Sonoma Brings Championship Changes for Ferrari Challenge

It was a dramatic day of racing on Saturday at Sonoma Raceway, as qualifying and race sessions for Ferrari Challenge North America yielded unpredictability across all classes. However, the respective race winners found themselves atop the podium in the series’ final West Coast swing of the season and with momentum heading into Sunday’s final races.

Trofeo Pirelli. Starting outside the front row, Jason McCarthy (Wide World Ferrari) lunged at the start of Saturday’s race to beat Roberto Perrina (Ferrari of Seattle) to Turn 1 and the eventual Trofeo Pirelli win. It was McCarthy’s third win of 2024 and he defended Perrina’s efforts to retake the position throughout the race. While Perrina finished runner-up, Dylan Medler (The Collection) finished third with all three drivers winding up within one second at the finish line.

In Trofeo Pirelli Am, it was Tony Davis (Continental AutoSports) continuing his mid-season momentum with his fourth win in five races. Davis started from the pole position, but faced opposition from David Musial Sr. (Ferrari of Lake Forest) even in the final corners. This was Musial’s fourth second-place finish of the season and he held off points leader, Brian Cook (Ferrari of Seattle), in third.

Coppa Shell. The race for Coppa Shell was marred with off-track incidents that ultimately resulted in Yahn Bernier (Ferrari of Seattle) and Jeffrey Nunberg (Ferrari of Central New Jersey) claiming class wins. 

Bernier started the race third, but found himself in the lead after the top two cars of Rey Acosta (The Collection) and Chuck Whittal (Ferrari of Central Florida) spun simultaneously, albeit without contact, on the first lap. Meanwhile, Nunberg started from the Coppa Shell Am pole position and kept multiple cars from other classes between his competitors. 

Robert McWilliams (Ferrari of Washington) and Eric Marston (Ferrari of Westlake) completed the Coppa Shell podium, while ladies Jerri Walters (Ferrari of Vancouver) and Melissa Kozyra (Ferrari of Naples) – the latter of whom held off a hard-charging points leader in Roger Monteforte (Ferrari of Central New Jersey) – finished second and third in Coppa Shell Am.

488 Challenge Evo. The 488 Challenge Evo race concluded Saturday’s turmoil, with the Coppa Shell results coming down to the final minutes.

Massimo Perrina (Ferrari of Seattle) continued his undefeated stretch of seven poles and seven wins in 2024, finishing ahead of Logan Broughton (Ferrari of Lake Forest) in second and Titus Sherlock (Wide World Ferrari) in third. It was Sherlock’s first podium and first race of the season.

In the Coppa Shell class, however, Matthew Dalton (Ferrari of Long Island) entered the race tied with Gerdas Venslovas in the point standings. While Dalton paced the field after starting from pole, Venslovas tapped Dalton to gain the lead in the final five minutes. Dalton then returned the favor on the next lap, tangling both racecars and taking both from contention, therefore elevating Enoch Hurd (Ferrari of Atlanta) to the win. Stephen Chen (Ferrari of Houston) and Brad Evans (Ferrari of San Antonio) rounded out the class podium.

Sunday Schedule. Drivers will qualify once again on Sunday morning for their second of two races at Sonoma. Coppa Shell sees the first green flag for race action at 4:35 p.m. ET, with Trofeo Pirelli at 5:25 p.m. and 488 Challenge concluding the weekend at 6:15 p.m. 

All Ferrari Challenge races will stream live on the Ferrari YouTube channel and FerrariRaces.com.