PWC: Mills, Edwards secure SprintX title

Michael Mills won the inaugural SprintX GT championship in style, taking the victory in the second of two races at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Mills failed to hold off a late charge by Tim Pappas in the Black Swan Racing Porsche 911 GT3R, but officials penalized the Black Swan team for not meeting the minimum pit time, which gave the win to Mills and co-driver John Edwards.

"Tim [Pappas] and I go way back racing each other, and I thought he had us," said Mills. "But I was racing for a championship and it didn't matter if I got first or second. But with their infraction, it looks like we won the race, too."

Pappas had been taking half a second out of Mills' margin on every lap in the closing stages, and was right on Mills' tail as they took the white flag. As they approached the GTSX SIN R1 of Chris Beaufait, Mills went to pass him before realizing that Beaufait wasn't aware of the race-leading battle bearing down on him, and the two made contact, opening the door for Pappas to slide through. The margin of victory was just over a second, which was more than overcome by the penalty handed to Black Swan.

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Two leaders dropped out of the race with mechanical problems. First Michael Lewis pulled off his Calvert Dynamics Porsche 911 GT3R seven laps in after grabbing the lead at the start and pulling out a small margin. Then, following pit stops, Cooper MacNeil's WeatherTech Porsche lost drive and pulled to a stop in the pits.

The pit stops nearly proved pivotal to the race, aside from the penalty that altered the outcome. Most of the teams opted to keep the pro drivers in as long as possible, so they pitted toward the end of the 10-minute pit stop window. Edwards, trailing the GMG Porsche 911 GT3 started by Alec Udell, was the first of the lead group to pit, handing over the BMW to Mills. Mills hit traffic on his out lap, which gave him no opportunity to overtake the other leading cars that pitted a lap later.

MacNeil, having taken over from Gunnar Jeannette, and Brent Holden, now in the GMG Porsche, left the pits almost side by side, with Holden having the edge. But Holden got a bad break in traffic in the Corkscrew and MacNeil capitalized and took the lead. His Porsche, however, was already showing signs of the trouble that would end his race. At almost the same time that MacNeil's troubles went terminal about 40 minutes in, Mills got by Holden in Turn 11.

As a result of the win, Mills, the winner of the 2014 GTA title, is the Sportsman champion in the inaugural SprintX Championship, and Mills Racing took the team title. This was Edwards' first weekend with the team, Kuno Wittmer having co-driven with Mills in previous outings.

"I started to feel a little racy, maybe a little too racy since I'm not in the championship," said Edwards of his first stint. "But I knew after the pit stop, Michael could get by Brent [Holden], so I didn't see any reason to tray anything too crazy. I talked myself out of a couple of moves in Turn 11."

Andrew Aquilante and Kurt Rezzetano took another GTS-X victory in the Calvert Dynamics Ford Mustang, leading for the duration, except immediately after their pit stop. Kris Wilson and Max Riddle finished second in the TRG-AMR Aston Martin GT4, enough to secure the team and drivers' titles.

"The race was amazing, It was really fun," said Rezzetano. "Andrew had the brunt of it, he had to deal with Wilson, I just had to get in and finish." Added Aquilante: "We pulled it off, but in SprintX, you never quite know. I was just trying to preserve the car. Kris [Wilson] wasn't making it easy, though!"

A DXDT Racing Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo won once again in GT Cup, but this time it was Enrique Bernoldi and Jeff Burton. Because this is the first weekend GT Cup teams have entered the SprintX races, no championship was awarded in that class.