PWC: Parente earns GT title in wild finale finish

Cadillac Racing's Johnny O'Connell won a wild final-lap battle at the Pirelli World Challenge GT season finale at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, and Alvaro Parente won the war by scoring his first GT championship in his K-PAX Racing McLaren.

However, O'Connell was stripped of the win hours after the race when series officials penalized the Cadillac driver for contact that contributed to a change in the outcome of the championship. With the addition of a 2.1-second time penalty, Parente was awarded the win and O'Connell was demoted to fifth.

O'Connell, the four-time (and defending) GT champ, initially drove home to a 0.4-second win over Parente and Cadillac teammate Michael Cooper, who completed the top three, but the podium that was produced after 50 minutes of competition looked drastically different than the one that appeared to be a sure thing one minute earlier.

That bad situation was born from last-lap contact between O'Connell's Cadillac and Long's Porsche. Starting second, Long held second through those first 49 minutes, and only needed to finish ahead of Parente to move ahead in the standings to earn his second PWC GT title.

A restart with one minute remaining threw the outcome into question, but the O'Connell-Long-Parente train went into Turn 2 without incident and Long's championship appeared to be secured. But everything changed when O'Connell went wide at Turn 4 and Long went to the outside on the run into Turn 5 to take the lead. Long turned in and found the Cadillac diving to the inside of the corner.

Contact followed, Long was shuffled out onto the dirt at corner exit, and Parente got by. Game over for the Porsche driver.

Long, who would have been crowned GT champion by following O'Connell home, threw the championship away by pressing the issue with a Cadillac driver who is known for his hard-charging ways. With half of a lane open for O'Connell to fill at the apex of Turn 5, the side-to-side clash was not a surprise.

"Great race, everybody running really hard," O'Connell said. "Going through Turn 4, I understeered off, that allowed Patrick to go by me but never cleared me; I'm on the inside, and it's not my job to let him by. I was very shocked when he turned down and we had contact. I've been fortunate to win a bunch of championships for GM and might have played that different than him. I think I just wanted to win more. Four wins on the year and [I'm] very proud of the team for what we did."

The cool-down lap featured Long, who fell to fifth, passing all the cars and getting alongside O'Connell for a few corners. He also stopped in the Cadillac Racing pits to voice his displeasure.

"I appreciate Patrick being upset; we're both hard racers," O'Connell added.

Long placed the blame squarely on O'Connell.

“Like I said at the beginning of this weekend, I was proud to still be in contention during the title chase," he said. "I raced Johnny at the end of the race and I expected racing room and didn’t get it. For him not to be in the championship hunt and to be the deciding factor is a difficult situation. In every scenario there are two drivers that make a decision. There was no intention to try and battle Johnny the entire race. My focus was on the championship and the two times I was alongside or ahead of him, it came down to his mistakes.

"This is why we all love this sport, it is action packed. I am very proud of Wright Motorsports and we appreciate the support of Porsche Consulting and all of our partners. We will come back stronger from this. In the end there is sport and there is integrity and we walk away proud of how we handled both situations today.”

Parente sat and watched through the McLaren's windshield as the championship was hand-delivered.

"[And] what a crazy last lap," he said. "Pat tried to pass him on the outside, fought him for the position, Pat went wide and I went by. It was a great year. Congratulations to World Challenge."

Long's championship loss and Parente's win we're not influenced by O'Connell's demotion from first to fifth.

Before the unexpected outcome, the crawl to the start saw the green flag wave early and Parente timed his launch from sixth with perfection as he went around the outside to clear fourth and fifth place to slot in behind Long in second as the field streamed into Turn 2. Long tried to get ahead of O'Connell entering Turn 3 but was forced to concede the lead to the Cadillac.

GTA champion Martin Fuentes wasn't as fortunate leaving Turn 3 and made hard contact with the rear of his Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 458. Mike Skeen had problems later in the opening lap when his Lone Star Racing Dodge Viper was left sitting backward at the bottom of the Corkscrew. Kyle Marcelli headed for pit lane, and with two stranded vehicles to recover, the race went was under a caution period before Lap 1 was complete.

The restart on Lap 6 saw O'Connell lead Long and Parente with Cadillac teammate Michael Cooper staying close in fourth. After 19 minutes of the 50-minute contest, O'Connell held a somewhat comfortable lead while Long concentrated on defending second and Parente took advantage of the Porsche driver's compromised lines, but the crashed and stalled Bentley of Fabian Hamprecht at Turn 4 triggered the second caution.

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The restart just past the halfway point of the race was an exact repeat of the last, although there was a slightly wider margin between the top four cars entering Turn 2. Long's pace continued to improve as the laps wound down and with 12 minutes left on the clock, O'Connell's comfort zone had been whittled down to 0.750 seconds and the gap to Parente stretched to 1.5 seconds.

Long didn't need to overtake O'Connell to secure the Drivers' championship, but it didn't prevent him from trying. The race's third caution landed as the 10-minute mark approached when Drew Regitz stuffed his Cameron Racing Audi R8 LMS into the barriers at Turn 2. Safety crews took precautions with Regitz, who stayed in the car for a few minutes after the impact.

