Franco, Cook, Voronin, Cleveland all winners at Sonoma

The Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli season continued its march towards the Finali Mondiali with the completion of its fifth round in North America at Sonoma Raceway.  Set against the rolling hills of wine country, the drivers put their Ferrari 488 Challenge Evos to the test on Sonoma’s undulating and demanding circuit.

Jason McCarthy (Wide World Ferrari) attempted to get past Kurzejewski several times, especially in the opening 10 minutes. From there the group evened out, until the final stanza when McCarthy’s early aggression came back to haunt him in the form of higher tire degradation, allowing Roberto Perrina to slip by with a last-lap pass.  In the Trofeo Pirelli AM category, Brian Cook (Ferrari of Seattle) secured his first win of the season after three prior trips to the podium. The action in Trofeo Pirelli AM was unrelenting but in the final standings it was Dave Musial (Ferrari of Lake Forest) leading home Justin Rothberg (Ferrari of Palm Beach) in second and third respectively, separated by less than a second at the line.  The result marked a welcome return for Dave Musial to the podium, his first since the opening round at Homestead-Miami, while Rothberg was able to further build on his championship advantage thanks to an atypical weekend from Tony Davis (Continental Autosport).

Much of the final result was decided in the opening few minutes as Fauve was able to get past Root and began to chase down Voronin, applying steady pressure throughout the race, though ultimately without success.  Meanwhile in Coppa Shell AM, Bruce Cleveland (Ferrari of Silicon Valley) repeated his performance from Saturday with another win, this time leading home Steve Check (Ferrari of Rancho Mirage) and Lisa Clark (Ferrari of Beverly Hills) who enjoyed a strong rebound performance to blunt an increasingly strong championship challenge from Lance Cawley (Ferrari of Atlanta).