It’s fair to say that the Pro class hasn’t had the biggest entry in the first year of McLaren Trophy America, but it’s the championship that has the most intriguing title battle with just 5.5 points between the top two. At Sonoma, James Li and Casey Dennis gained an early lead with victory in round one. They followed that up with a second win during the Sonoma make up race held at COTA. However, Andre Solano and John Capestro-Dubets then proved to be the combination to beat, taking two victories and a second place around the 3.4-mile Formula one venue.
The two-month break in racing before the championship reconvened at Virginia Internation Raceway allowed many teams to go testing. Importantly, the Skip Barber pairing of Cooper Broll and Tommy Pintos used the time to find their grove. Come race weekend they came out swinging, taking pole position and, were it not for a jumped start for Tommy, they would have won the first event. They lost out again in race two, but it was clear that James and Casey would not be having it their own way for the remaining races.
Moving to Road America for round seven and eight, Tommy threw down the gauntlet, taking pole position by a commanding margin of 1.7 seconds over his Racewerks Motorsport rivals. Weather played a part in the first race when thunderstorms cut the event short. Tommy was never headed and with the results being declared, he and Cooper accepted their first race winning trophy of the season. With the bit between their teeth, they did it again in race two, despite Casey claiming pole position.
Heading into Indy, Casey and James are still odds-on favourites for the title, but they will have to race to win it. Reliability has been good for both the 74 and 919 cars, but Tommy and Cooper will have to win both final races to wrest the title from the grip of James and Casey. This is what racing is all about, it’s not over until the flag has fallen and, whichever way it goes, we’ll have two worthy champions at the Brickyard.