It was only a matter of time before Cooper Broll and McLaren Graduate driver Tommy Pintos claimed victory in McLaren Trophy America, and they finally achieved it during a truncated round seven at Roads America.
Taking place at the ‘National Park of Speed’, the teams and drivers took on the four-mile Road America circuit, but it was the weather that provided the curve ball as a thunderstorm forced race organisers SRO to red flag the first event and decare the result after just 20-minutes of racing. A stunning lap from Tommy in qualifying set the tone, when he clocked a time nearly a second clear of the field. When the green flag flew, he got a good start but dropped back to fifth, before battling through to the lead, and a 5.6 second advantage, before the red flag was shown.
Tommy put in another great performance in race two, taking over from Cooper for the second half of the race, to move from tenth place into the lead on lap 19. The second victory means they reduce the gap to class leaders James Li and Casey Dennis to just 5.5 points heading into the final two races of the year.
A second win of the year for Colin Harrison narrowly closed the gap to Am class championship leader James Sofronas after success penalties worked in his favour in race two. James continued his consistent run in the championship and now enjoys an 11.5-point advantage in the title battle.
Steve Sorbaro also had a good weekend, claiming a third-place race two finish in class to close the gap to third place to one point. Steve finished race two just in front of his son Scott, who made his first appearance in the McLaren Trophy America series, and diligently built his pace up over the course of the weekend to challenge for top five positions.
The closest championship battle remains in the ProAm class however as erstwhile leaders Alex Hainer took the fight to John Dempsey in race two. The Canadian racer applied the pressure for ten laps, trying every which way to force a mistake from her rival, but John drove a calm race to maintain the lead and take the 15 championship points with it. Despite winning race one, with half points being awarded due to the shortened event, it means Alex and Jesse’s title lead is now down to 3.5 points.
Series debutants Tanner Harvey and Patrick Liddy made their presence felt by winning race one in the ProAm class, but sadly an off in second qualifying ruled them out of contention. That said Tanner was a big fan of the car and we are sure to see him and Partrick next time out. Solid performances from Both Tom Kopczynski and the OMS team ensured they went home with Driver and Team of the Weekend rewards respectively to bring a successful weekend to a closer. The Championship finale will take place at Indianapolis on October 15-17 and, with every championship still to be settled, both races are going to be crucial to the title protagonists.
“The thunderstorms on Saturday denied us an opportunity for another exciting race, but race two was a really enjoyable, especially given how important points finishes are now for the championship fights. It was great to welcome Scott Sorbaro, as well as Tanner Harvey & Patrick Libby to the championship as new entries and to see them do well. I was also very pleased to see George Lawrence back in the paddock after his incident at VIR. He’s already talking about racing at Indy, so we look forward to seeing him back in the championship soon. With all the titles up for grabs it’s going to make for a very tense season finale at Indy.”
Rob Bell, Sporting Director, McLaren Automotive