• James Li, Casey Dennis and Colin Harrison join Andrew Chinnici and John Capestro-Dubets as class winners in first race
• GMG Racing and Racewerks prove to be the early pace setting entries in competitive grid
• Heavy overnight rain causes race two to be postponed on safety grounds
A new chapter in the McLaren Motorsport history was written at the weekend (March 29/30) when the lights went out to start the debut McLaren Trophy America race. The first of a five-weekend calendar took place at Sonoma Raceway in Northern California with a 15-car grid taking to the track.
The competitive order began to take shape after Saturday's 15-minute qualifying session, where GMG Racing emerged as the team to beat. They secured a front row lockout with pole position in the Pro-Am class for Andrew Chinnici and John Capestro-Dubets, as well as P1 in the Am class for James Sofronas. Lining up just behind in the fan favorite, Lightning McQueen liveried car was James Li, who was fastest in the Pro class.
As the field sped off from the rolling start it was Li who challenged for the lead in the opening laps. The GMG cars defended well until the fifth lap when Li sent his red machine up the inside of Sofronas to take second place. An early casualty was the number 43 car of Alex Hainer and Jesse Lazare which retired on the sixth lap, bringing out the Safety Car and bunching up the pack.
Two laps later we were back racing and Li was once again on the attack, taking the lead one lap later at his favorite spot, on the exit of turn two. With driver changes completed in the pit stops, it fell to John Capestro-Dubets to pick up the challenge. Pushing Casey Dennis, he closed a near three-second gap, making the decisive move up the inside of the penultimate turn to take the lead in the final minutes of the race. After crossing the line, jubilant celebrations followed from John and Andrew as they led home Pro class winner Dennis and Am class victor Colin Harrison.
Unfortunately, persistent overnight rain that continued into Sunday morning led to the postponement of the second race. After consultation with race organisers SRO America, it was agreed that the race would not run on safety grounds. The event will be rescheduled for later in the year, but the competitors agreed that the series was off to a superb start. Next stop: Circuit of the Americas
'It's great to get McLaren Trophy America off to such a strong start. It's real shame that we've had to postpone the second race, but it was absolutely the right call to make given the conditions. The safety of our drivers is our highest priority, and the good news is we will still run the race later in the year. I'd like to thank all our drivers, teams, partners, suppliers and our internal team for everything they have done to make the opening race weekend such as success. We're eagerly looking forward to racing at COTA next month and there's a good chance that we'll have some more cars on the grid.'
Rob Bell, Sporting Director, McLaren Automotive
Photo credit: McLaren posted on conceptcarz.com
