Holding a 2.5-point lead heading into the final round of the 2023 Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe, Southland’s Brendon Leitch has finished in second place in the first of two 50-minute races at the Vallelunga Circuit, Campagnano di Roma, Italy. While the podium result is important, Leitch has seen his lead turn into a 0.5-point deficit as second overall, VS Racing’s Mattia Michelotto and Gilles Stadsbader won their fifth race of the season, jumping ahead in the title fight.
The two rivals started Race 1 on the front row of the grid. Michelotto then held the lead right through to the compulsory pitstop period with Leitch pitting first. His compulsory 93-second stop for solo drivers, three-seconds longer than two-car teams, brought him out 6.1 seconds behind Stradsbader who took over from Michelotto.
With approximately 20-minutes remaining in the race, Leitch clawed his Leipert Motorsport #86 Dayle ITM Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo EVO2 into contention but could not get passed before the chequered flag.
With one remaining race tonight (11:15pm NZ time) the points advantage lies with Michelotto and Stradsbader. However, it is track-advantage to Leitch starting the all-important title deciding race from fourth on the grid while his rivals will start from 11th.
In the 2023 Lamborghini Super Trofeo Asia final round also being held in Vallelunga, the Kiwi pairing of Marco Giltrap and Chris van der Drift have won the first of two races.
Three Super Trofeo series (Europe, Asia and North America) are holding their final rounds at the circuit before the Lamborghini Super Trofeo World Finals over the weekend.
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