The Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo’s North American series rolled through Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca this past weekend, with Cedric Sbirrazzuoli earning his first victory by less than half a second in just his second outing, and first time ever at the circuit. North American Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo action picks back up on June 25th at Watkins Glen International.
Read the full Press Release below.
MONTEREY, Calif. (May 3, 2015) – In only his second Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo North America start Cedric Sbirrazzuoli took the checkered flag to win Round 2 to cap off an exciting weekend of racing at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
Sbirrazzuoli earned the top honor in his No. 07 Lamborghini Huracán LP 620-2 Super Trofeo fielded by STR and representing Lamborghini Dallas with a .0436 victory over Round 1 winner Richard Antinucci in the No. 50 O’Gara Motorsport entry representing Lamborghini Beverly Hills. Sbirrazzuoli was also the top Pro-Am finisher.
2014 Driver Champion Kevin Conway and co-driver Enrique Bernoldi completed the overall Huracán podium, finishing third in the Lamborghini Paramus entry fielded by Prestige Performance.
“First of all it was my dream to race in Laguna so leaving with a second and first place overall and two wins in Pro-Am, for me, is great,” Sbirrazzuoli said. “Yesterday I didn’t know the car, the track or the team, but in the end everything went right and we won.”
Joe Courtney and Aaron Povoledo finished fourth overall and second in the Huracán Pro-Am division in the No. 77 Musante-Courtney Racing entry representing Lamborghini Miami.
O’Gara Motorsport driver Ryan Ockey rounded out the Top-5 and was the first Huracán Amateur finisher in the No. 89 Lamborghini Vancouver entry.
Sbirrazzuoli picked up a position on the first lap to sit in second after starting third. He maintained his position until the mandatory pitstop window opened. After Antinucci received a drive thru penalty for a shortened stop, Sbirrazzuoli took the lead and never looked back.
Sbirrazuoli had over a 7-second lead with 12 minutes remaining. Antinucci, sitting in fourth, overtook Bernoldi and Corey Lewis in a single pass with 10:34 to go. He continued to chip away at Sbirrazuoli’s lead, but the young driver from Monaco was able to hold him off to get his first win of the season.
The No. 14 Lamborghini Beverly Hills entry driven by Brian Wong and Damon Ockey finished second in the Pro-Am class.
The father-son duo of Jim and Josh Norman followed up a first place Huracán Amateur class win yesterday with a second place finish in Race 2 in the No. 71 BAD Lambo Racing (Park Place) entry representing Lamborghini Palm Beach. They were followed by series rookie John DiFiore in the No. 10 Prestige Performance Huracán representing Lamborghini Paramus.
Thomas Pichler won the overall Gallardo class in the No. 63 Lamborghini Gallardo LP 570-4 Super Trofeo fielded by STR and representing Lamborghini Dallas.
Mitchum Motorsports teammates Dylan Murcott and Brandon Gdovic finished second and third respectively. Gdovic started last and was able to finish third overall and first in the Gallardo Amateur class in the No. 46 Mitchum Motorsports entry representing Lamborghini Palm Beach.
Bryan Hixon was the second Gallardo Amateur finisher in the No. 23 representing Lamborghini Chicago, followed by Joe Chan and Paul Taylor in the No. 15 Paragon Competition Gallardo representing Lamborghini Toronto.
The next Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo North America event will be June 24-26 at Watkins Glen International for Rounds 3 and 4.
The weekend at Laguna Seca is a part of the worldwide race action for the Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo championship, which continues to reach new levels of success at every round in Europe, North America and Asia.
The Asian Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo championship will start June 20-21 at Fuji Speedway in Oyama, Japan. The Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo Europe last competed April 11-12 at Monza in Italy, with the next event May 22-24 at Silverstone Circuit.
Lamborghini and Blancpain provided world-class hospitality this weekend for clients and guests of Lamborghini dealers. Guests also participated in the IMSA Hot Lap Experience, high-speed rides around the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca circuit in a Lamborghini.
The new Lamborghini Huracán GT3 also was on display at Lamborghini and Blancpain Village at the circuit throughout the weekend. The Lamborghini Huracán GT3 competes in the Blancpain Endurance Championship.
ROUND 2 POST-RACE QUOTES:
CEDRIC SBIRRAZZUOLI (No. 07 Lamborghini Dallas, winner, first, Pro-Am): “First of all it was my dream to race in Laguna so leaving with a second and first place overall and two wins in Pro-Am, for me I think it’s a good result. Yesterday I didn’t know the car, the track or the team, but everything went right and we won. Everything is new and I wasn’t even supposed to be here. I look forward to the next race. The championship is great, as I said yesterday. I want to thank everyone, Dream Racing who put me in the race and my teammate Larry, who isn’t here but will be here at Watkins Glen and we look forward it.”
