Pirelli GT3 Cup Trophy USA: Flying Lizard Motorsports’ Hedlund claims victory at Sonoma

When the Pirelli GT3 Cup Trophy USA staged Race 14 at Sonoma Raceway on Sunday, it was Flying Lizard's Mike Hedlund who emerged with the overall victory. The 22-car field featured some very clean and riveting racing around the 2.5-mile natural terrain road course as the race ran green from flag to flag.

Sunday brought a picture-perfect race day with clear and sunny skies accompanied by the traditional pleasant temperatures on offer in the beautiful Sonoma Valley.

Hedlund, who snagged the pole position, ran alongside current Diamond class championship leader Robert Todd of BR Racing as the duo raced into the first corner, but it was Hedlund who emerged with the lead.

From there, Hedlund never looked back and utilized the traffic of the slower classes late in the race to eventually extend his winning margin to a 12.8-second lead.

"The race today was great!" enthused Hedlund during his victory celebrations. "The first two or three turns were really fun, Robert (Todd) and I got really close. After about two or three laps my Pirelli tires really came in well. I was trying to go a little bit easy on them but I wanted to stay ahead of Robert (Todd) obviously and once we caught traffic I was able to open up the gap a little bit more. So then we kind of got spread out and I tried to be consistent every lap and not make any mistakes."

Todd gained valuable points in his championship hunt with his second place finish. It was Mark Nelson of Competition Motorsports who rounded out the Diamond class podium in third.

In the Platinum category, it looked like Alex Kirby of Aasco Motorsports had the win in hand, but a late-race spin saw John Trefethen take over the race lead and claim the victory.

"I was able to get by Alex (Kirby) when he spun," said Trefethen who had to defend through the final corner. "But then the trick was staying ahead of him after he spun because he just caught right back up to me. He might have been a bit faster than me today but perseverance won out."

"I was running really well for most of the race but then I just made a small mistake at the end and John (Trefethen) got by me and I just couldn't make it up in time," offered Kirby. "I had developed a bit of a gap before spinning, but I was still pushing the whole time. After I spun I was able to catch back up but there just wasn't enough time left in the race."

It was an all TruSpeed Autosport podium in Platinum Masters with Larry Schnur once again leading the way as he took back-to-back victories in the Sonoma event.

"Today was great - everything was great!" smiled Schnur following the race. "I qualified and it was my first time in the 1:39's (seconds) here so that was amazing. Jim (Slavik) got a good start but then I was able to get right back by him and then pretty much just set sail from there. I had a great race with Annand (Sharma) going back and forth, very clean, fair racing, so that was a lot of fun. The car was great and I was just hitting my marks and doing everything I had been told to do. So you do that kind of stuff and it all kind of comes together, so today was great. It is nice to leave this weekend this way. I wanted to come back and redeem myself and getting two wins makes me very happy."

While Schnur extended a gap over the rest of the Platinum Masters class runners, there was some jostling among the field behind him.

Shahi, who was down on power for much of the race, held steady in second until a spin saw him drop to fourth in the order. Slavik took over second place with Joe Sposato close behind in third. When the trio came upon some slower traffic, Slavik used it to his advantage but Sposato got caught up and spun. Shahi then got by him for third to take the third step of the podium for TruSpeed Autosport.

"I got a great start and got ahead of Larry (Schnur), Ray (Shahi) and Joe (Sposato) but I couldn't hold them off," said Slavik. "So they got by me and Ray (Shahi) and I were close the whole time until he spun and I got past him and then Joe (Sposato) also spun toward the end of the race. TruSpeed swept the podium in the Platinum Masters class so we are really happy with that and they gave me a great car, the Grainger car was working awesome all weekend and this is just such a great team. Having my son Evan (Slavik) here this weekend was great. I'm really proud of him, he let me by in Turn 3a which was not a smart place to pass him but he looked like he was doing really well holding his line so I took it and he handled it very well. Evan has really gained a lot of racing experience here at Sonoma in the Zoro Racing car this weekend and he is loving it."

Competition Motorsports' Sean McAlister, who entered the weekend second in the Silver class championship, once again made some good strides in the points as he prevailed over BR Racing's Kevin Woods for the second day in a row. McAlister took the checkered flag 13-seconds ahead of the No. 51 NOLA Motorsports Porsche of Keith Jensen. Woods rounded out the podium with a third place finish.

"Right before the race I was going over video of my qualifying laps and so I just tried to mimic that as many times as I could in the actual race," said McAlister. "Keith (Jensen) got by me in Turn 2 so I visualized where I could get him in the next lap because I saw his strengths and weaknesses so I tried to get him where I thought I could. From there I just focused on hitting my marks. It was a great race today."

There was a familiar face atop the Silver Masters podium as Competition Motorsports' Steve Goldman once again claimed victory. Thomas Mayerhoffer took home second for Flying Lizard Motorsports while Chris Vivolo finished third in his No. 44 Competition Motorsports Porsche.

"This weekend was great, it feels good," said Goldman. "The car was perfect! The Competition Motorsports team did a great job setting it up. Everything went smoothly this weekend. I like Sonoma a lot, it is very technical circuit, I have been here before and it is definitely on my list of favorite tracks. I think I have a pretty healthy lead in the championship points heading into the last round at COTA, so I'm pleased with how I did this weekend. I've found that most of my time I am getting to race with the younger guys so that is a lot of fun, trying to keep up with them."

As the Pirelli GT3 Cup Trophy USA turns the page to its final round at Circuit of the Americas on September 23-25, Competent Motorsport President Greg Franz could not have been more pleased with the Sonoma weekend.

"We had a great time here at Sonoma back in July and this one just surpassed it," said Franz. "We had a lot of great, hard, clean racing. The feedback from the drivers is that they just had a great time and there were so many races within in the race that made it very interesting for the fans. The teams were yelling back and forth at each other in jest and really enjoying the whole event. We have had amazing weather so we are looking forward to finishing the season off strongly in two weeks at Circuit of the Americas on September 23-25. So we just want to invite everyone to come on down as it's our last event of the season and we are celebrating our 10th year so it's going to be really special."

Winners in Race 13 each received a bottle of Trefethen wine. Thank you to Trefethen Family Vineyards located in Napa Valley, just 25 miles north of Sonoma Raceway.

The Pirelli GT3 Cup Trophy USA returns to where it opened the 2016 season at Circuit of the Americas with the season-finale on September 23-25.