Weisenberg Wins First GR Cup Race in Sonoma

Photo: Fred Hardy/SRO

Lucas Weisenberg won the first Toyota GR Cup North America race of the season at Sonoma Raceway after fending off strong, late pressure from BSI Racing’s Westin Workman in the final laps.

Weisenberg led the 31-car field to green in the No. 46 Lucas Racing Toyota GR86 after an extra formation lap was ordered by race control to help drivers get their Continental tires up to temperature.

Workman fought his way back into second in the No. 13 BSI Racing entry in the second half of the race, after initially losing ground to eventual third-place finisher Spike Kohlbecker.

The BSI driver then set his sights on the race-leader Weisenberg, cutting down a near two-second gap in the process, but would have to settle for second, despite side-by-side racing with Weisenberg for the lead in the final laps.

RVA Graphics Motorsports by Speed Syndicate’s Will Robusto came home in fourth ahead of Copeland Motorsports’ John Dean who rounded out the top five.

Jaxon Bell was on the move early, climbing up to fourth from his initially starting position of seventh aboard the No. 7 Copeland machine before the race’s only caution period, but would later drop back after two off-track excursions suffered while fighting for position.

Ethan Goulart was penalized while running fourth for incident responsibility after battling with Bell, resulting in one of the Copeland drivers’ offs, with a separate incident involving Bell and Ethan Ayars to be reviewed post-race.

The field fell under caution after Jenson Sofronas spun off track at high speed and made contact with the tire barriers in the No. 41 Copeland Toyota in the first ten minutes of action after battling inside the top ten.

Racing resumed with 26 minutes remaining.

TechSport’s Ayden Kirk made contact with Ford Koch’s Copeland machine, earning Kirk a drive-through penalty in the final minutes.

Race 2 for GR Cup North America goes green Sunday at 12:55 p.m. PST with live coverage available on grcup.com and on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel after qualifying sets the grid Sunday morning at 8:50 a.m.