Herbert wins second race at St. Petersburg

Tristan Herbert has taken victory in his first race weekend in the World Challenge series ahead of yesterday’s race winner Lawson Aschenbach.

Aschenbach was passed at the start by both Grid 1 Motorsports driver Chip Herr’s Mazda RX-8 and Herbert in his Brimtek Motorsports Golf GTI. The trio would be the main battlers for the podium spots throughout the race.

On lap 2, Herbert moved ahead of Herr for the lead in the Touring class, with Aschenbach temporarily moving ahead of Herr for second a few laps later when the Mazda driver was baulked by the slow moving GTS class Chevrolet Camaro of Ardee Topee.

Herr then managed to repass the Aschenbach’s Compass360 Racing Civic before a big incident on lap 8 for Carolyn Kujala. Kujala’s Gila Monster Racing VW Jetta was spun around as she was being lapped by one of the GT class Corvettes. The Arizona-driver hurtled backwards and mounted the tyre wall on Turn 12 bringing out the only Full Course Caution of the race.

Herbert mistakenly passed the safety car without receiving a wave-by, effectively moving a lap ahead of the Touring class field. After the race restarted following a lengthy clean-up, he was pulled to the pits and then released back into the field, which dropped him behind Chip Herr into second place.

Kujala’s team-mate Ronald Zitsa had briefly moved ahead of Aschenbach for third, before retiring a few laps later with an unknown technical problem.

Herbert soon passed Herr for the lead before Herr also drove into the pits and retired, promoting Aschenbach into second. Yesterday’s race winner soon closed down on the Volkswagen in the final laps of the race, but Aschenbach couldn’t find a way past the Brimtek driver, leaving Herbert to take his first SCCA Pro victory on his debut weekend, with Patrick Seguin rounding off the podium in his Segs Motorsports Honda Civic.