Formal, Ericsson deliver Wayne Taylor Racing North American Lamborghini World Final championship

It took a come-from-behind drive Sunday after a painful end Saturday, but elation and joy came to Danny Formal and Hampus Ericsson after all in the 2025 Lamborghini World Finals at Misano World Circuit.

The North American series Pro champions have claimed the Lamborghini World Finals Pro championship after Formal went from sixth to win overall in the second 50-minute race of the weekend, following an important carve forward from Ericsson in his first stint in the No. 101 Wayne Taylor Racing, Lamborghini Palm Beach, Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo Evo2.

North American entries won both Pro races in the World Finals, as Formal and Ericsson’s closest championship rivals Will Bamber and Elias De La Torre won on Saturday in the No. 129 TR3 Racing, Lamborghini Miami, Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo Evo2. Bamber and De La Torre were eighth overall on Sunday, seventh in Pro, but had enough points in the bank to finish second among all entries in Pro for the World Finals standings.

Formal and Ericsson delivered the first North American entry World Finals title since 2017 (Riccardo Agostini and Trent Hindman were driving for WTR).

“The North America PRO and AM Champions and now, the World Finals Champions as well!” said Wayne Taylor. “I am ecstatic with this unbelievable result and can’t say enough about this team, all of the drivers and everyone associated with WTR. Today was a win for all our drivers and crew. They all pitched in to make this happen and I am just so proud to be a part of it. It was a great way to end the season. The fact that we have won it twice as a U.S. team, makes it even more special for all of us. I really am at a loss at what to say. It is something you dream about.”

In ProAm, Egor Orudzhev and Shota Abkhazava in the No. 12 ART-Line entry claimed that World Finals title. Massimo Ciglia and Pietro Perolini (No. 61 Oregon Team) and Karim Ojjeh (No. 7 Rexal Villorba Corse) won both Am and LB Cup races, respectively to win those World Finals titles.

Pro/ProAm

Race 1: A wild last lap and a 50-minute race wasn’t enough to decide the result in a barnburner first race of the Lamborghini World Final weekend, as the winning decision came moments after the checkered flag. Ultimately, the North American entry of Will Bamber and Elias De La Torre prevailed following a fantastic defense drive from De La Torre in the No. 129 TR3 Racing, Lamborghini Miami, Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo Evo2 in his 20-plus-minute stint.

North American champions Danny Formal and Hampus Ericsson appeared poised to add a World Final race win to their successful season as Formal qualified the No. 101 Wayne Taylor Racing, Lamborghini Palm Beach, Huracán on the overall pole and extended his gap north of three seconds in the early stages. However, Bamber kept the No. 129 TR3 Huracán in striking distance prior to the pit stop sequence, and that proved vital as the No. 129 car used an overcut to pit a lap later than the No. 101 car. De La Torre took over the lead of the race and then played defense against Ericsson, who made multiple passing attempts to get back by but was unable to hold the spot.

The race came to a head on the final lap, as the North Americans’ waging battle brought the leading European entry into contention in the form of Adam Putera in the No. 6 Vincenzo Sospiri Racing (VSR) entry he shared with Paul Levet.

Ericsson completed an over-under pass for the lead in the left-hand Turn 8 but didn’t fully hold the spot. Leading into the double-apex Turns 9 and 10 right-hand turns that followed, Ericsson held the inside with De La Torre on the outside. Putera, sensing an opportunity, darted to the inside of De La Torre but contacted Ericsson on corner entry. De La Torre watched the incident unfold and briefly fell to third behind Putera and Ericsson before emerging second off the corner.

Both Putera and Ericsson suffered damage. Putera limped to the checkered flag in the lead while Ericsson came to a halt off the final corner, dropping from third to sixth. While Putera thought he had the win, race officials deemed Putera responsible for the contact and assessed him a five-second time penalty. That brought De La Torre back to the lead and the win.

“I was spotting as much as possible,” said Bamber, who’s coached De La Torre all season. “I’m in disbelief. It was super tight. Amazing racing. So proud of this guy – that was so much pressure and he withstood it. He’s got a bright future.”

De La Torre added, “I had to stay in front. Do whatever you can to stay in front. Right when that chaos happened at Turn 10 the last lap, I knew to open up the corner and something good would happen. It’s about time; we needed a little bit of luck. We’ve been a bit unlucky to start the weekend, but it all came down to a great start from him.”

While VSR lost the Pro win, the team did win in ProAm with the Asian series entry of Todd Kingsford and Chris van der Drift sharing the No. 298 car.

Race 2: A significantly jumbled grid for Race 2 affected the order with four ProAm cars in the top five on the grid, and the two leading North American combatants (No. 101 WTR Huracán and No. 129 TR3 Huracán) rolling off ninth (fourth in Pro) and 21st (15th in Pro) respectively. So how high Ericsson and De La Torre would climb early determined their World Final championship hopes.

An incident further down the pack at Turn 1 immediately neutralized the race behind the Safety Car, but the race resumed with 45 minutes remaining. IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship regular Frederik Schandorff led early in his European entered No. 3 ASR Huracán, a ProAm entry, with Ericsson running 10th overall (sixth Pro) and De La Torre 18th (13th Pro), up three spots in the opening lap.

