Will Lucas in the #34 Wheelhouse Motorsports car won his first Mustang Challenge North America race in Race 2 at VIR this morning, the first victory of the 2026 season for a driver other than Cole Loftsgard or Devin Anderson. Lucas, a Ford Racing Driver Development Team member, won both category championships in the inaugural Mustang Cup USA series in 2025 and has finally broken through in Mustang Challenge. It was an excellent showing for Wheelhouse Motorsports’ Dark Horse class drivers, with Sandy Satullo finishing in second position in the #7 Wheelhouse car.
Cole Loftsgard in the #42 Round 3 Racing car started from pole position and once again fended off Devin Anderson’s #22 TechSport Racing machine through the beginning stages of the 45-minute race. Sandy Satullo and Ethan Low in the #25 Flying Lion Motorsports car fought for third position while Lucas tumbled down to fifth in the first lap.
From second position, Anderson was once again going for bold moves through the first sector, going alongside Loftsgard, who stayed true to the superior defensive line to maintain his position just as he did in yesterday’s race.
In an unusual moment of scrappy racing, Anderson, repeatedly unable to make the move stick, went a step too far and bumped Loftsgard into the Horseshoe, sending him into the runoff of turn one.
Loftsgard fell down several places from the lead, ending up in fifth position. Anderson led the race briefly before a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility relegated him to seventh with 33 minutes remaining.
At the top of the field, Satullo came under heavy pressure from Lucas, as the teammates battled for what would be both of their first wins of the season. Lucas would make the move to the lead with 29 minutes remaining in the race, while both Loftsgard and Anderson put in mighty lap times down the order.
Chris Clarke was leading in Dark Horse Legends with Nicholas Smither in the #58 Nick Smither Racing car and Oleg Gorshkov in the #70 Round 3 Racing car threatening when Paolo Salvatore in the #84 Torre Racing went off track at turn three. This was just before class championship leader Tom Tait in the #8 Wheelhouse Motorsports car went off course at the Horseshoe a moment later.
Loftsgard clawed his way up to third position, reeling in Ethan Low over a handful of laps and making a prolonged overtake on the Flying Lion Motorsports driver in turn three with time ticking down.
Round 3 Racing’s revelation, Gorshkov, made his way into second position in class past Smither, before benefiting from a mistake by Clarke at the Horseshoe to take the lead of the race with just over 10 minutes to the chequered flag.
Tom Tait’s tough weekend continued when he struck the barriers in the Horseshoe, taking minimal damage but enough to pop the hood of his Dark Horse R. A mechanical black flag brought him back into the pits, where the Wheelhouse crew would wheel the #8 car behind the wall to retire from the race. Walter Bobko in the #88 Nick Smither Racing car retired for the second time this weekend on the same lap as Tait with a presumed mechanical problem once again.
Lucas came back under pressure from Satullo for the overall lead when he put in a poor lap with six minutes remaining, as Anderson passed Low for fourth position. Anderson was consistently lapping in the mid-1:59s, over a second faster than the average lap times of the leaders at the time.
Closing in on the final laps, the race had the makings of a potential comeback performance from Loftsgard, sitting not far off the lead battle in third, before a caution would end the race.
Clarke sustained massive damage to his Mustang, dropping his muffler completely off his car and throwing multiple pieces of bodywork onto the racing line just as the overall leaders came by in turn 8.
Lucas and Satullo claimed 1-2 in Dark Horse, while Loftsgard secured a P3 finish in the end, running out of road. Anderson and Low finished out the top five, Low putting in as much of a fight as he could against the two title contenders as they climbed back up the order.
Gorshkov took his fourth victory in as many races in Dark Horse Legends, continuing to show out well for the Round 3 Racing crew. Smither would once again finish on the podium in second position after finishing third yesterday. Salvatore finished third after two off-track excursions in a tumultuous race for the Dark Horse Legends class.
Next is the season finale for Mustang Challenge at the Circuit of The Americas, September 4-6, where a new series champion will be crowned in the Dark Horse class for the first time since 2024.
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