ELKHART LAKE, Wis. — The victories and records just keep mounting for Kyle Marcelli and Danny Formal. By winning Sunday’s Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America race at Road America, they swept the weekend for the third straight round this season.
The six Pro class wins is a North American series record for a season, as is the victory streak.
Marcelli and Formal, who share the No. 1 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport, Lamborghini Palm Beach Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo Evo2, had to overtake WTRAndretti teammate Ryan Norman (No. 84 Lamborghini Palm Beach Huracán) to accomplish the feat, doing so during the pit stop cycle midway through the 50-minute race.
As a solo driver, Norman’s minimum pit stop time is mandated at three seconds longer than entries with co-drivers. So, while he sat on the pole and held a two-second lead when the pit window opened, Norman was behind Marcelli after their stops. Soon after, Marcelli had to check up when they encountered lapped traffic in Turn 12. Norman braked too late, lightly tapped the rear of Marcelli’s car and then slid into the gravel.
Marcelli held the lead on the restart following the full-course caution to rescue Norman’s No. 84 Huracán and the No. 17 NTE Sport, Lamborghini Palm Beach Huracán of Tiger Tari from the sand. The race ended under another caution when five cars tangled in Turn 1 with two minutes left.
“We leaped Ryan in the pits and then I saw him behind me,” Marcelli said. “I was just managing the gap; we came up on some traffic … I was up the inside of one of the slower cars and then I see him look to the inside of me or maybe drop a wheel. I just feel bad that it got away from him and ended like that.”
Marcelli and Formal extended their Pro class unofficial points lead to a hefty 33 over Giano Taurino and Lucas Petersson (No. 88 TRE Racing, Lamborghini Palm Beach Huracán) halfway through the 2023 campaign.
“The car has been incredible all year long,” Formal said. “This Lamborghini’s just been incredible in race pace. Seriously, it’s just been phenomenal. Six wins in six races, that’s just fantastic!”
They weren’t the only ones to collect two wins this weekend, as there were double victors in the ProAm and Am classes as well. In ProAm, Luke Berkeley and Keawn Tandon followed up Saturday’s win with another Sunday in the No. 42 NTE Sport, Lamborghini Broward Huracán. Tandon started third in class and advanced one spot before turning the car over to Berkeley, who was the ProAm leader when pit stops were done and brought it home there.
“We knew we could win this,” Tandon said. “We did a lot of testing and had a good group around us, good team and good car. Luke taught me well and we won.”
With the Road America sweep, Tandon moved into the ProAm points lead. Previous leaders JCD Dubets and Tom Capizzi didn’t race Sunday after their No. 46 Precision Performance Motorsports, Lamborghini Palm Beach Huracán sustained significant damage in a crash Saturday with Dubets at the wheel.
“The car was dialed today after we looked back at the race yesterday, so that was great,” said Berkeley. “Can’t thank Lamborghini Broward and NTE enough for the awesome car to make this possible. I think we have a good second half of the season ahead.”
Anthony McIntosh and Glenn McGee drove the No. 69 Precision Performance Motorsports, Lamborghini Palm Beach Huracán to Sunday’s win in the Am class. McGee made the winning overtake on Saturday’s class winner Dominic Starkweather (No. 12 Valkyrie Velocity, Lamborghini Austin Huracán) on the last restart just before the caution flag waved that ended the race under yellow.
“Tony did a great job (in the opening stint) of putting me in that window where I could kind of run (Starkweather) down,” McGee explained. “He was really hard to pass; he was, let’s just call it aggressive when I tried to make passes. I just put pressure on him until we came into traffic and unfortunately, he made a pressured move that he probably wouldn’t have made otherwise. That got us the lead and we got the win from there.”
Mark Wilgus was the only winner on Sunday who didn’t win the day before. Starting from the LB Cup pole in the No. 50 Forte Racing Powered by US RaceTronics, Lamborghini Beverly Hills Huracán, Wilgus led every lap other than through the pit cycle – though he briefly fell behind on the final restart.
“It was an exciting restart,” he said. “You’ve got maybe one or two laps to go, so you can pretty much expect carnage in the first corner – and it delivered as expected. I lost my position but got it back in (Turn) 5 and then it went full-course yellow. Glad I got that done before it went yellow.”
His fourth win of 2023 elevated Wilgus’ LB Cup points lead to an unofficial 26 over Fred Roberts (No. 89 NTE Sport, Lamborghini Dallas Huracán).
Keyword: Formal, Marcelli Set Super Trofeo Record with Sixth Straight Win