Utah Motorsports Campus, Salt Lake City – Former GT Academy winner Ricardo Sanchez has charged to another podium result in Pirelli World Challenge SprintX competition, finishing second yesterday in Utah with teammate Frankie Montecalvo.
Montecalvo scored the Pro/Am class pole on Saturday, but that day’s race was ruined by a puncture.
Sanchez made amends on Sunday. After starting 18th, the Mexican earned the award for the best start of the race, moving into the top 10 within two laps.
A post shared by Always Evolving (@alwaysevolving) on Aug 13, 2017 at 9:04am PDT
He handed over to Montecalvo at half race distance and the American drove the Always Evolving / AIM Autosport Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 across the finish line in third place.
However, a penalty applied to the class winner elevated Sanchez and Montecalvo to second.
“We were very unlucky with the flat tire on Saturday after having started on pole,” Sanchez said.
“We had to recover a lot of positions on Sunday, starting 18th overall and eighth in class. We spent a lot of time discussing the strategy and the plan was certainly to be aggressive on the start.
“I went inside first, then outside and managed to grab eight positions in the first two laps to move into the top 10 and fourth in the Pro/Am class.
“We ended up P2 at the end because the class winner had to serve a drive-through penalty. It was a really good day. We were a little unlucky with the safety car as well. We were right behind the eventual class winner so we came very close to getting the win.”
The final round of the Pirelli World Challenge SprintX Championship will be held at Circuit of The Americas on September 1-3.
Another podium for @RSanchezGP @FMontecalvo. This time at @UtahMotorCampus. Great job by the @aeperformance/@AIMautosport team! pic.twitter.com/MNic2ahqxX
— Nissan NISMO (@NISMO) August 13, 2017
P3 across the line in Pro/Am and a post-race penalty elevates @GTAcademy winner @RSanchezGP @FMontecalvo to P2 place in @WCRacing today. pic.twitter.com/Efi666LTKb
— Nissan NISMO (@NISMO) August 13, 2017
A post shared by Pirelli World Challenge (@pirelliwc) on Aug 13, 2017 at 4:37pm PDT
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