Solano, Capestro-Dubets Win Race 1 From Back of The Grid

Photo: Dan Bathie/McLaren

John Capestro-Dubets and Andre Solano charged from last to first to claim victory in Race 1 of the McLaren Trophy America weekend at the Circuit of The Americas to lead a GMG Racing 1-2.

Solano, who despite qualifying second overall and on the Pro class pole, was forced to start the race from the back of the grid due to a technical infraction.

Nevertheless, the Costa Rican driver charged up the order and into podium contention in the opening stages, passing Cooper Broll for third after the first ten minutes, and later dispatching Colin Harrison’s TechSport McLaren for second minutes later.

After the mandatory round of pit stops, pole-sitter James Sofronas continued to lead overall in his Am class No. 14 GMG McLaren Artura Trophy Evo, with Pro class stablemate Capestro-Dubets hot on his heels in the No. 4 machine after taking over from Solano.

Capestro-Dubets overtook team owner Sofronas for the overall lead in the final 20 minutes, completing the comeback charge started by Solano during his stint to take the checkered flag with an 8.362-second margin of victory and surviving a 6.67-second post-race penalty assessed for a short pit stop.

Sofronas won comfortably in Am with his second-place overall finish.

Motorsports In Action’s Jesse Lazare and Alexandra Hainer took back-to-back Pro-Am class wins and secured the final step of the overall podium in the process.

Hainer battled with RWE Motorsport’s John Dempsey for the class lead in the opening stages while both drivers battled in the top five, with Motorsports in Action pulling off the undercut to solidify their position at the head of the class.

Tommy Pintos finished fourth overall and second in Pro in the No. 919 Skip Barber Racing entry he shares with Broll, who had held the Pro lead in the opening stages after an early penalty for James Li.

The No. 10 RWE McLaren of Andrew Davis rounded out the overall top five.

Jon Lancaster slowed while running second in Pro-Am with an unknown mechanical issue in the final stages, limping his McLaren back to the pits under his own power.

The No. 17 Riley Motorsports entry of Tom Kopczynski and Eric Filgueiras was unable to make the start of the race after an alternator issue prevented them from taking the green flag.

Second qualifying for the single-make series is slated for Sunday morning at 9:00 a.m. CST, followed by Race 2 of the weekend at 11:05 a.m.

RESULTS: COTA Race 1