Both drivers continued their methodical move forward as Ericsson pitted from ninth overall, fifth in Pro and De La Torre from 14th overall, 10th in Pro, when both hit the pits just after the pit window opened with 30 minutes remaining. Formal and Bamber took over their cars, with Ericsson offering words of encouragement to Formal saying “I believe in you!” on the driver exchange.

Following the pit cycle, Formal exited sixth overall, third in Pro with Bamber up to 13th overall, ninth in Pro. Formal leapt ahead of two European entries cars quickly, then chased down two Asian entries. Formal got past the No. 9 Target Racing entry of Giacomo Pedrini for fifth overall, second in Pro, shortly after the pit stop, then past Shota Abkhazava in the No. 12 ART-Line entry for fourth overall, and then past Jiajun Song in the No. 289 Leipert Motorsport entry for third overall. That left him 1.8 seconds behind Gavin Huang in the No. 211 BC Racing entry for the Pro lead, second overall.

With 12 minutes remaining, Formal was right on Huang’s rear wing for the Pro lead, having immediately carved the gap down to nothing. Through Turns 9 and 10, Formal positioned himself for an over-under move and completed it at the Turn 11 kink to move ahead of Huang for the Pro class lead in second overall. He sat 12 seconds behind Schandorff’s teammate Andrzej Lewandowski, leading in both ProAm and overall.

That gap closed to 7.8 seconds with eight minutes remaining, and it remained to be seen if Formal could pass for the overall win. Just two minutes later, the gap was 4.2 seconds, with the gap down to 1.8 seconds with three minutes left. With three minutes left, it was job done as Formal completed the move around Lewandowski’s outside at Turn 9 and 10, completing the move for the lead on the exit off. Lewandowski and Schandorff finished second overall but claimed the ProAm win.

Formal drove away to the win and the emotions poured out as he greeted Ericsson and the rest of the WTR team in parc ferme before the podium.

“I can't thank this team enough; the car was just on autopilot,” Formal said. “Absolute rocket ship, fastest lap for me in the last lap. The car was just on rails. Hampus again gave me a car to succeed. I got a couple of track limits early on, trying to push as hard as I could, so I was very limited of what I could do on the track limits. So I had to be really precise with the passing and our car was so good out of Turn 10, and I was able to do all the passes there. Just take my time. We had so much pace. Thank you, Wayne Taylor Racing. This is for you guys. First world championship ever for Costa Rica. Also, our first world championship from America since 2017 in the Pro Class, and it was Wayne Taylor back then. It's Wayne Taylor back now. Yeah, so it was great.”

“Finally, a world champion,” Ericsson added. “I don't know what to say. I can't thank the team enough, Danny went all out racing. Everyone always has been on season, and after yesterday's race as well got taken out in the lead. What a run by Danny.”

Completing the good day for Americans, Colin Queen (No. 104 ANSA Motorsports, Lamborghini Orlando, Huracán) and Nick Persing (No. 108 Wayne Taylor Racing, Lamborghini Palm Beach, Huracán) were third and fourth.

Am/LB Cup

Race 1: Three of the North American runners engaged in a race-long scrap for third place in Am, with Dean Neuls prevailing after a fantastic fight. Driving the No. 170 TR3 Racing, Lamborghini Miami, Huracán, Neuls had a single four-in-one passing maneuver into Turn 4 with 15 minutes remaining to go ahead of closest rival Antoine Comeau in his No. 130 ANSA Motorsports, Lamborghini Orlando, Huracán. Comeau, who raced alongside Nico Jamin in ProAm in the North American races, was moved into Am for this race running solo. Although Neuls and Comeau exchanged positions once more when lapping a slower car, Neuls (pictured above) finished ahead.

The third contestant in the podium fight, the No. 146 Precision Performance Motorsports, Lamborghini Palm Beach, Huracán of Sebastian Carazo and Gabriel Holguin, was close to both of them but ultimately retired with two laps remaining with right rear damage.

Race 1 winners in Am and LB Cup came from Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe. Massimo Ciglia and Pietro Perolini (No. 61 Oregon Team) won Am and overall while Karim Ojjeh (No. 7 Rexal Villorba Corse) won in LB Cup.

Race 2: Two more North American runners scored class podiums in the second Am/LB Cup race of the Lamborghini World Final. After coming close to a top-three finish on Saturday, Comeau completed the task with a third-place finish Sunday in Am in his No. 130 ANSA Huracán. Rocky T. Bolduc finished third in LB Cup in his No. 199 RAFA Racing, Lamborghini Greenwich, Huracán to bounce back after a tough Saturday. Bolduc completed the weekend with the two North American LB Cup wins Thursday and Friday and a third top-three finish in four starts. Comeau (third) and Bolduc (fifth) were also the highest finishing North American runners in the World Final standings.

Both Race 1 winners in Am and LB Cup repeated and therefore clinched the Lamborghini World Final championships in those two classes. Ciglia and Perolini (No. 61 Oregon Team, Am) and Ojjeh (No. 7 Rexal Villorba Corse, LB Cup) doubled up.