RICHARD ANTINUCCI (No. 50 Lamborghini Beverly Hills, second): “It’s unfortunate, we cut it too fine yesterday almost just eight hundredths over the delta pit stop window. Today we were two hundredths under. If you would have seen the gap we had coming out of the pits it was a shame, I think we could have had a six or seven second lead I think. And from there I could have pulled away. I was just saving my tires at the beginning, but got a gap and I think we showed we can catch 11 seconds. It was a great show. The car felt so good so I am grateful to my team O’Gara motorsports for this opportunity to drive this amazing car, and to my engineer Gerald who is amazing. This is a test session for everybody and I think we are two steps ahead of everyone thanks to him.”
KEVIN CONWAY (No. 1 Lamborghini Paramus, third): “For sure we had a rough day yesterday, but I am very excited about everyone from Prestige Performance and Lamborghini and Paramus. This team came together in a very short period of time and we are exited. To be on the Podium today at Laguna Seca means a lot and my co-driver Enrique Bernoldi did an excellent job and the team kept making the car better and better. We lost the whole first day of practice, so we were kind of a day behind everyone else. But we made the most of the track time that we had and I can’t wait to get to Watkins Glen now and keep working on the car, developing the car and getting it a little bit better and see what happens when we get there.”
JOE COURTNEY (No. 77 Lamborghini Miami, fourth, second, Pro-Am): “We’re finally getting a little more comfortable with the car. And the team put together a car that was so much better than the rest of the weekend. I want to thank all the boys at Musante-Courtney Racing and we are looking forward to a great season ahead.”
AARON POVOLEDO (No. 77 Lamborghini Miami, fourth, second, Pro-Am): “At this point we are really happy to take everything we can get. We have been quite a bit behind the eight ball in the lead up to this point, so to be on the podium again is great for the Musante-Courtney Racing team. We did our best with what we had today and we made I think some significant improvements on the engineering and handling of the car. The car handled quite a bit better and it was strong enough to get us over the line and maintain a podium position in class. Great day, good fun and we are learning. Every lap in these cars we are learning. This Lamborghini Huracán is such a joy to drive. It’s one of the best machines I have ever driven in my life and I love driving this car.”
DAMON OCKEY (No. 14 Lamborghini Beverly Hills, sixth, third, Pro-Am): “It’s been really fun. The car is amazing. Brian Wong let me drive with him today and he actually did really well in his half of the race and we were up in sixth place and I got into the car, never driven this car before and did the best I could and luckily we came in third place. The car is great. You can really feel the car moving underneath you.”
RYAN OCKEY (No. 89 Lamborghini Vancouver, fifth, first, Amateur): “We qualified better for this session. I was in P1 and I was able to hold on to it. I had a stop and go, and Josh Norman got ahead of me. But unfortunately for Josh, he spun, and then I was able to get back out in front.”
JIM NORMAN (No. 71 Lamborghini Palm Beach, second, Amateur): “The race was really good. The car behaved beautifully, very predictable. It’s a very wonderful car to drive. The beginning was a bit of a challenge because we got some Pro-Am drivers who were gridded in front of us who were actually considerably slower than us, so getting around them during the race was a challenge, but that actually makes it a lot of fun. Given that this is something we will have to work with for the rest of the season, that’s going to make it a lot of fun making it work.”
JOSH NORMAN (No. 71 Lamborghini Palm Beach, second, Amateur):”We finished second instead of first. So yesterday is about as good as its gets, but we still had a great day today. We tried to execute the same program as yesterday, but we just couldn’t make it work, but we are still on the podium so I can’t complain.”
JOHN DIFIORE (No. 10 Lamborghini Paramus, third, Amateur): “To be in my rookie season in my second race ever to make a podium, I couldn’t be happier. I am ecstatic. Prestige put together a great car. Skip and Eric, my engineers got me through everything beautifully, so it was a great day. With about 8 or 9 minutes left, it was getting a bit slick, but very manageable. The Huracán has a nice traction control which is adjustable during the race which is a nice feature, so it performed flawlessly.”
THOMAS PICHLER (No. 63 Lamborghini Dallas, first, Gallardo overall): “I started from the 4th position and I moved up to first place for the rest of the race, but in the last lap in the first corner I was overtaken, but I stayed in the battle for position and regained my position. In the last few minutes of the race I had a bit of oversteer, but I held on and I am happy with my finish and want to thank my team and all my sponsors for such a great opportunity.”
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