Crescentini Wins Sunday World Challenge in St. Pete

Dino Crescentini, of Manhattan Beach, Calif., rocketed away from his second starting position and led all the way to take Sunday’s Acura Sports Car Challenge of St. Petersburg World Challenge Round Two GT class and overall win.

Dino Crescentini earned his third career World Challenge win this weekend in St. Petersburg.
Driving the No. 4 Centric Parts/Stoptech/GMG Porsche 911 GT3, Crescentini appeared to get away slow from the standing start, but had momentum to get past polesitter Randy Pobst's No. 6 K-Pax Racing Volvo S60 as the field funneled into Turn One.

From there, it was smooth sailing for the Porsche driver, reversing his bad luck from Saturday"s race, in which his new Porsche developed an electrical problem and retired. Crescentini took his third-career World Challenge series victory by 0.848-second over teammate James Sofronas, of Newport Beach, Calif. He averaged 66.764 mph in the race slowed by a pair of caution periods and limited to 50 minutes.

"The start was really scary for me because the launch control wasn’t working and I had to do it manually,” Crescentini said. “I haven’t done that in a while. I had some luck on my side with Randy (Pobst, the pole sitter) slipping up and I took advantage of that. The car was so beautifully set up by the guys at GMG, as we saw in practice and qualifying. It seemed like every time I hit slower traffic, I was able to get by and whoever was behind me seemed to get held up, so I got really lucky.”

Sofronas started third in his No. 14 Global Motorsports Group Porsche 911 GT3 and ran behind Pobst and his teammate, Andy Pilgrim, in the opening stages of the race before Pobst pitted his car with overheating issues. On the race’s second restart to retrieve Patrick Lindsey’s crashed Porsche from Turn 12, Sofronas made his move by Pilgrim into second place, where he stayed for the remainder of the race.

“I made mental notes on where they dropped the flag yesterday for the restart,” Sofronas said. “It’s tough to pass here and you have to take advantage of every opportunity. Jason [Daskalos] laid back on the first restart, but he didn’t let me get a good run either. I changed my strategy on the second restart and things worked out better.”

Pilgrim, who finished second to Pobst on Saturday in his No. 8 K-Pax Racing Volvo S60, held the third position for the rest of the event.

“This is a great start,” Pilgrim said. “We knew the GMG guys were going to be strong, the Nissans are going to be good, Daskalos and Wittmer in the Vipers - there’s a lot of competition. I was hoping for two top-fives this weekend, I’m really thrilled with a second and a third.”

Jason Daskalos, of Albuquerque, N.M., finished fifth in his No. 5 Daskalos Developments Dodge Viper, followed by Canada’s Kuno Wittmer, in his No. 13 Dodge Motorsports Dodge Viper.

Rob Morgan (Porsche 911 GT3), Brian Kubinski (Chevrolet Corvette), Tony Rivera (Nissan GT-R), Jeff Courtney (Dodge Viper) and Tony Gaples (Chevrolet Corvette) completed the top 10.

Rivera earned the MTM Special Ops Move of the Race in the No. 97 Nissan/Brass Monkey Racing Nissan GT-R for his lap-26 pass on Courtney after following for several laps.

Sofronas’ pair of podium finishes place him atop the Championship standings after two rounds, with 210 points. Pilgrim is second, with 204, followed by Pobst (198), Crescentini (192) and Wittmer (155). Volvo leads the Manufacturers’ Championship, with 16 points, followed by Porsche (14), Dodge (four) and Chevrolet (one).

great day for Porsche i suppose

i watched that race. it could have been better for him in the first few laps but he wasnt pushin like he needed to. but ey i gas everyone doesnt drive like me