Hindman, Duerson earn first Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo North America overall win at Road America

Trent Hindman and Craig Duerson combined skill, strategy and a little bit of luck to take their first overall Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo North America victory Friday in Round 5 at Road America.

The Prestige Performance duo is no stranger to the podium this season having collected six podiums in four races in the No. 10 Lamborghini Huracán representing Lamborghini Paramus, but the 1.093-second win over Richard Antinucci and Brian Thienes was their first overall victory.

"It was tough because I really didn't know what we had until I got out there," Hindman said. "That was the most laps I had throughout the entire weekend, so to be honest it was more of a learning experience for me than an actual race. But it was a test session for some ideas we had on the car and some ideas I had driving-wise. The Prestige Performance and Wayne Taylor Racing guys gave us an unbelievable car today. But we still have some improvements to make, for myself, for Craig (Duerson), for the car and for the team."

Hindman started the No. 10 Lamborghini Huracán LP 620-2 in third position behind teammate Shinya Michimi and pole sitter Antinucci. At the drop of the green flag Hindman got the jump on Michimi to quickly take over second position.

Antinucci, the 2015 Super Trofeo North America Pro Driver Champion, slowly extended his lead through his stint but was never able to pull away from the Prestige Performance duo. The top three, Antinucci, Hindman and Michimi were able to gap the rest of the field, at one point pulling a 17.6867 second lead to the fourth position.

Just seconds before the mandatory pit stop window opened an incident in Turn 1 brought out the first full-course yellow. The caution bunched the field back together and delayed the pit window from opening.

At the restart Antinucci retained his lead followed by Hindman and Michimi. A majority of the field pitted at the next available opportunity but both Antinucci and Hindman remained on the 4.048-mile, 14-turn circuit to try and get some laps in clean air.

A good pit stop strategy, which is becoming a trend with the Prestige Performance team, put Duerson out in front as the pit stops cycled through after he took over the No. 10 from Hindman. Thienes, who took control of the No. 17 US RaceTronics entry representing Lamborghini Beverly Hills was behind him in second, followed by Brandon Gdovic.

With just over ten minutes remaining in the 50-minute race Will James in the No. 11 eXclaim Racing/Migliore Motosports entry representing Lamborghini Paramus made hard contact with the wall in the Kink bringing out the second full-course yellow and freezing the field. The damage was too much to repair in time and the race ended under yellow.

The win was Hindman and Duerson's fourth Pro-Am podium finish and their third class win. Antinucci and Thienes finished second overall and second in the Pro-Am division. Gdovic was the third overall finisher and third in the Pro-Am division in the No. 46 DAC Motorsports entry representing Lamborghini Palm Beach.

"It was really good," Duerson said. "Prestige and Wayne Taylor Racing did a great job with the car. Trent (Hindman) drove the first stint and we did what we needed to do and we finished on the top. Hats off to the team and Trent."

In the Amateur division the father-son duo of Jim and Josh Norman earned their first class victory in the No. 71 Change Racing entry representing Lamborghini Carolinas. Teammate Luis Rodriguez Jr. had the class lead until a penalty for a shortened pit stop dropped him back to second in class in the No. 29 Change Racing entry representing Lamborghini Carolinas.

Damon Ockey rounded out the Amateur division podium with a third place finish in the No. 09 US RaceTronics entry representing Lamborghini Calgary.

Ross Chouest extended his winning streak to five in a row with a Lamborghini Cup victory in the No. 3 DXDT Racing entry representing Lamborghini Miami. Jackie Heinricher was second in her first Super Trofeo start in the No. 57 DAC Motorsports entry representing Lamborghini Palm Beach. Heinricher is the first female to compete in the North American series.

Shawn Lawless rounded out the podium finishers with a third place Lamborghini Cup finish in the No. 27 Dream Racing Motorsports entry representing Lamborghini Las Vegas.

The second and final race of the weekend will start at 12:25 p.m. (CT) Sunday, Aug. 7. The race will be live streamed at motortrendondemand.com and on squadracorse.lamborghini.com/live-streaming.

POST-RACE QUOTES

TRENT HINDMAN (No. 10 Lamborghini Paramus, winner, first, ProAm): "It was tough because I really didn't know what we had until I got out there. That was the most laps I had throughout the entire weekend, so to be honest it was more of a learning experience for me than an actual race. But it was a test session for some ideas we had on the car and some ideas I had driving-wise. The Prestige Performance and Wayne Taylor Racing guys gave us an unbelievable car today. But we still have some improvements to make, for myself, for Craig (Duerson), for the car and for the team. We're all learning together as we go along. So we're just going to keep on the same trend that we are and continue this education about the car and about ourselves as drivers and continue trying to make as much progress as we can every time we turn a lap. (How did the changing track conditions affect the car and tires?) Track conditions changed to our favor and the Pirelli Tires are a really fantastic tire in the sense that you can feel what's going on the race track at any given moment. For us I knew that the track was getting a bit better and I knew that I could start more or less abusing the tire a bit more and get away with it because I knew the Pirelli tire holds up very well."

CRAIG DUERSON (No. 10 Lamborghini Paramus, winner, first, ProAm): "It was really good. Prestige and Wayne Taylor Racing did a great job with the car. Trent (Hindman) drove the first stint and we did what we needed to do and we finished on the top. Hats off to the team and Trent. I love this track."

JIM NORMAN (No. 71 Lamborghini Carolinas, first, Amateur): "Clearly, the credit here goes to the team. We had a mishap on the very first day, the first morning, and really had a lot of damage to the car. Our team worked all night long and got the car together. The credit goes to Robby (Benton) and all the guys at Change Racing. It was a car that not only was fast but safe. The second credit, of course, goes to this young man (Josh Norman), who drove his little butt off. Without him, we wouldn't be anywhere near this podium. It was a great day for us."

JOSH NORMAN (No. 71 Lamborghini Carolinas, first, Amateur): "It's been hard to get into a rhythm this entire weekend just because of how our first day went. We had a lot of damage to the car. I thought I was going home. The car was not in good shape, and our guys worked tirelessly to get the car ready. They all gave it their all, and I'm only here because of them. I'd like to thank them, first. Not only that, but to come back from that and get our first win of the season, it's great for team morale. It's great for us." (How does this win help your confidence after the incident Thursday?): "It makes you re-evaluate your ego when you do something like that. But to get this result today, it's great."

ROSS CHOUEST (No. 3 Lamborghini Miami, first, Lamborghini Cup): "It was kind of tough to get a rhythm. The same thing happened in qualifying one. I had a little traffic, and I wasn't able to qualify quite as good as I wanted to. Fortunately, we were able to do a couple days of testing here a couple of weeks ago, and that made a big difference. The team had a great car for me. The tires were really good."
Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo North America - 2016 Calendar

April 29-May 1
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca
June 29-July 1 Watkins Glen International
Aug. 5-7 Road America
Aug. 26-28

VIRginia International Raceway
Sept. 14-16 Circuit of the Americas
Dec. 1-2 Circuito de la Comunidad Valenciana Ricardo Tormo

World Final

Dec. 3-4
Circuito de la Comunidad Valenciana Ricardo Tormo