Portland, Ore. (14 July 2018) – Great pit work and a strong race pace helped Ferrari pilots Toni Vilander and Miguel Molina score the overall victory for Ferrari in Saturday’s Pirelli World Challenge SprintX Series Round 7 event during the 58th Rose Cup Races at Portland International Raceway.
Taking the lead following his pit stop, Molina guided the no. 61 R. Ferri Motorsport Ferrari of Ontario, Toronto, Alberta/Zekelman Industries Ferrari 488 GT3 to 1.469-second victory. Molina also set the fastest lap of the race – 1:10.791 – to earn the pole position for Sunday’s Round 8 on the 12-turn, 1.967-mile Delta Park road circuit.
SprintX GT Pro-Pro
Vilander started second and pressured polesitter Michael Christensen up until his pit stop on lap 24. Molina had Spencer Pumpelly – who had taken over for Christensen one lap earlier – on his rear bumper after returning to action, but quickly began stretching his advantage.
“Today it was a really good to score these points for the championship,” said Molina, after notching his fourth victory of the season – and second in a row for R. Ferri Motorsport. “Today was really good for the team, they did an excellent job. It was difficult to hold off Spencer Pumpelly on cold tires, because the difference between cold tires and hot tires is huge. It was a good fight, and it was close on the back straight, but I’m really happy how it worked out. I’m happy to be starting on the pole position tomorrow, and we’ll try to keep going.”
The victory boosted Villander and Molina to double their lead to 20 points in the Pro-Pro standings, 159-139, over Wolf Henzler and Scott Hargrove.
SprintX GT Pro-Am
Continuing their strong run of podium form once again on Saturday, the no. 31 Vancouver Ferrari 488 GT3 Ferrari of Wei Lu and Jeff Segal took second in the Pro-Am class with a fourth-place overall finish for TR3 Racing.
After fighting for position late in the race, Segal will look forward to starting second in Sunday’s race by virtue of turning the second-fastest lap of the event with his fast lap flyer of 1:10.905-seconds. Segal and Lu are six points out of the Pro-Am points lead with three races left to go in the 2018 SprintX season.
SprintX GT Am
Undefeated in 2018 competition, Caesar Bacarella and Martin Fuentes scored their seventh victory of the season in the no. 07 Squadra Corse Garage Italia Ferrari 488 GT3. Bacarella and Fuentes extended their lead in the championship to 62 points with the win. Portland-based Vital Speed Motorsports debuted the yellow no. 87 Ferrari 488 GT3 for the father-son team of Rich and Trevor Baek, scoring an impressive second-place finish in their PWC debut.
Qualifying
Ferraris took a pole and two seconds in Saturday morning’s qualifying. Caesar Bacarella led the Am class with a lap of 1:11.837. Toni Vilander was second overall and in Pro-Pro, running 1:10.439. In Pro-Am, Wei Lu was second in class and eighth overall, running 1:11.355, one position ahead of the Baeks in the Vital Speed Motorsports Ferrari, 1:12.305.
Sunday Schedule
Sunday's race starts at 2:25 p.m. PT. Fastest race laps from Saturday’s event will set the grid for the one-hour race. Following the event, the only SprintX races remaining will be held August 11-12 at the Utah Motorsports Complex.
World Challenge will provide live streaming at
world-challenge.com.