Nick Mancuso and Jeffrey Courtney battle in the Maserati Trofeo race at Road America. [Photo: credits Maserati/GrimFoto]
Plymouth (Us), 27 June 2015 – Derek Hill claimed Race 1 at Round 3 in the Maserati Trofeo World Series. This latest meet is taking place at Road America in the state of Wisconsin, USA, and saw the American in sparkling form. Hill, son of Phil Hill, made the most of the pole position he won in the morning’s Superpole to build up a gap over his rivals. He topped the podium and was followed across the line by Nick Mancuso and Jeffrey Courtney.
In terms of the championship, the winning points haul was awarded to Nick Mancuso as Hill is here as a guest and does not pick up any points. The highest ranking non-US driver was the Italian Riccardo Ragazzi. He battled with Courtney over the early stages and held off Guy Cosmo towards the end (the American eventually took fifth). Sixth home was the Frenchman and overall leader Romain Monti. Even though he under-performed in pre-qualifying, Monti got back into the groove this morning to make it into Superpole where he posted the fifth best time. The session was brought to an early end to allow Emanuele Smurra’s car, from the Redragon Team, to be removed after it crashed into the barriers and out of the race. Giuseppe Fascicolo also had an unlucky time: he made it to Superpole but a transmission glitch meant that he couldn’t even manage one timed lap.
In the race proper, on lap 9 Alessandro Fogliani came to the same fate as Smurra and at the same curve: turn 7. The Italian lost control of the car and slammed into the protection that flanks the circuit; this saw the safety car radioed once more.
Completing the top ten in Race 1 were Lino Curti, seventh, Andreas Segler, eighth, after a sterling effort from the back of the field, Adrien De Leener and Richard Denny.
Race 2 at Road America is scheduled for tomorrow, Sunday 28 June, from 12:15 to 13:00 local time. More information can be found on the www.maseraticorse.com website.
Highlights of both races will be shown, across Europe, on Motors TV; in Italy on Odeon and Rete Economy; and, in the US, on www.torque.tv
“It has been a fantastic day”, declared Derek Hill at the end of the race. “It was an amazing race where the car performed perfectly on what is one of my favourite circuits. Tomorrow will be another challenge and I will be lining up in tenth as the grid spots are inverted. It will be even tougher and I will be up against lots of top drivers, including Nick Mancuso who I managed to beat today. Let’s see what happens tomorrow. I hope to top the podium once again”.
Race 1 result: 1 Derek Hill – 42:01.850 2 Nick Mancuso – 42:03.836
3 Jeffrey Courtney – 42:04.231