ELKHART LAKE, Wis (Aug 5, 2018) – The Lamborghini Super Trofeo North American series was greeted by warm temperatures and a huge crowd as the drivers and teams began Round 5 at Road America.
A total of 17 HuracánSuper Trofeo Evo’s took the green flag ready to tackle the 14-turn, 4.048-mile circuit with Shinya Michimi in the No. 46 PPM, Lamborghini Palm Beach leading the field to speed in a clean start.
The first 20 minutes were hard run with the top-four drivers staying within two seconds. Trent Hindman driving the No. 1 Wayne Taylor Racing, Lamborghini Paramus and Edoardo Piscopo driving the No. 50 US RaceTronics, Lamborghini Beverly Hills rounded out the top three until the mandatory pit window opened up with 30 minutes remaining in the event.
As the pit stops cycled, Michimi brought the No. 46 in and handed the car over to teammate Brandon Gdovic. The PPM team performed a flawless pit stop getting Gdovic out with the lead that he held through the remainder of the race as they won by 1.3 seconds over the No. 1 Wayne Taylor Racing, Lamborghini Paramus entry driven by Jonathan Ceccotto and Trent Hindman
Despite taking the checkered flag third overall, the No. 50 US RaceTronics team would not have a space on the podium. The team was assessed a 0.6 seconds penalty for a short pit stop handing the final place on the podium to Corey Lewis and Madison Snow in the No. 29 Change Racing, Lamborghini Charlotte entry.
The Pro-Am class looked to be a lock for the No. 71 P1 Motorsports, Lamborghini Broward duo of Loris Spinelli and JC Perez until an incident with the US RaceTronics, Lamborghini Beverly Hills No. 17 of Brian Thienes in the closing laps prevented both cars from taking the checkered. That allowed the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing, Lambroghini Paramus of Stevan McAleer and Randy Sellari to register the victory.
Patrick Liddy in the No. 5 P1 Motorsports, Lamborghini Broward lead for much of the opening stint in the AM class race, but an excellent drive by Damon Ockey in the No. 09 US RaceTronics, Lamborghini Calgary took the lead following the pit stop cycle and earned the victory by just over a second.
An unfortunate spin by Steve Dunn in the No. 47 PPM, Lamborghini Palm Beach handed the LB Cup class lead over to Brett Meredith in the No. 66 GMG Racing, Lamborghini Newport Beach at the 20 minute mark of the event. Meredith then went on to hold off Sheena Monk in the No. 7 Wayne Taylor Racing, Lamborghini Paramus car for the victory. It was his second consecutive victory and third consecutive podium finish in the last three races after joining the series.
The weekend’s second race takes place Sunday morning at 11:55 a.m. EDT/10:55 a.m. CDT with Taylor Proto in the No. 50 US RaceTronics Lamborghini Beverly Hills on the pole. It can be streamed live IMSA.TV and squadracorse.lamborghini.com/live-streaming.
DRIVERS’ QUOTES
Shinya Sean Michimi / PPM (1st Overall and PRO):
It was a really tight race, I kept looking in the mirror every lap and seeing Trent right behind me and then behind them the other two Pro cars were right there. I kind of knew it would be that way after seeing how practice was going. Everybody was really within a few tenths of each other which goes away in race mode. I really gotta thank everybody with Precision Performance Motorsports, they have all been awesome this entire year and we are just now getting the real results that I think we deserve, so hopefully we can continue this movement the rest of the year and we will see what we can do tomorrow.
Brandon Gdovic / PPM (1st Overall and PRO):
It was an awesome race for us. Honestly, I really didn’t have to do much because I only had to run like four or five laps there with the two cautions. Old Showtime over there did all the work for me, but we had a fantastic car obviously with the new track record. We led every lap, so I can’t think my guys on the PPM team enough for the fantastic job. It’s been a great weekend and we will try to go for another one tomorrow.
Damon Ockey / US Racetronics (1st AM):
It was great, we started P2 in class and P7 overall and had a really good start. We stayed behind the P1 car for the first half of the race, and the pit stop. I just had an awesome pit stop. I came out just ahead of the guy that was in front of me and just stayed in front the whole time. It was a really good race, it was getting super-hot near the end, but was able to hold them off.
Brett Meredith / GMG Racing (1st LB Cup):
It was a great race. My team had the car set up really well and after being able to take the lead when Dunn went off track, the car was so easy to drive I was just able to keep it out front. I can’t thank the GMG Racing crew enough and I’m really looking forward to getting to do this all over again tomorrow.