Juan Pablo Montoya wins 2017 Race of Champions in Miami
Juan Pablo Montoya wins the 2017 Race of Champions at Miami’s Marlins Park stadium. The Colombian IndyCar Series star scores the victory in his first participation at this event, which was held for the first time in 1988. Montoya beats Tom Kristensen in the final two battles, leaving Danish Le Mans legend without ROC victory one more time. For Kristensen, this is the fifth time that he was the runner-up in the Race of Champions.
Sixteen international starts were divided into four groups with four drivers, battling against each other. They were using a different machinery, from EuroNASCAR stock car to lightweight cars such are Ariel Atom, Radical SR3 RSX or KTM X-Bow.
Travis Pastrana was the best in the Group A with three individual wins, the last one against defending ROC winner Sebastian Vettel. Helio Castroneves took second place in the Group A. The fourth driver was Alexander Rossi.
In the Group B, we saw the most dramatic moment of the day when Pascal Wehrlein crashed into Felipe Massa and rolled his car after both crossed the finish line. Fortunately, nobody was hurt in a accident. Felipe Massa and Juan Pablo Montoya qualified for the Quarter finals. Other two drivers were Wehrlein and Petter Solberg.
In the Group C, Jenson Button scored three wins securing his place in the next phase. Kyle Busch was second, ahead of Tony Kanaan and James Hinchcliffe. David Coulthard was the most dominant driver in the Group D, winning all three races. Mister Le Mans Tom Kristensen also qualified for the next phase, ahead of Kurt Busch and Ryan Hunter-Reay.
In the Quarter Final battles, Montoya beat Pastrana 2:0. The same result was in the race Massa vs. Castroneves and Coulthard vs. Kyle Busch. Tom Kristensen and Jenson Button had to drive three races, Dannish veteran was better in the third run. In the first Semifinal, Montoya was better than Massa. In the semifinal battle of two veterans, Kristensen was better than Coulthard.
The event continued on Sunday with Nations Cup. Ten teams will participate: Team USA NASCAR (Kurt Busch &Kyle Busch), Team USA IndyCar (Ryan Hunter-Reay &Alexander Rossi), Team USA Rally X (Travis Pastrana &Scott Speed), Team ROC Factor Canada (James Hinchcliffe &Stefan Rzadzinski), Team Great Britain (Jenson Button &David Coulthard), Team Germany (Sebastian Vettel &Pascal Wehrlein), Team Nordic (Tom Kristensen &Petter Solberg), Team ROC Factor Latin America (Helio Castroneves &Gabriel Glusman), Team Brazil (Tony Kanaan &Felipe Massa) and Team Colombia (Juan Pablo Montoya &Gabby Chaves).
Photos: raceofchampions.com,