Ferrari Wins 1st TUDOR Championship Race At Oak Tree Grand Prix
Bill Sweedler and co-driver Townsend Bell drove to their 1st victory in the GT Daytona (GTD) class since their win at the inaugural race of the TUDOR Championship, the 2014 Rolex 24 At Daytona.
Their victory in the # 63 Scuderia Corsa Robert Graham/Royal Purple Ferrari 458 Italia marks the 1st TUDOR Championship win of the season for Ferrari.
Mr. Sweedler took the lead 27 minutes into the Oak Tree Grand Prix after battling Pole-sitter Dion von Moltke in the # 48 Castrol EDGE Audi R8 LMS since the start.
The Ferrari held the Top position in the class for the majority of the race, only giving up the lead to the Audi for 3 laps and the #007 TRG-AMR car for 1, before Mr. Bell took it back
The Scuderia Corsa drivers are now 2nd in the points with 226.
Kuno Wittmer drove the # 007 Royal Purple/Orion Energy/LaSalle Solutions/PassTime USA/Mellow Mushroom Aston Martin Vantage to a 2nd place finish, allowing co-driver Christina Nielsen to extend her GTD points standings lead to 6 points, 232-226, over Mr. Sweedler and Bell. Nielsen took over the GTD points lead from Haase and von Moltke after placing 2nd at Road America 2 weeks ago.
Team Seattle/Alex Job Racing drivers Mario Farnbacher and Ian James captured the team’s 3rd podium finish of the season, placing 3d in Sunday’s race. The team gained 1 place in the standings, putting them in 5th with 213 points.
Paul Miller Racing placed 5th.
The # 33 ViperExchange.com/Riley Motorsports Dodge Viper GT3-R couldn’t keep the momentum going after placing on top of the podium last race and Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen placed a disappointing 7th. The Dodge Viper GT3-R was hit with 3 different IMSA Balance of Performance (BoP) technical restrictions following the # 33’s team’s 1st win of the season two weeks ago at Road America. It showed Sunday at VIR.
Round 11 will feature all 4 TUDOR Championship classes in the Lone Star Le Mans at Austin’s Circuit of The Americas on Saturday, 19 September. The World Endurance Championship’s 6 Hours of Circuit of the America’s will be the feature race of the weekend.
Stay tuned…
HeffX-LTN
Paul Ebeling
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