for Stacy on the mandatory pit stop. “We had a problem at the start and Nate took it from 27th to sixth. He handed me the car in P6, I took it to P2. That was a brutal race. I’m absolutely wiped after that because I was giving it my all.”
McIntosh nearly became a double winner on Saturday. In the Am race, his pass attempt for the lead on the final lap in the No. 169 WTR Huracán was thwarted when Piergiacomo Randazzo swung his No. 66 VSR Huracán wide in Turn 9. The two cars made side-to-side contact, with Randazzo holding onto first place and McIntosh slipping to fourth by the time they crossed the finish line a half-lap later.
Randazzo, however, was assessed a five-second penalty for causing the collision, and the No. 3 ASR Huracán that took third at the checkered flag was hit with a 30-second penalty for passing the No. 169 Huracán under a yellow flag after McIntosh got back on track following the dust-up with Randazzo. The infractions lifted McIntosh and co-driver Glenn McGee to second place overall and in the Am class in Saturday’s race.
“Glenn left me a super-good set of tires and the car was hooked up right away,” said McIntosh, who with McGee a day earlier claimed their second consecutive North American Am class championship. “I had pace on the leaders and then it was just a matter of just don’t overdo it, don’t slide the car, don’t spin the tires up. It was easy and I thought it was a done deal, and then (Randazzo) just dive-bombed me, took me out.
“I got back on the track, it was a yellow flag so I was very cautious, and then the No. 3 car just pushed me off the track in the double-yellow zone. I’ve never seen someone push a car off in the double yellow. I’ve never seen that! So it was exciting.”
In LB Cup, Jon Hirshberg benefited from penalties assessed to others to finish second in class. He drove quiet but steady in the No. 186 Forte Racing Huracán and was third in class across the finish line. But Shota Abkhazava, who led the class flag-to-flag, was hit with a pair of postrace penalties – one for passing under the yellow and another for forcing a car off track – that dropped him to sixth in LB Cup while elevating Hirshberg to second.
“Everybody was going after it in every corner,” Hirshberg said. “It was competitive up to the end. There were a lot of yellows and as soon as it went green, everyone was out for every place. I just tried to keep my line, keep my head straight and things worked out. Ended up P2 and it was an amazing day.”