The Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli season continued its march towards the Finali Mondiali with the completion of its fifth round in North America at Sonoma Raceway. Set against the rolling hills of wine country, the drivers put their Ferrari 488 Challenge Evos to the test on Sonoma’s undulating and demanding circuit.
Trofeo Pirelli. Manny Franco (Ferrari of Lake Forest) again secured the win on Sunday ahead of Matt Kurzejewski (Ferrari of Beverly Hills) in second and Roberto Perrina (Ferrari of Seattle) taking home third. Franco was again in a class of his own, leveraging 30 minutes of green flag racing to build up a nearly eight second margin over his nearest competitor. The drama then was for the second third and fourth positions, which also happen to represent the top three in the championship standings.
Jason McCarthy (Wide World Ferrari) attempted to get past Kurzejewski several times, especially in the opening 10 minutes. From there the group evened out, until the final stanza when McCarthy’s early aggression came back to haunt him in the form of higher tire degradation, allowing Roberto Perrina to slip by with a last-lap pass. In the Trofeo Pirelli AM category, Brian Cook (Ferrari of Seattle) secured his first win of the season after three prior trips to the podium. The action in Trofeo Pirelli AM was unrelenting but in the final standings it was Dave Musial (Ferrari of Lake Forest) leading home Justin Rothberg (Ferrari of Palm Beach) in second and third respectively, separated by less than a second at the line. The result marked a welcome return for Dave Musial to the podium, his first since the opening round at Homestead-Miami, while Rothberg was able to further build on his championship advantage thanks to an atypical weekend from Tony Davis (Continental Autosport).