PWC: Parente (GT), James (GTS) capture Sunday Mid-Ohio wins - MotorSportsTalk

LEXINGTON, Ohio – Alvaro Parente (GT) and Ian James (GTS) captured Sunday’s wins for the Pirelli World Challenge at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

Parente completes his first weekend sweep of the year after a second successive authoritative drive from pole to victory in the No. 9 K-PAX Racing McLaren 650S GT3.

The wins were his third and fourth of the year in the Sprint season and saw him close even further on Sprint championship leader Patrick Long, who finished second in the No. 58 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R this afternoon (unofficially within five points).

Impressing in third with his first overall podium in GT only competition is series veteran Alec Udell of GMG Racing, driving the No. 17 Porsche. The native of The Woodlands, Texas is still only in his early 20s but has starred in the series’ GTS, GT Cup and GTA classes and classifications. Today, he drove a heady race beyond his years matched up against many of the series’ veterans, and held off a hard charging Kyle Marcelli in the No. 61 R. Ferri Motorsport Ferrari 488 GT3.

Udell’s overall podium capped off a banner weekend for GMG; James Sofronas won his second straight GTA race in his No. 14 Porsche while George Kurtz did the same with his No. 04 McLaren 570S GT4 in the GTS Am division.

GTS

The string of one manufacturer sweeping the weekend in GTS finally ended in Mid-Ohio. After Lawson Aschenbach took the spoils on Saturday in his No. 10 Blackdog Speed Shop Chevrolet Camaro GT4.R, his season long sparring partner Ian James took Sunday’s win in his No. 50 Team Panoz Racing Panoz Avezzano GT.

James got past Aschenbach after hounding him the first 18 laps of the 35-lap contest before taking the lead on the 19th lap Sunday, and extended his margin to 1.917 seconds at the checkered flag.

This is James’ third win of the year, the first driver to reach that mark, and he now sits second in points behind Aschenbach. With races in Utah, Circuit of The Americas and Sonoma Raceway to come over the next couple months, it’ll be interesting to see of Aschenbach’s consistent run of podiums keeps him at a margin similar to the 267-181 score, as it is now.

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Media and fan attention focused on a controversial run-in between Haiden Deegan and his Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing teammate Jordon Smith during Round 10 of the Monster Energy Supercross race at Detroit, after which the 250 East points’ Hunter Lawrence defends the young rider in the postrace news conference.

Deegan took the early lead in Heat 1 of the round, but the mood swiftly changed when he became embroiled in a spirited battle with teammate Smith.

On Lap 3, Smith caught Deegan with a fast pass through the whoops. Smith briefly held the lead heading into a bowl turn but Deegan had the inside line and threw a block pass. In the next few turns, the action heated up until Smith eventually ran into the back of Deegan’s Yamaha and crashed.

One of the highlights of the battle seemed to include a moment when Deegan waited on Smith in order to throw a second block pass, adding fuel to the controversy.

After his initial crash, Smith fell to seventh on the next lap. He would crash twice more during the event, ultimately finishing four laps off the pace in 20th.

The topic was inevitably part of the postrace news conference.

“It was good racing; it was fun,” Deegan said at about the 27-minute mark in the video above. “I just had some fun doing it.”

Smith had more trouble in the Last Chance Qualifier. He stalled his bike in heavy traffic, worked his way into a battle for fourth with the checkers in sight, but crashed a few yards shy of the finish line and was credited with seventh. Smith earned zero points and fell to sixth in the standings.

Lawrence defends Deegan — *Jordon Smith failed to make the Detroit Supercross Main and fell to sixth in the points. – Feld Motor Sports*

“I think he’s like fifth in points,” Deegan said. “He’s a little out of it. Beside that it was good, I don’t know. I wasn’t really paying attention.”

Deegan jokingly deflected an earlier question with the response that he wasn’t paying attention during the incident.

“He’s my teammate, but he’s a veteran, he’s been in this sport for a while,” Deegan said. “I was up there just battling. I want to win as much as everybody else. It doesn’t matter if it’s a heat race or a main; I just want to win. I was just trying to push that.”

As Deegan and Smith battled, Jeremy Martin took the lead. Deegan finished second in the heat and backed up his performance with a solid third-place showing in the main, which was his second podium finish in a short six-race career. Deegan’s first podium was earned at Daytona, just two rounds ago.

But as Deegan struggled to find something meaningful to say, unsurprisingly for a 17-year-old rider who was not scheduled to run the full 250 schedule this year, it was the championship leader Lawrence who came to his defense.

“I just want to point something out, which kind of amazes me,” Lawrence said during the conference. “So many of the people on social media, where everyone puts their expertise in, are saying the racing back in the ’80s, the early 90s, when me were men. They’re always talking about how gnarly it was and then anytime a block pass or something happens now, everyone cries about it.

“That’s just a little bit interesting. Pick one. You want the gnarly block passes from 10 years ago and then you get it, everyone makes a big song and dance about it.”

Pressed further, Lawrence defended not only the pass but the decision-making process that gets employed lap after lap in a Supercross race.

“It’s easy to point the finger,” Lawrence said. “We’re out there making decisions in a split millisecond. People have all month to pay their phone bill and they still can’t do that on time.

“We’re making decisions at such a fast reaction [time with] adrenaline. … I’m not just saying it for me or Haiden. I speak for all the guys. No one is perfect and we’re under a microscope out there. The media is really quick to point a finger when someone makes a mistake.”

The media is required to hold athletes accountable for their actions. They are also required to tell the complete story.

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