Devin Anderson, in the #22 TechSport Racing car, took victory in Race 2 at Mid-Ohio, his second in as many events after breaking through for his first at Laguna Seca. In a mostly clean, straightforward session for the Mustang Challenge field, drivers had the chance to prove their pace, and for some, try for redemption, in the second of two races in Lexington.
Anderson’s racing acuity was proven at Laguna Seca when Race 2 saw the field fitted with wet tyres in anticipation of precipitation, before pushing through a long 45 minutes on an all-but-dry track. The unique set of circumstances did not faze the young driver last time out, and neither did the rapidly rising track temperatures in Ohio this morning.
Cole Loftsgard started from pole, quickly ceding the lead to Anderson after he had a bit of a poor jump on the green flag. The TechSport driver had to defend heavily throughout the first quarter of the race, with Loftsgard regularly being under a car’s length from the rear of the #22.
Saturday’s pole-sitter in Dark Horse Legends, Dave Luaces in the #37 Birdhouse Racing car, made his first start in the Ford Mustang Challenge this morning after a mechanical issue kept him out of the competition yesterday in Race 1.
Unfortunately, Luaces made a similar error to Nolan Allaer’s Turn 1 off-track moment, only this time the Birdhouse Racing driver got sideways on a particularly violent bump, spinning and losing track position with 39 minutes remaining. Not the bounce-back performance the Birdhouse and Sam Paley crew were hoping for.
Loftsgard and Anderson continued squabbling in the meantime, while Ethan Low charged up on the back of Sandy Satullo, putting a lot of pressure on the more experienced driver on his debut, ultimately getting up into fourth position, where he would finish the race.
After reporting an intermittent power issue during yesterday’s race, which ultimately did not dampen his pace, Loftsgard seemed to be plagued by the same issue today. He was gaining and losing on Anderson through the second half of the race, sitting almost three seconds back with under 10 minutes remaining.
Anderson locked in the win, narrowly avoiding a last-lap disaster with Joseph Dederichs going too long into a corner in sector three and almost collecting him in the process. All in all, a dominant performance from the Ford Development Driver.
“We were really able to get our Dark Horse R dialled in today. We started fast, went fast, and ended fast. It was a great race. A huge thank you to TechSport Racing, they put in a ton of work this weekend to get us here,” said Anderson post-race.
Cole Loftsgard and the Round 3 Racing team brought home second position, with Will Lucas in the #34 Wheelhouse Motorsports car behind in third. Rookie Ethan Low finished fourth, ahead of Sandy Satullo in the #7 Wheelhouse car.
In Dark Horse Legends, Paolo Salvatore completed the sweep in a high-stress, battle-ridden shoot-out for the class victory. Throughout the 45-minute race, there were multiple laps where the three front-running Legends drivers were separated by less than two tenths of a second, with Salvatore out front defending Chris Clarke in the #9 Paley Motorsport with AAG car and Tom Tait in the #8 Wheelhouse Motorsports Mustang.
Salvatore would benefit from Clarke going for an ambitious dive-bomb that was never on in Turn 2, dropping down the order, as well as Tom Tait failing to commit to a risky overtake in the select overtaking opportunities, staying around 0.5 seconds behind Salvatore with no big chances.
“I just kept my focus forward and did what I had to do to bring home another win,” commented Salvatore after his race win. “We had some great battles in the Dark Horse Legends class. There were three or four of us in contention for the win the whole race. It was an incredible weekend, and my Ford Mustang Dark Horse R felt great.”
Tait would finish the race second, ahead of Joseph Dederichs in the #63 Wheelhouse machine. Joe Koenig picked up a P4 finish for his Round 3 Racing crew after finishing on the podium in Race 1, and Dave Luaces crossed the line fifth, going the full race distance with the Birdhouse Racing car.
Ford Mustang Challenge North America will return later this month at Watkins Glen, June 25-28.
Image courtesy of Ford Racing
