27 March 2018
The first round of the Pirelli World Challenge Sprint-X championship held last weekend at the Circuit of the Americas was certainly one to remember, with Ferrari piling up five victories in three different categories.
Pro/Pro Class. Official Ferrari drivers Toni Vilander and Miguel Molina dominated the top class, winning on both days with the 488 GT3 of R. Ferri Motorsport. In Saturday's race the Ferrari got the better of the two Mercedes of Morad-Schiller and Skeen-Heckert, while in Race 2 the Porsche pair of Hargrove-Henzler came third behind Skeen-Heckert.
Pro-Am class. The new crew of TR3 Racing made their debut at the weekend. The Romanelli brothers' team actually rented out their 488 GT3 to Ferrari of Vancouver and the experienced Jeff Segal and the Canadian Wei Lu, who slugged it out down to the wire with US driver Peter Ludwig for last season’s Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli title. In Race-1 the two were penalised for a collision. So TR3 Racing had to make do with pole position and a fourth-place finish. Payback time came on Sunday though when they secured victory in the Pro/Am class and fourth overall.
Am class. The 488 GT3 of Squadra Corse Garage Italia recorded a fourth win in four championship races. Caesar Bacarella joined Martin Fuentes at the COTA where they won both races, seeing off competition from the Mercedes of David Askew. The next meeting is from 13 to 15 April at Long Beach.