Ferrari, Porsche roar to Blancpain GT World Challenge America wins at Sonoma

Patrick Long and Toni Vilander led the way at Sonoma on Sunday.

Ferrari and Porsche split the Blancpain GT World Challenge America races at Sonoma June 8 and 9, but Bentley left the California track in great shape for a championship run.

The R. Ferri Motorsport Ferrari 488 GT3 wheeled by Miguel Molina and Toni Vilander cruised to a win on Saturday, aided by a perfect stop and driver change and maybe by a couple of big, wide Bentley Continental GT3s inadvertently running interference behind it. On Sunday, Porsche’s new-gen 911 GT3 R finally broke through in World Challenge, when the Wright Motorsports 911 driven by Patrick Long and a determined Scott Hargrove beat back a stiff challenge from Molina and Vilander.

The other three podium spots—second and third on Saturday, third on Sunday—went to K-Pax Racing’s Continental GTs, and that might have been the big story of the weekend.

Saturday’s winning Ferarri of drivers Miguel Molina and Toni Vilander.

No one expected much from the big, heavy Bentleys at Sonoma (maybe including K-Pax), given the scarcity of high-speed corners, a generally slippery surface and typical race-day heat. Practice times on used tires did nothing to change anyone’s expectations. Yet with sticker Pirellis, the two Bentleys (pairing Alvaro Parente/Andy Soucek and Rodrigo Baptista/Max Soulet) qualified respectably for both races.

Come race time, K-Pax’s strategic approach and great pit stops—not to mention some aggressive passes by the drivers and their ability to make the big Continentals even wider at appropriate times—delivered overachieving results for both cars.

R. Ferri and Ferrari left Sonoma with a lead of somewhere between 15 and 25 points in the team and manufacturers’ championship standings (World Challenge America had yet to publish official points at post time). Yet the next two stops before the season finale at Las Vegas Motor Speedway are Watkins Glen and Road America—the sort of big, fast, high-grip tracks the Continental GT3 was built to conquer.

After Ferrari’s win at Sonoma, ace Vilander suggested that, given teething problems with the new-gen 911 GT3 R, he wasn’t overly worried about Porsche. Bentley is another story.

“Our car is best at preserving tires over the course of the long race,” he said. “Our pit stops are not the best. We’re working on them, but the coming tracks are places where I expect the Bentleys to show their best speed. It could come down to (driver) mistakes and reliability. We certainly have our work cut out.”

The RealTime Racing Acura NSX GT3 driven by Dane Cameron and Mike Hedlund won the World Challenge America Pro-Am class Saturday with fifth place overall. Dirk Werner and James Sofronas took Pro-Am on Sunday in the GMG Racing 911, finishing sixth overall.

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