PWC - Double Victory for Ferrari at the Circuit of the Americas

Austin, TX (March 24, 2018) -Ferrari raced to the head of the field in Saturday’s Pirelli World Challenge SprintX season opener at the Circuit of the Americas on Saturday. The hour-long contest featured three classes of competition, with Ferrari drivers claiming victories in two and a runner-up result in the third.   GT SX Pro-Pro   Ferrari factory driver Eduardo Molina made a big impression in his first-ever World Challenge start on Saturday, scoring a victory in the no. 61  R. Ferri Motorsport Ferrari 488 GT3 with co-driver Toni Vilander. Outstanding pit work and an aggressive out lap from Molina saw the R. Ferri Motorsport entry generate a 5.559-seconds advantage at the checkered flag.   “It was really important that we had that fantastic pit stop, and then for the out lap I tried to push as much as possible,” said Molina. “I needed to create an advantage. At the end, it was all about the small details and today was a perfect race for us. We will see what it brings for us tomorrow, but it is great to have 25 points for the victory!”   GT SX Pro-Am   Wei Lu and Jeff Segal paired for the first time in SpintX competition and emerged with a  Pro-Am fourth place.  Wei Lu did an excellent job to qualify the car at the very sharp end of the grid, and Jeff Segal had a monster drive after getting in the car after 25 minutes had elapsed in the race.  Unfortunate last lap contact brought the steward's ire, however, and a 72 second time penalty bumped the team from second on the road to fourth in class.   GT SX Am   2016 World Challenge GTA Champion Martin Fuentes continued his hot hand, claiming his third class victory of the World Challenge season and first of the 2018 SprintX campaign. Caeser Bacarella opened the hour-long contest before turning the controls over to Fuentes to charge to the checkered flag in the no. 07 Ferrari 488 GT3  Squadra Corse Garage Italia.   “It was an amazing race—Austin is an amazing place, I love it,” said Fuentes. "It is a big challenge with the heat, it is always a factor. We took a little longer in the pit stop but we took the lead and then never let it go. So at the end of the day we were able to move to first. Now we’ve got the pole position for Sunday’s race so we are happy!”   The Formula 1-grade circuit will play host to the second round of SprintX competition on Sunday.