GT/GTS
A wild opening lap in Sunday’s GT/GTS Round 13 of the 2013 Pirelli World Challenge at Sonoma Raceway had multiple repercussions upon the championship in both classes.
GT points leader Johnny O’Connell stalled off the start, but was able to get his No. 3 Cadillac Racing CTS-V.R going – only to collide with GTS points leader Jack Baldwin and seven-time PWC champion Peter Cunningham in Turn 5.
O’Connell finished 12th, while teammate Andy Pilgrim led all 27 laps around Sonoma to win the race in GT ahead of Duncan Ende (No. 24 GMG Racing Audi R8 LMS) and James Sofronas (No. 14 GMG Racing Audi R8 LMS). By virtue of his podium finish, Sofronas took over the GT championship lead by 21 points, 1360-1339.
There was a bit of controversy involving second place in GT. Mike Skeen (No. 2 CRP Chevrolet Corvette) took the checkered flag in that position but PWC officials stopped scoring him at Lap 18, as Skeen’s team had ignored requests to serve a drive-through penalty for avoidable contact on the first lap; Skeen was eventually relegated to 11th.
Meanwhile, Baldwin’s opening-lap run-in – which rendered him unable to continue – allowed his rivals to tighten up the GTS championship.
Brandon Davis earned the class win in his No. 27 TRG Aston Martin Vantage GT4, while Lawson Aschenbach (No. 10 Blackdog Chevrolet Camaro) earned his 10th podium finish of the season with a third-place run behind runner-up Andy Lee (No. 20 Chevrolet Camaro).
Aschenbach’s podium allowed him to close within 46 points of Baldwin, 1297-1251, with Mark Wilkins 47 points behind after finishing sixth on Sunday.
TC/TCB
Saturday saw the Touring Car and Touring Car B-Spec classes stage Rounds 11 and 12, and the points leaders in both of those classes – Ryan Winchester in TC and Ernie Francis, Jr. in TCB – bolstered their title bids with weekend sweeps in their categories.
Round 11 saw Winchester take the TC checkered flag by a safe margin, but the final lap in TCB was a thriller between Francis and pole sitter Robbie Davis.
Francis, running second, was able to get a run on Davis going into the Turn 9 chicane. Davis tried to stop Francis from making the inside move come off, but was unable to do so and after a brief run into the dirt for both of them, Francis emerged with the lead and held on to it in the final few corners.
In Round 12, Francis had an easier run to his second TCB win of the weekend, ahead of Tyler Palmer and Joel Lipperini. As for TC, Winchester turned back a charge from teammate Brett Sandberg and led wire-to-wire.
Both Winchester and Francis extended their championship leads, with the former now holding a 297-point edge over Sandberg (1452-1155) in TC, and the latter now up 81 points on Davis (1322-1241) in TCB.
NBCSN will air the Pirelli World Challenge races from Sonoma on Sunday, Sept. 8 at 3:30 p.m. ET.
