Following his race win and double podium at Sonoma Raceway, DragonSpeed‘s Frank Montecalvo secured the GTA title in the Pirelli World Challenge.
He came into the weekend leading the class, following his double victory previously at Miller Motorsports Park. In order to take the championship at Sonoma, the penultimate round of the season, he would have to continue his run of strong form.
“The weekend went great! I couldn’t have asked for a better way to end the weekend other than two first place finishes, but clinching the championship is definitely a great feeling, and I couldn’t be happier with my first trip to Sonoma Raceway,” stated Montecalvo.
Coming second in Saturday’s race was only improved by a win the following day, allowing the New Jersey native to create a large enough gap over second-placed Henrique Cisneros, so that he doesn’t have to worry about competition at the final round of the season at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
“The first race was really tough. Henrik (Hedman) actually hit me in turn four and spun me out.
“Once I rejoined the field I just put my head down, drove a bit more aggressively than usual and managed to make my way up to second place. By the time I moved into second position, I had worn my tires down considerably and wasn’t able to really fight for first place with (Christina) Nielsen.
“Day two was pretty uneventful,” he continued. “I had an okay start, but (Olivier) Beretta and (Andy) Pilgrim got around me, so I just tucked in behind them. After the restart I just made sure to stay out of trouble, drive a smart race and we came home P1.
“It was a great way to end the weekend, and then learning that we had distanced ourselves enough from second place in the GTA points championship just made it that much better.”
