A Wealth of Newcomers Are Set to Compete with Proven Champions at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna SecaMay 9, 2023By Mark RobinsonIMSA Wire Service WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca Pre-Event Entry List DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America ushers in its second decade of competition this week featuring a huge splash of new.The “new” includes more than 30 drivers who’ll make their series debut at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, the first of six doubleheader race weekends on the 2023 calendar. Hankook takes over as the official tire supplier and has developed a tire specifically for the Super Trofeo series around the globe.Returning will be five driver champions from 2022 as well as the Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo Evo2 car that made its debut last season and laid the foundation for the intense competition throughout the four classes of the single-make series sanctioned by IMSA.Thirty-three cars are on this week’s pre-event entry list as the North American series opens its season for the second straight year on the iconic WeatherTech Raceway road course. Fifty-minute races are set for 5:20 p.m. ET Saturday and 12:40 p.m. Sunday. Both will stream live on IMSA.com/TVLive.“It’s fantastic to kick off the season again at Laguna Seca, we love it there,” said Chris Ward, senior manager of motorsports for Automobili Lamborghini America. “It’s a historic start to the Super Trofeo calendar and there’s lots to be excited about. There is a huge number of new drivers joining the championship, a record number of new drivers. It’s very exciting.”Among the many newcomers to Lamborghini Super Trofeo will be some familiar faces to race fans, however. They include Johannes van Overbeek, who won 15 races over two decades in IMSA’s top-level series, most recently with a pair of 2018 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship victories in the Prototype class (the last at WeatherTech Raceway); Ryan Norman, the 2020 champion in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Touring Car (TCR) class; Alexandre Premat, a winner of the famed Bathurst 1000 in Australian Supercars; and Sebastian Saavedra, a former IndyCar driver who also won the 2019 Rolex 24 At Daytona in the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class.The Super Trofeo novices will face stiff competition from seasoned returnees. Danny Formal and Kyle Marcelli return to defend their Pro class championship in the No. 1 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport, Lamborghini Palm Beach Huracán after winning five races in 2022. John “JCD” Dubets is back seeking a second straight ProAm title, though he’s teamed with a new driver, Tom Capizzi, in the No. 46 Precision Performance Motorsports, Lamborghini Palm Beach Huracán. Dubets and former co-driver Bryson Lew won seven times last year.After taking six race wins on his way to the 2022 Am championship, Shehan Chandrasoma moves to Pro this season and is paired with veteran Max Weering. Their No. 20 NTE Sport, Lamborghini Austin Huracán is listed in ProAm on the entry list but Ward expects them to compete in the Pro class. And after capturing the ’22 LB Cup crown in the popular pink unicorn No. 14 Flying Lizard Motorsports, Lamborghini Newport Beach Huracán, Slade Stewart joins the ProAm class with co-driver Andy Lee.Teams new to the series include World Speed Motorsports and Valkyrie Velocity, the latter an offshoot of the Hardpoint program that operated in the WeatherTech Championship in recent years. Precision Performance Motorsports comes back as the reigning team champion and is joined by fellow returning teams Ansa Motorsports, Flying Lizard Motorsports, Forte Racing Powered by US RaceTronics, Forty7 Motorsports, NTE Sport, TR3 Racing and Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport.After this weekend, succeeding Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America rounds take place at Watkins Glen International (June 22-25), Road America (Aug. 4-6), VIRginia International Raceway (Aug. 25-27), Indianapolis Motor Speedway (Sept. 15-17) and Vallelunga, Italy (Nov. 16-17). The trip to Italy also includes the Lamborghini Super Trofeo World Finals, which pits North American teams and drivers against Super Trofeo counterparts from the European and Asian series.“I think we have a terrific calendar,” boasted Ward. “Great, historic tracks all the way around. We’re really looking forward to the debut of the series at Indianapolis before then heading back over the water to the 10th anniversary now of the World Finals and returning to Vallelunga, where the first-ever World Finals (in 2013) was won by an American.” |
