- Shinya Michimi swept the two races at Virginia International Raceway and earned his sixth win in eight races this season.
- Trent Hindman and Craig Duerson won the Pro-Am class to give them a three-point class championship lead over Brandon Gdovic with four rounds to go.
- Ross Chouest kept his streak alive with another win in Lamborghini Cup. He has won all eight races this season.
Prestige Performance is making a habit of winning races. It was no different Sunday as Shinya Michimi swept the Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo North America weekend with a Round 8 win at VIRginia International Raceway.
Michimi earned the 1.457-second victory in the No. 1 Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo LP 620-2 entry representing Lamborghini Paramus over the duo of Trent Hindman and Craig Duerson, leading a 1-2 Prestige Performance overall finish.
“Trent (Hindman) and I are really good friends, but at the end of the day we’re within the same team, and we like to have inner-team battles,” Michimi said. “And they kept telling me he was running quicker lap times, so I wanted to prove I could still run the quick lap times. The guys have given me a great car to run. There’s never any issues, and it just gets quicker as the race goes on.”
Michimi led the field from flag-to-flag, but victory didn’t come easily in a race plagued by cautions.
The first caution was brought out six minutes into the race, just like Round 7 Saturday. The No. 29 Change Racing entry representing Lamborghini Carolinas driven by Luis Rodriguez Jr. went off in the Esses, triggering the caution.
On the restart four minutes later, Yufeng Luo in the No. 17 US RaceTronics entry representing Lamborghini Beverly Hills dropped a wheel through Turn 17 and spun. He made contact with the pit wall. That incident triggered the
Automobili second caution of the day with 38 minutes remaining in the 50-minute race.
Michimi led the restart with 27 minutes to go, followed by Brandon Gdovic in the No. 46 DAC Motorsports entry representing Lamborghini Palm Beach, Damon Ockey in the No. 07 US RaceTronics entry representing Lamborghini Calgary and Duerson in the No. 10 entry representing Lamborghini Paramus.
Michimi had a flawless pit stop. He was required to stop for 1 minute and 24 seconds, and his Prestige Performance team completed a stop in 1:24.021 to help him retain first place. Hindman exited the pit stop in second behind his teammate, aided by the requirement to stop for only 1:21 as a co-driver team.
Michimi slowly built a 3.053-second lead on Hindman before the third caution of the race was triggered with 10:45 to go. On the restart with 3:55 to go, Michimi pulled a fantastic jump on Hindman. But Hindman was not deterred. He tried to reel in Michimi over the next three laps, getting as close as .790-of-a-second. But he was unable to close the deal, and Michimi earned his sixth win in eight races.
The win also extends Michimi’s Pro driver points lead to 114-71 over Emmanuel Anassis in the No. 26 DAC Motorsports entry representing Lamborghini Palm Beach with four rounds to go.
“We started out with the goal to win the championship, and we’ve done what we need to do in the order we need to do it,” Michimi said. “I think a few more races, and we can hopefully clinch it. But we’re looking to win races because if you’re winning up front, then they can’t catch you.”
The second-place overall finish for Hindman and Duerson was their fourth overall podium finish of the season. The duo was also the top Pro-Am finisher, the fourth class win of the season. Hindman and Duerson are three points in front of Gdovic, 94-91, for first place in the Pro-Am points standings. They entered Round 8 tied with 79 points. Gdovic finished third overall and second in the Pro-Am class. Ockey held on to finish fourth overall after starting third. He was also the top Amateur class finisher and extended his Amatuer championship points lead.
The third Prestige Performance entry representing Lamborghini Paramus, driven by Stefan Wilson and David Seabrooke, finished third in the No. 23 Lamborghini. It was the duo’s first podium of the season.
Patrice Brisebois finished second in the Amateur division in the No. 24 DAC Motorsports entry representing Lamborghini Palm Beach. Rob Hodes rounded out the Amateur podium with a third-place finish in the No. 51 KR2 Motorsports entry representing Lamborghini Palm Beach.
Ross Chouest extended his win streak to eight races in Lamborghini Cup competition. He was won the class in every race this season in the No. 3 DXD Racing entry representing Lamborghini Miami.
Will James was second in Lamborghini Cup for the second race in a row in the No. 11 eXclaim Racing/Migliore Motorsports entry representing Lamborghini Paramus. Shawn Lawless rounded out the podium finishers with a third-place finish in the No. 27 Dream Racing Motorsport representing Lamborghini Las Vegas.
The next Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo America event will be Sept. 14-16 at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
The weekend at Virginia International Raceway is a part of the worldwide race action for the Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo championship, which continues to reach new levels of success at every round in Europe, North America and Asia. Lamborghini and Blancpain provided world-class hospitality this weekend for clients and guests of Lamborghini dealers. Guests also participated in the IMSA Hot Lap Experience, high-speed rides around the circuit in a Lamborghini.
POST-RACE QUOTES
SHINYA MICHIMI (No. 1 Lamborghini Paramus, winner): “Trent (Hindman) and I are really good friends, but at the end of the day we’re within the same team, and we like to have inner-team battles. And they kept telling me he was running quicker lap times, so I wanted to prove I could still run the quick lap times. The guys have given me a great car to run. There’s never any issues, and it just gets quicker as the race goes on. We started out with the goal to win the championship, and we’ve done what we need to do in the order we need to do it. I think a few more races, and we can hopefully clinch it. But we’re looking to win races because if you’re winning up front, then they can’t catch you.”
TRENT HINDMAN (No. 10 Lamborghini Paramus, winner, Pro-Am): “First off, I want to give a big thank you to the entire Prestige Performance/Wayne Taylor Racing team. Craig, Kevin, Mark, all of our guys were busting their tails yesterday trying to get some of the demons out of our car. We picked up a lot of speed today after finding some issues. But either way, big congratulations to Shinya (Michimi) on putting together one hell of a race. I was trying my best to keep up with him. I was trying my best to catch him. I think I was pushing a little bit too hard. But Prestige, 1-2, can’t complain. We won the Pro-Am class, and we did everything we needed to do. So overall just a good day for our team.”
CRAIG DUERSON (No. 10 Lamborghini Paramus, winner, Pro-Am): “I’m comfortable with restarts, and I feel pretty comfortable doing that. The first stint went well, and Prestige did a good job fixing the car. We had a few issues yesterday, and those got resolved. We’re back where we expect to be on the podium, so we’re all pleased with it.”
DAMON OCKEY (No. 09 Lamborghini Calgary, winner, Amateur): “Today’s race was earlier in the morning, so it was way cooler. The car was handling great. The team got me a great car. US RaceTronics worked hard to get perfect cars this weekend and did just that. I had a solid starting position, starting in P3. I just put my head down. Unfortunately, we had a lot of yellows, so I wasn’t able to get a gap on the other Amateur drivers before the Pro guys got in. I was hoping for an overall placement, but I’m happy with first in class.”
ROSS CHOUEST (No. 3 Lamborghini Miami, winner, LB Cup): “Today was a lot more interesting race. I was battling Rob Hodes the entire race, and I was able to hold him off there until the final yellow flag. He out-broke me going into (Turn) 1, and he took the inside line and he did really good. It was a great move. I thought I’d try to get an over-under on him but wasn’t able to pull it off. It was little hard to get into a rhythm with all the yellows but a lot of fun battling Rob.”
