PWC – Vilander and Molina wins at Lime Rock

The no. 61 R. Ferri Motorsport Ferrari took the overall victory in Monday afternoon’s Pirelli World Challenge SprintX finale to highlight the traditional Memorial Day Weekend races at Lime Rock Park. The win capped a day that saw Ferrari teams combine for three class victories among six podium finishes in two races.

SprintX GT Pro-Pro. Ferrari factory drivers Miguel Molina and Toni Vilander scored a dominant victory in the No. 61 R. Ferri Motorsport Ferrari 488 GT3 in the second race after placing second in the opening one-hour sprint. The result helped the duo extend their lead in the SprintX Pro-Pro points after claiming their third victory in six races. Vilander led the opening 27 minutes of the first race before pitting. Molina returned to the race in third, and worked his way up to finish second, 2.759 seconds behind the Alegra Motorsports Porsche driven by Michael Christensen and Spencer Pumpelly.

Second race. Starting second in the afternoon race, Molina moved to the lead at the start and led the opening 33 minutes before his pit stop. Vilander had an early challenge after taking over but was up to the task, pulling away to win by 2.489 seconds. “We were leading race one, and lost it at the end; I didn’t want that to happen again,” Vilander said of the run to victory. “This type of racing is quite emotional. You have to be 100-percent all the time. We have some strong parts in our race car, but we are a little bit weaker at the beginning of the stint, so I really needed to force myself. I said, ‘It’s now or never.’”

SprintX GT Pro-Am. Wei Lu and Jeff Segal took a pair of podium finishes in the No. 31 TR3 Racing Ferrari 488 GT3. Lu was second at the pit stop in the opening race, with Segal rejoining the event in third. With a lot of experience at the track, Segal  maneuvered his way into second place, finishing less than three seconds behind the winner. Segal started the afternoon race in third, with Lu taking over the controls while fourth in the order following the pit stop. Lu continued to impress in his rookie year of SprintX competition as he moved to third in the final 15 minutes to claim the second podium finish of the day. The winners of the two races were Parker Chase and Ryan Dalziel on the TruSpeed AutoSport Audi and Rodrigo Baptista and Maxime Soulet on the K-Pax Racing Bentley.

SprintX GT Am. Caesar Bacarella and Martin Fuentes stretched their unbeaten streak to six victories in the No. 07 Squadra Corse Garage Italia Ferrari 488 GT3 to extend their lead in the championship.

“Lime Rock is always a handful,” Fuentes said. “You can’t rest or pace yourself at all. It’s a full ‘Game on’ for the entire race.”

What’s next. Next up for the Pirelli World Challenge will be Road America on June 22-24, featuring Rounds 6 and 7 for the GT and GTA classes. The next action for the SprintX divisions will be the Rose Cup Races in Portland, Oregon on July 13-15.