MacNeil, Millstein again victorious at COTA

Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli completed the fourth round of its North America championship with aplomb as drivers enjoyed their second race of the weekend at the Circuit of the Americas.  Run under the scorching Texas sun, the series enjoyed another day of caution-free racing, and drivers took advantage of the daytime visibility and somewhat cooler conditions to set their best laps of the weekend.

Trofeo Pirelli. Cooper MacNeil (Ferrari of Westlake) continued his streak of dominant performances, once again scoring a hat-trick of pole position, fastest lap and the race win under a scorching hot Texas sun at the Circuit of the Americas.  Once again MacNeil didn’t put a wheel wrong on his way to victory by 18 seconds over the rest of the field.  Further back, Ross Chouest (Boardwalk Ferrari) picked up yet another podium result, and was involved in a race-long scrap that saw cars from both the Trofeo Pirelli category and the Trofeo Pirelli AM category battling for overall position.  Joe Rubbo (Ferrari of Long Island) and Jordan Workman (Ferrari of Central Florida) battled for much of the race, but an early incident earned Workman a penalty for incident responsibility, promoting Rubbo to third in class.

Trofeo Pirelli AM. Jason McCarthy (Wide World Ferrari) broke through and took his first win in the Trofeo Pirelli AM category, finishing in 2^nd overall and four seconds ahead of his nearest competitor by four seconds.  Jason was able to develop a bit of a lead in the early running which proved helpful as battles consumed the five drivers behind him for much of the race.  That included second place finisher Jean-Claude Saada (Boardwalk Ferrari) and Brent Holden (Ferrari of Newport Beach) who too the third spot.

Coppa Shell. Kevan Millstein (Ferrari of San Diego) repeated his performance from yesterday after starting from the pole position.  Once again the Coppa Shell field ran alongside the Trofeo Pirelli competitors, but with a gap at the start to ensure no mixing of the categories.  As the field of Coppa Shell cars approached the green, Kevan made an excellent start while Brad Horstmann (Foreign Cars Italia) was a bit slow and thus quickly fell off the front row.  By the end of the race, yesterday’s third place finisher Jim Booth (Ferrari of Atlanta) had advanced to second and was putting some pressure on Millstein, but to no avail.  Horstmann recovered from an early spin to drive back to a third place finish.

Coppa Shell AM. Justin Wetherill (Ferrari of Central Florida) resumed his customary finishing position in the Coppa Shell AM category, taking a hard-fought win over yesterday’s victor, Michael Watt (Ferrari of Atlanta) claimed second but put up a race-long fight with Wetherill and only missed out on the victory by three tenths of a second.  Meanwhile, pole-sitter Sureel Choksi (Ferrari of Denver) ultimately fell back, finishing third and behind the leading duo by six seconds.

Schedule. The Ferrari Challenge series continues its North America season with rounds at Laguna Seca on September 25-27.