Regitz was helped from the car by two emergency workers and walked to the ambulance under his own power. The timing of the crash, along with the time that passed while Regitz was sorted and his car was pulled away from the barrier, meant the championship would come down to a quick sprint to the finish.

The aforementioned clash took place, Long lost out in the exchange, and a surefire title slipped from his grasp.

Parente, who was flawless from start to finish, was the recipient of an unnecessary move made by Long and took the GT title in his first PWC season and also moved McLaren ahead of Porsche for the Manufacturers' championship.

In GTA, Wright Motorsports' day went from bad to worse as Long's teammate Michael Schein, who led the whole way, was taken off the road at Turn 9 and then flew off at Turn 10, which allowed Alex Job Racing/WeatherTech Racing's Cooper MacNeil to take the win in his Porsche.

"The race went well because we won," MacNeil said. "For the most part it wasn't going our way with Mike Schein; it wasn't possible to get by him unless somebody took him out or he made a mistake."

In GT Cup, Corey Fergus turned his pole into a win with the No. 00 Motorsports Promotions Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car.

"It has taken longer than we wanted to figure this GT Cup car out and it's a long time coming for sure," said Fergus, who won his first Cup race at Sonoma. "It means a lot to us; better late than never and I'm really happy for the whole team this weekend."

It was a crazy outcome to a crazy PWC GT season, and as Parente proved, the championship wasn't going to be settled until every corner on the final last lap was in the books.

Updated results from Sunday, Oct 9, 2016 Pirelli World Challenge Championship GT-GTA Round 20 GT Cup Round 19 Race Round 11, part of the Grand Prix Presented by NISSAN at MRLS. Results are provisional until posted Final:

1. 1, GT, Alvaro Parente, Porto Portugal, McLaren 650S GT3, 27, Running
2. 2, GT, Michael Cooper, Syosset NY, Cadillac ATS-V.R. GT3, 27, Running
3. 3, GT, Bryan Heitkotter, Fresno CA, Nissan GTR GT3, 27, Running
5. 4, GT, Patrick Long, Manhattan Beach CA, Porsche 911 GT3 R, 27, Running
5. 5, GT, Johnny O’Connell, Flowery Branch GA, Cadillac ATS-V.R. GT3, 27, Running
6. 6, GT, Jon Fogarty, Bend OR, McLaren 650S GT3, 27, Running
7. 7, GT, J.D. Davison, Denver CO, Nissan GTR GT3, 27, Running
8. 8, GT, Gunner Jeannette, Salt Lake City UT, Porsche 991 GT3 R, 27, Running
9. 9, GT, Spencer Pumpelly, Atlanta GA, Acura TLX-GT, 27, Running
10. 10, GT, Ryan Eversley, Atlanta GA, Acura TLX-GT, 27, Running
11. 11, GT, Michael Lewis, Laguna Beach CA, Porsche 911 GT3 R, 27, Running
12. 1, GTA, Cooper MacNeil, Hinsdale IL, Porsche 991 GT3 R, 27, Running
13. 2, GTA, Tim Pappas, Boston MA, Porsche 911 GT3 R, 27, Running
14. 3, GTA, Andrew Kim, Seoul South Korea, Bentley Continental GT3, 27, Running
15. 4, GTA, Andy Wilzoch, Aurora CO, Porsche GT3R, 27, Running
16. 5, GTA, Brent Holden, Newport CA, Porsche 911 GT3 R, 27, Running
17. 1, GT Cup, Corey Fergus, Columbus OH, Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, 27, Running
18. 2, GT Cup, Sloan Urry, Park City UT, Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, 27, Running
19. 6, GTA, Michael Schein, Glen Cove NY, Porsche 911 GT3 R, 27, Running
20. 18, GT, Austin Cindric, Charlotte NC, McLaren 650S GT3, 27, Running
21. 19, GT, Colin Thompson, Doylestown PA, McLaren 650S GT3, 26, Not Running
22. 3, GT Cup, Chris Thompson, San Clemente CA, Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, 26, Running
23. 7, GTA, Jorge De La Torre, Mexico City, Aston Martin Vantage GT3, 25, Running
24. 8, GTA, Drew Regitz, Denver CO, Audi R8 LMS GT3, 21, Not Running
25. 25, GT, Fabian Hamprecht, Beckenried Switzerland, Bentley Continental GT3, 9, DNF
26. 26, GT, Kyle Marcelli, Barrie ON, Audi R8 LMS GT3, 1, DNF
27. 27, GT, Mike Skeen, Charlotte NC, Dodge Viper GT3-R, 0, DNF
28. 28, GTA, Martin Fuentes, Mexico City Mexico, Ferrari 458 Italia GT3, 0, DNF
29. 29, GT, Jonathan Summerton, Redwood City CA, Mercedes AMG SLS GT3, 0, DNS
30. 30, GT Cup, Alex Welch, Englewood CO, Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, 0, DNS