By Mark Robinson
IMSA Wire Service
It felt like it took them forever to win as a pairing, but Danny Formal and Ryan Norman reached the top of the podium Friday afternoon in the first race of the Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America weekend at Watkins Glen International. They led a parade of first-time 2024 winners in all four classes.
For Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti drivers Formal and Norman, the win couldn’t have come at a better time in the fifth race of the Super Trofeo season. According to Formal, the victory also makes him the winningest Pro class driver in series history with 19. With one Pro-Am class triumph as well, it gives the fifth-year driver a total of 20 wins for his Super Trofeo career.
“All my wins have come with WTRAndretti,” said Formal, the two-time reigning Pro class champion who earned those titles with former co-driver Kyle Marcelli. “I’m so grateful to get my 19th (Pro) win here with Ryan Norman.”
Formal started from the pole position and turned the No. 1 WTRAndretti, Lamborghini Palm Beach Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo EVO2 over to Norman in the lead during the round of mandatory pit stops. The 50-minute race ended under a full-course caution, allowing Norman to cruise to the checkered flag and issue a huge sigh of relief.
“It’s just a big weight off our shoulders, honestly,” said Norman, who won twice as a solo WTRAndretti driver last season and finished second to the Formal/Marcelli pairing in the Pro standings. “We struggled in the first couple rounds a little bit, but big shout-out to everyone at Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti. They kept their heads down and the results are showing.”
Giano Taurino and Ernie Francis Jr. finished second in the No. 88 TR3 Racing, Lamborghini Miami Huracán. Francis put intense pressure on Norman in the closing stint until the late yellow erased any chances of a dramatic late pass attempt.
“Ernie gave (Norman) a lot of pressure, he was out there for two laps before him with hot tires learning how the track condition was,” Formal observed. “Ryan got out there and just went for it and drove amazing.”
Shehan Chandrasoma and Nikko Reger finished third overall and claimed the Pro-Am class win in the No. 21 TPC Racing, Lamborghini Austin Huracán. They actually crossed the finish line narrowly behind the No. 14 Flying Lizard Motorsports, Lamborghini Newport Beach Huracán that was penalized 0.537 seconds after the race for being that much short of the required minimum pit stop time.
The penalty dropped the No. 14 to fourth in class and gave Chandrasoma and Reger – who had a victory at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca taken away last month by a late blocking call – their first win of 2024.
“Man, that was a brawl out there,” Reger said. “We saw that the (No.) 14 had a little penalty from the pit stop so we tried to be really close to them coming across the start/finish line. We ran a clean race, a good race. Little bit of contact here and there, but after that brawl I’m glad that we came out on top.”
“It’s definitely a great feeling,” added co-driver Chandrasoma. “Back to first place again, P3 overall. Yeah, a great feeling.”
Dominic Starkweather notched his first win of the season in the Am class, taking the class lead during the pit stop round in the No. 47 Precision Performance Motorsports, Lamborghini Palm Beach Huracán and rolling to his first victory since Road America last August.
“The first half was hard but we just stayed true and ran clean laps and avoided penalties, avoided contact,” Starkweather said. “We didn’t know we were going to win until it was over, really. The car was going away at the end, it was getting hard to drive, but we’re pretty happy with it.”
Nick Groat was elated to drive to his first-ever Super Trofeo win in the LB Cup class. As in Pro-Am, Groat benefited from a 1.578-second postrace penalty assessed Mark Brummond (No. 02 Auto Technic Racing, Lamborghini Palm Beach Huracán) for too short of a pit stop.
“Oh my god, this is amazing!” Groat said. “Feels absolutely incredible. First season being here, putting in all the work and having it come together. So awesome!”
Saturday’s second Super Trofeo race takes the green flag at 4:55 p.m. ET and streams live on Peacock and IMSA.tv.
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