Loftsgard Wins Incident-Filled Saturday Race at Laguna

Photo: Wes Duenkel/Ford

Cole Loftsgard continued his winning ways in Mustang Challenge North America competition, with the Round 3 Racing taking victory in an incident-filled opening race of the weekend at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

Loftsgard took his No. 42 Ford Mustang Dark Horse R to a 1.029-second win over the No. 22 TechSport Racing entry of Davin Anderson, who started on pole for Saturday’s 45-minute race.

While Anderson led from the green, second-place starter Loftsgard passed Anderson on the outside of Turn 5 for the lead following the first resumption of racing on Lap 5.

The first yellow came out immediately at the start for an accident by Loftgard’s teammate, Joe Koenig, who crashed out over the hill in his Dark Horse Legends entry.

A second yellow was called for debris on Lap 7, while Wheelhouse Motorsports driver Michael Tosi escaped injury following a sizable accident in Turn 9 after contact from the No. 29 Paley Motorsport with AAG Racing entry of Ryan Persing that occurred just three minutes after the restart.

It set up a 14-minute shoutout to the finish that saw Anderson pressure the Round 3 driver until going slightly off course on the second-to-final corner.

The No. 7 Wheelhouse Mustang of Sandy Satullo completed the Dark Horse podium in third, with Persing, who faces a post-race investigation, provisionally finishing fourth.

Will Lucas completed the top-five, ahead of Tate Pritt in sixth and VIP entrant, Ford Motor Company CEO Jim Farley, in seventh overall.

Dark Horse Legends honors went to Nick Smither, who claimed his first career class win following a wild battle in the category.

Smither passed the No. 8 Wheelhouse Mustang of Tom Tait with less than five minutes to go.

Tait inherited the class lead just moments after after the No. 9 Paley entry of Chris Clarke was served with a drive-through penalty for contact with the then class-leading Paolo Salvatore.

It came after a separate incident between Clarke and Tait would be reviewed post-race that initially put the Torre Racing driver into the class lead.

Clarke provisionally finished second in class after a last-lap pass on Tait, who completed the podium.

In addition to the separate accidents for Tosi and Koenig, the No. 3 Spark Performance Mustang of series debutant Nolan Allaer pulled off track just past the 15-minute mark after side-by-side contact with Persing.

Race 2 gets underway Sunday at 9:30 a.m. PST (12:30 p.m. EST) with live coverage on Peacock as well as IMSA and Ford Racing’s YouTube channels.

RESULTS: Race 1

Source: Sports Car 365