A pair of podium finishes saw Swedish driver Henrik Hedman emerge from the Toronto rounds of the Pirelli World Challenge in mid-July with a 26-point lead in the GT-A (amateur) class point standings. This weekend brings Hedman and his DragonSpeed-run Ferrari 458 GT3 machine to the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for the start of the schedule’s home stretch.
Having spent the Friday practice sessions refining a new set-up for the Swedish flag-bedecked car developed by team engineers Mark Schomann and Leon Gutfreund, Henrik was ready for qualifying early Saturday morning. He claimed his best grid position of the season, second in GT-A and 13th overall with a lap of 1m11.854s, outrun only by the Lamborghini of occasional World Challenge competitor Prince Albert von Thurn und Taxis.
The first race was marred by two yellow flag periods as a result of some typical street course carnage. In between, Brazil’s Marcelo Hahn in the second Lamborghini was on a charge, and swept by Mike Mills’ Porsche on lap 8 and Hedman four laps later to assume the GT-A lead. Mills passed Henrik in pro class traffic at the halfway mark, leaving the DragonSpeed car 12th overall and third in class at the checkered flag. Hedman’s fastest lap in the first race placed him fourth for the start of race two. Having held down the position for most of the race, Henrik exploited an error by Hahn in traffic on lap 22 to grab third, putting on a strong show of race craft to fend off the Brazilian for the remaining seven laps.
Henrik Hedman: “I’m happy of course that I’ve had the consistency to lead the GT-A standings, but if we want to stay there I need to win races. We took a significant step forward with the set-up this weekend, which I hope will help even more in the next races. We will do everything we can to take advantage of our momentum.”
Elton Julian: “Having taken the points lead, we’d like to keep it. But we can’t count on the inconsistency of the others, so we’re fully focused now on giving Henrik what he needs to win. His progress this year has been really impressive – he’s not only top of GT-A, he’s also 10th overall and the highest-placed rookie in the series – and there’s more to come.”