Billy Johnson prevailed in a two-lap shootout to win Saturday's EMCO Gears Classic, beating Lawson Aschenbach and Matt Plumb. It was the second victory of the Continental Tires Challenge season for Johnson and Jack Roush Jr. in the No. 61 Roush Performance Ford Mustang Boss 302R. Their first win came in the season-opening event at Daytona International Speedway.
Aschenbach and Eric Curran finished second, .307 seconds back, in the No. 00 CKS Autosport Chevrolet Camaro, followed by Plumb and Nick Longhi in the No. 13 Rum Bum Racing Porsche Carrera, .526 seconds in arrears.
Entering the race as GS leaders, Charles Espenlaub and Charles Putman finished 23rd after the No. 48 Fall-Line Motorsports BMW M3 exited with engine trouble, That gave the unofficial points lead to John Farano and David Empringham, who finished fourth in the No. 83 BGB Motorsports Porsche 997. Hugh Plumb and Al Carter, who finished seventh in the No. 45 BePositive,org BMW M3, are tied with Matt Plumb and Longhi with 131 points – one counter behind the leaders.
Michael Valiante and Chad Gilsinger won in ST for Marysville, Ohio-based HART. Gilsinger – also from Marysville – captured his first series pole and joined Valiante in scoring their first victories in the series. Brothers Mark and Mat Pombo finished second in the No. 12 Infinity Audio/Kia Motors America Kia Forte Koup.
Andy Lally and Nic Jonsson entered the event with a two-point lead in ST. Although they finished 11th in the No. 10 Infinity Audio/Kia Motors America Kia Forte Koup, they now unofficially lead the standings by nine points over Pierre Kleinubing, who finished 18th in the No. 31 i-MOTO Cybernation Mazda Speed 3 co-driven by Jayson Clunie.