Taking five of the six podium spots at the double header event at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, CA this past weekend Ford Mustangs continued their domination in the GTS class of the World Challenge race series.
While the frontrunner in the GTS class, Paul Brown finished second in both races in his Boss 302S to extend his overall points lead, Ben Crosland had a strong showing as well with a first and fourth place finish in his FR500S Mustang.
Eric Foss in his FR500S Mustang jumped out to an early lead, followed closely by Paul Brown’s Boss 302S, in the first race of the weekend, but the lead was eventually given up to the Acura TSX of Peter Cunningham, and a brake issue eventually caused Foss to fall back in the field. However, Paul Brown had a good race, though, finishing just over four seconds behind Cunningham, and the Boss 302S of local driver Greg Liefooghe. Ben Crosland and Brad Adams and their Mustangs finished fourth and fifth in class.
In the second race of the weekend we had the chance to see an all-Mustang battle, considering that Crosland and Brown were head to head the whole race. After Crosland started on pole, Brown took the lead on the first lap and held on to it for much of the race. Still, Crosland managed to fight back, and passed Brown with two laps remaining to take the checkered flag.
“We ran into a bit of traffic and it played into my hands,” Crosland said. “I just got the advantage off of the hairpin and it went my way. It was a really good race, really close and an awesome battle.
“There were a lot of points where I would get slowed up, and then he would get slowed up. The pass was one time where I got the advantage and got past him and got the win at the end. I had a really good car and knew if I got past him I could keep the lead, but he made me work for it.”
After the reslt of these races, Brown now leads the GTS Drivers’ Championship with 1249 points, followed by Crosland with 1028. Eric Foss, who finished seventh in the second race on Sunday, is third with 1016. Ford leads Acura in the GTS Manufacturers’ Championship, 91-48.
Sorce: World Challenge and MuastangsDaily
