Michael McAleenan pulled away from the ST3 field in his BMW M3 GTR at the NASA Western States Championships at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. After a pair of strong performances on Friday and Saturday, McAleenan was set to start on pole. Forty-five minutes later, McAleenan had pulled out a 22-second gap from second-place finisher Travis Tidball in his Corvette Z06. Tidball also had a very consistent weekend finishing third and second respectively on Friday and Saturday. Then he was able to cap off a successful weekend with a second-place finish. Behind Tidball was Matt McIntyre in his BMW M3. McIntyre was able to capitalize during the race due to some mistakes. McIntyre only managed a seventh and a fifth in qualifying, but his race pace was enough to secure third place. Team Valkyrie Autosport 2 managed to make the best of a bad situation in their Nissan 350Z. After barely holding off Tidball on Friday for second place, then getting eighth on Saturday, the 350Z was able to get fourth over Jeremy Renshaw in his BMW M3. Even though Renshaw was had a faster fast lap he was not able to match Team Valkyrie Autosport 2’s consistency.
