Ferrari Challenge stages Saturday showdown in Sonoma

Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli gathered for its first day of competitive action at Sonoma Raceway, the fifth stop for the North American tour of the longest-running single-make series. Run under perfect California skies and temperatures, the packed grid of Ferrari 488 Challenge Evos made the most of the weekend. Watch Saturday highlights below:

In the AM category, Justin Rothberg (Ferrari of Palm Beach) continued his dominant run this season, securing the win with a very healthy margin of 17 seconds between him and John Horejsi (Ferrari of Vancouver) who finished second. It was the fourth win of the season for Rothberg, who has now won at every circuit of the 2023 season, with the lone exception of Homestead at the start of the season.

Horejsi also found a turn of pace and returned to the podium after his lone previous visit in 2023 took place at Road Atlanta. The leading duo were followed on the road by Brad Fauvre (Ferrari of San Francisco) and Dave Musial (Ferrari of Lake Forest), but the duo were penalized post-race and thus were demoted to a finishing spot well off the podium. In their place, Omar Balkissoon (Ferrari of Ft. Lauderdale) was promoted forward and made his first visit to the podium in the 2023 season.

In the Coppa Shell AM category, the leading contenders endured the same period under safety-car, but got right into the fight once the green flag flew once more.  Bruce Cleveland (Ferrari of Silicon Valley) secured the win, but by the smallest of margins, just three tenths over Lance Cawley (Ferrari of Atlanta), who had both earned a notable gap over the rest of the category.  This marked Cleveland’s first win of the season after he stood on the podium three times and was clearly building momentum after back to back podium finishes in Montreal. Third place, however, was a bit of a scrap as Roger Monteforte (Ferrari of Central New Jersey) finished third on the road, but was ultimately penalized for incident responsibility, promoting Paul Lin (Ferrari of Newport Beach) into the position.