Todd Lamb claims points lead with Laguna Seca win

Compass360 Racing’s Todd Lamb took over the lead of the Pirelli World Challenge Touring class standings with a victory at Laguna Seca in his Honda Civic Si, deposing the Mazda of Michael Cooper.

HPA Motorsports’ driver Tristan Herbert had taken pole position in the Volkswagen Jetta GLI, but was passed by the two Compass360 Racing Hondas of Lamb and team-mate Ryan Winchester.

A puncture for points leader Michael Cooper in his Atlanta Motorsports Group Mazda3 at the start saw the Syosset-driver drop to last, and would recover to finish in sixth place.

Lamb held the lead for the whole race, but defended from a late charge from Jeff Altenberg in the second HPA Motorsports’ VW Jetta.

“Towards the end, we got a couple of yellows and bunched up the field a little bit,” said Lamb.

“I tried to conserve the car for the first part of the race knowing that, toward the end, we’d definitely be getting a yellow and there would be a battle. We’ve struggled against the turbos all season, so we knew they were probably going to conserve tires and come on strong at the end. It was a shame to see Tristan get taken out there, but at the same time we’re here to get some points. I had a pretty good battle with Altenburg there at the end, we raced nice and clean but I definitely had to be defensive and hold him off. It was tough.”

Lamb now leads the drivers’ standings with 771 points, with Mazda driver Cooper dropping to second on 755, and Lamb’s Compass360 Racing team-mate Ryan Winchester in third on 558.

Honda lead the manufacturers’ standings with 48 points with Mazda second on 35 and Volkswagen in third on 26.

The next round of the Pirelli World Challenge with the touring class will be at Mosport, Ontario, Canada on June 24th.