Spinelli got a good start but then ruined it at the first turn as he immediately made contact with Patrick Kujala and the Italian went into a spin. Spinelli then did it again after returning to the track but was good enough to stay in the top 3 positions and begin his comeback. In a handful of laps, he took Kujala and set off after Piquet, who had benefitted from the first corner fracas to pull out a lead.
After seven minutes of racing, Spinelli attacked Piquet and passed him for the lead. From that moment on, the outcome was in the hands of these two, with the Italian opening up a good margin over his Brazilian rival.
On lap 13, while Piquet took advantage of the pit lane opening to return to the box, Spinelli was handed a 5 second penalty by race direction for exceeding track limits after the regulation amount of warnings.
Teammate Giano Taurino took over with a 12 second lead, but ANSA Motorsport’s ex-F1 driver was able to make up 10 seconds and thus capitalize on the 5 second penalty for Spinelli/Taurino.
Third place went to the Wayne Taylor Racing duo of Kyle Marcelli and Danny Formal. The American and the Canadian pairing took advantage of a penalty inflicted on Billy Johnson (TPC Racing) in the last few laps, a drive-through for a dangerous track move, to take an unexpected podium.
Fourth place went to the PPM Huracan of Bryan Ortiz and Sebastian Carazo, which dropped down to 14th, before Carazo worked his way back up to fourth for the PRO AM win, ahead of the second Taurino Racing car of Luke Berkeley and Richard Antinucci.
It was an unfortunate race for the polemen of this first USA encounter at Portimao, Patrick Kujala and Edoardo Piscopo. The Finn kept the US Racetronics car in third place, but Piscopo had to drop down to sixth with a technical.
Seventh place went to Ashton Harrison and Thomas Long (Wayne Taylor Racing), second in PRO AM, ahead of Billy Johnson, eighth. Dream Racing Motorsports brought home Edoardo Liberato and Dario Capitanio in ninth overall ahead of Damon Ockey and Patrick Liddy (US Racetronics). Liddy made the same mistake as Spinelli, exceeding track limits and picking up a 5 second penalty.
As for the other classes, David Staab and Nikko Reger (PPM) won the AM category, while Fred Roberts (NTE Sport) won the Lamborghini Cup.
