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Trans Am 5 hours ago A late-race restart proved to be no problem for Lawrence Loshak, who drove to a flag-to-flag victory in the opening race of the 2019 Trans Am presented by Pirelli championship at Sebring International Raceway on Sunday.Defending champion Ernie Francis Jr. pressured Loshak for the opening six laps before pitting with a transmission issue, costing him 12 laps.A late caution set the stage Chris Dyson’s charge in his Plaid Ford Mustang, but Loshak prevailed in the five-lap shootout and won his third career TA class race event by 3.047 seconds.Completing the podium was R.J. Lopez, who wheeled the No. 06 TinaBazucaCraftAle Corvette.
Joy on the podium (l to r): Lopez, Loshak and Dyson
“Finally, I won at Sebring! This place has always been bad luck for me,” said Loshak, driver of Burtin Racing’s Pennzoil/GoShare Chevrolet Camaro. “We’ve been fast all weekend, but we’ve been fast here before, only to have some gremlins take us out. “To start the season with a win — well, that’s what this team deserves.”
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Memories of his past misfortune at the historic but bumpy 3.74-mile circuit came flooding back when the late-race full-course caution cost him his advantage.“It’s always nerve-wracking when you build up a lead, dial back into conserve mode, and then have to start all over again,” said the Milwaukee driver. “Especially with [Chris] Dyson in P-2! Who has more laps and experience at Sebring than Chris? “I knew he was coming, so it was all about not making mistakes. I made a handful out there, but they weren’t big ones.“Hey, it was tough for everybody out there today, but we were able to bring the Axalta gold car home for the gold,” a happy Loshak exclaimed. Dyson started fifth but charged up to second early on, closing his day out with a podium start to his 2019 Trans Am campaign.“We struggled with the car until qualifying, to be honest,” Dyson said. “We missed it a little bit in the race, but we kept digging out there. We were starting to make up ground, but those darn yellows … They were a bit quicker on the restarts than we were.“This shows you that the racing in this series is tremendous, along with the quality of the cars that are coming out. We’re absolutely fighting at it tooth and nail out there.” The race featured three classes in action, with SGT and GT class entries also doing battle on Sunday.The second of two full-course cautions proved to be the key for Lee Saunders, who scored a come-from-behind victory in the SGT class driving the No. 84 V10PWR Racing Dodge Viper.
Lee Saunders’ SGT-winning Dodge Viper.
Polewinner Mark Boden lost his advantage to Saunders at the start, but managed to work his Beverage Flavors International Porsche 911 GT3 Cup back into the lead by lap 18 – shortly before the caution gave Saunders another opportunity.“It was a good, clean, amazing race,” Saunders said. “My hat’s off to Mark [Boden]. He had a flying car, but we were just a little stronger on the restarts. On the long runs, he was definitely faster, so we probably got a little lucky at the end with the restart. “This win is for my crew: They did a heroic rear-end swap just before qualifying.”Jeff Courtney’s Matrix/RecStuff.com/Kendra Maserati GT4 took the GT victory, besting Steven Davison’s Davinci Plastic Surgery Aston Martin Vantage.
GT class winner Jeff Courtney’s Maserati GT4.
“Actually, there was more drama out there than I expected,” Courtney said. “I thought Steven jumped the restart after the first caution [on lap 10]. Then, on the next caution, he kind of overcooked it in Turn 17. Kind of a give-back, but I would rather have raced for it.“We were catching him, but I had to go to the dirt to avoid two TA cars. I got a lot of debris on the tires, but then I was able to click off a few good laps.”Kerry Hitt won the Masters award in the TA class following a 10th-place finish in the Advanced Composite Products Inc. Cadillac CTSV, while Milton Grant won SGT Masters, placing fifth in the SentrySelfStorage/Fairfield Inn Porsche 991 GT3 Cup. The Coolshirt Cool Move of the race went to Jon Leavy.
The Trans Am presented by Pirelli next travels to Road Atlanta, for the Atlanta SpeedFest Tour event on March 29-31.