Motorsports In Action’s Michael de Quesada started from pole in his McLaren and managed to get a big jump on the rest of the pack. JMF Motorsports’ Jesse Webb, who started alongside, ended up getting spun out in the Andretti Hairpin on the first lap by McCumbee-McAleer Racing’s Jenson Altzman, stacking up the field.
For Altzman, his race only got worse from there. At the end of the first lap, he was spun out in turn 11 by Archangel Motorsports’ Todd Coleman.
The race was neutralized early on when BGB Motorsports’ Thomas Collingwood dropped a wheel off the track and spun into the wall exiting turn 4. Collingwood walked away from the crash uninjured, but was done for the day.
Shortly after the restart, Victor Gonzalez Racing Team’s Chase Jones suffered a significant mechanical failure in his Hyundai. The car burst into flames exiting turn 6, forcing Jones to pull off. Putting out the fire resulted in another caution.
After the restart, de Quesada was able to slowly pull away from McAleer. The lead first grew to two seconds, then three, then five seconds.
The early cautions allowed everyone to save a significant amount of fuel. Normally, a two-hour race would require two pit stops for Grand Sport teams. However, having a good 20 minutes behind the pace car helped. Some teams chose to pit fairly close to the 40-minute mark, like Rebel Rock Racing. Others stayed out beyond the halfway point.
De Quesada stayed out until just after halfway before pitting and giving way to Lazare. However, the stop was a little slow. Rennsport One with Trent Hindman at the wheel was able to make up the five-second deficit and pass Lazare before he could get up to speed.
With the race staying green after the two early yellows, Lazare and Hindman ended up more than 20 seconds ahead of Hawksworth in third. That allowed tthem
The man on the move early on was Hattori Motorsports’ Jaden Conwright. Conwright had originally qualified second, but the car had too camber in post-qualifying inspection. The penalty forced him to start 25th, but he quickly climbed up the order into the top 10.
In TCR, Montreal Motorsports Group’s Bryan Ortiz started from pole in his Honda Civic Type-R TCR. Early on, Ortiz’s primary competition was Chris Miller in the JDC-Miller MotorSports Audi. However, Miller had an off-course excursion in turn 10 not too long after the second restart that dropped him back.
Ortiz was never challenged during his time in…
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