30 April 2018
Monterey, 30 April 2018. Ferrari Challenge will return to newly re-named Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca, almost one year after this same circuit hosted the debut of the 488 Challenge car. Since that time, the 488 Challenge field has grown exponentially, to 49 cars entered this weekend, a new North American record. Drivers will take on the blind corners and short straights with 660HP on tap. Weather for the weekend is expected to be cool, with highs in the mid 60s, but sunny. It should be a great weekend for racing.
Trofeo Pirelli. Cooper MacNeil (Ferrari of Beverly Hills) and Peter Ludwig (Wide World of Cars) are in a knock-down drag-out brawl for the Trofeo Pirelli championship in 2018. Cooper is taking his title campaign in Ferrari Challenge to extraordinary lengths while he also competes at Mid-Ohio, a circuit around 2,000 miles away, on the same weekend. Cooper and Peter's rivalry has already come to blows at COTA, hopefully their on-track competition is cleaner this weekend. James Weiland, third in the championship standings, will not participate this weekend.
Pirelli Am. Rob Hodes (Ferrari of Washington), Dave Musial (Continental Autosports) and Murray Rothlander (Ferrari of Vancouver) find themselves atop a close battle in Trofeo Pirelli AM after two race weekends. Rob took wins at Daytona and COTA, but consistency has kept Dave Musial very much in the picture while a strong performance at COTA brought Murray Rothlander into the championship picture.
Coppa Shell. Thomas Tippl (Ferrari of Beverly Hills) took the first race to get up to speed in his first season of Ferrari Challenge competition, but he has not looked back since, with a string of three consecutive wins going into Laguna Seca. Michael Fassbender (Ferrari North America) has shown great strides in his consistency and speed in season two, taking a win at Daytona and two runner up finishes at COTA. Mark Fuller (Ferrari of Westlake) has been equally consistent, taking two podiums at COTA as well.
Shell Am. Ferrari Challenge rookies Brian Simon (Cauley Ferrari), Dale Katechis (Miller Motorcars) and John Megrue (Ferrari of Long Island) are locked in a three-way battle for the championship lead in Coppa Shell Am. Brian Simon has been the master of consistency and taken a win at COTA to establish his lead, while Dale Katechis has yet to take that top step of the podium. John Megrue has been incredibly fast, but a bit inconsistent, taking two wins, but several other low-points finishes have him in third.
458 Challenge EVO. James Walker, Martin Burroues and Trevor Baek (Ron Tonkin Grand Prix) make up the top three in the 458 Challenge EVO championship after their first round of racing action at COTA. The 458 EVO class will only run at COTA, Laguna Seca, Watkins Glen and Road Atlanta.
Schedule. Racing action gets underway on Friday with practice sessions pretty much all day. Qualifying in the morning on Saturday at 10:30am and Sunday at 10:05am followed by racing action in the afternoon at 2:30pm on Saturday. and 1:30pm on Sunday.