Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli continued its North American season with the first races of the fifth round of competition at Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca. Under a picture perfect California sky, the competitors made excellent use of their Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo race cars over two 30-minute races at the historic and technical circuit.
Trofeo Pirelli. A topsy-turvy race saw the leading Trofeo Pirelli driver finish third overall as Ross Chouest (Boardwalk Ferrari) broke Cooper MacNeil’s (Ferrari of Westlake) perfect record of wins and fastest laps with his first win of the season. MacNeil seemed to suffer some mechanical difficulty, quickly falling off the pace after the green flag flew, leaving the door open for his competitors. Ultimately, Chouest was followed home by Jordan Workman (Ferrari of Central Florida) and Joe Rubbo (Ferrari of Long Island) who finished second and third respectively.
Trofeo Pirelli AM. Brent Holden (Ferrari of Newport Beach) took the overall victory in the second race of the day at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, making good from his immense qualifying lap, challenging Cooper MacNeil at the start, and then bounding into the lead when Cooper suffered issue. From there, he defended stoutly against aggressive attacks from Dave Musial (Ferrari of Lake Forest) who crossed the line in second. Third was taken by championship leader Jean-Claude Saada (Boardwalk Ferrari) who crossed the line about a second adrift of the leading pair and finished third overall.
Coppa Shell. Jim Booth (Ferrari of Atlanta) took his first win of the 2020 season and the Gentleman’s Cup breaking Kevan Millstein’s (Ferrari of San Diego) streak of victories dating back to Indianapolis. From the green flag Millstein, starting from the second row, made a charge at Booth, scything up the inside at the Andretti hairpin, but ultimately running wide and allowing Booth to do the under-cut and resume his lead into turn 3. Brad Horstmann (Foreign Cars Italia) was also lucky to escape the first-lap action cleanly and ultimately went on to claim the third step on the podium.
Coppa Shell AM. Dave Musial Jr. (Ferrari of Lake Forest) took his second win in the Ferrari Challenge series, making an excellent getaway from the 20-car strong Coppa Shell AM class field. From there, he managed the gaps beautifully to stay head of championship leader Justin Wetherill (Ferrari of Central Florida) throughout the 30-minute contest, winning by 1.7 seconds. Todd Coleman (Ferrari of Denver) rounded out the podium with a third place finish, defending valiantly from a hard-charging Michael Watt (Ferrari of Atlanta) as the two crossed the line only .5 seconds apart.
Schedule. Ferrari Challenge competitors will return to the track on Sunday for another set of qualifying and race sessions. The action begins at 9:35AM (all times local) with qualifying action and racing action beginning at 1:00PM. All of the action will be streamed live on live.ferrari.com and motorsport.tv.