LEXINGTON, Ohio – Alvaro Parente completed a weekend sweep of Pirelli World Challenge GT Sprint action with a victory Sunday at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
Parente, the 32-year-old factory McLaren driver from Porto, Portugal, recorded his fourth GT Sprint win of the season in the 50-minute, 36-lap feature. Parente won the 2016 GT Driver’s Championship in his rookie year in Pirelli World Challenge.
After a wire-to-wire victory Saturday, Parente dove underneath polesitter Patrick Long in turn one on lap two and was out by himself for the majority of the race as he won by 6.628 seconds over Long.
The 36-lap feature went the entire 50-minutes without a caution period and Parente proved to be the top of the class of the GT field through Friday’s qualifying with the pole position and two dominating wins.
“It was a perfect weekend for us,” said Parente. “We knew our car worked very well at this track. Some cars are going to be good at some tracks, other cars at other tracks; that’s why GT racing is so good. But, we are very happy to take these two wins this weekend. It’s very important to capitalize on those moments and that’s what we did so I feel amazing. I managed to warm up my tires better than Patrick and that created an opportunity coming out of the last corner. This allowed me to go quicker through the carousel and prepare for overtaking, always giving each other room and being fair so I had the best start today and finished well.”
Long, a three-time GT winner this year, had to settle for second Sunday after a fifth on Saturday.
“Alvaro and his team have been on it all weekend so credit goes to them,” said Long. The 2011 PWC GT champion. “They’re very good on the long run and the first couple of laps building pressure. With that, Alvaro had a great run coming out of the carousel and it didn’t bode well for me to drive him to the wall since we have a mutual respect. Again, he was the car to beat this weekend. Last year it was tough for us to break into the Top 10. It’s a special race for Wright Motorsports since it’s a home event so for them to get us on the podium, it still feels pretty good. Usually second sucks but today we’ll take it. The competition in PWC since I first sampled this series back in 2006 has just gone upward. I think the competition level is high when you have factory drivers from GM, McLaren, and Porsche so it’s a pretty proud moment for me.”
Making the start of the GT race Sunday was Clemson University mechanical engineering student Alec Udell, who started tenth and finished third. It was Udell’s first GT podium of his career.
Fourth in the GT contest was Kyle Marcelli after a battle with Udell for the final podium position. Fifth went to another Ferrari 488 GT3 driver, Italy’s Daniel Mancinelli.
While Parente held the top overall position Sunday, the wild race for the win came from the GTA division with five drivers battling nose-to-tail around the 2.258-mile, 13-turn Mid-Ohio road circuit before Saturday’s GTA winner James Sofronas took his second weekend victory in the No. 14 GMG Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R.
The GT Cup category was won by Japan’s Yuki Harata in the No. 55 Dream Racing Motorsports Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo.
Source : speedsport.com
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