PSCNA: Challenging weekend for Loni Unser at Sonoma

Loni Unser experienced a character-building weekend in Porsche Sprint Challenge North America at Sonoma; after showing good speed throughout practice and qualifying, the Kellymoss driver was caught up in an incident in race one which led to a double retirement over the two races.

Photo credits: Kyle Schwab

Loni Unser experienced a character-building weekend in Porsche Sprint Challenge North America at Sonoma. After showing good speed throughout practice and qualifying, the Kellymoss driver was caught up in an incident in race one which led her to retiring from the race. Despite a superb effort from the team, the short turnaround to race two made the damage difficult to repair in time. However, Unser was able to complete one lap of race two in order to bank vital championship points.

Unser began her 2025 campaign with an excellent performance in the season opener at Sebring International Raceway. The Kellymoss racer consistently challenged for outright race victories and laid the foundations for a strong season ahead after twice finishing in the runner-up position.

Sonoma Raceway hosted the Porsche Sprint Challenge North America season finale in 2024 and Unser closed out her campaign with two podium finishes in the Cayman Pro/Am class. Coming out on top in two close duels with Tillman Schmid, Unser displayed superb racecraft in California and was now looking to take the next step in her sophomore season.

Unser was keen to begin the event on the front foot with the Kellymoss driver turning her first laps at Sonoma Raceway on Thursday. It was a positive start to the weekend for Loni as she set the fourth fastest time overall in the first official free practice session. The second session was held on Friday morning and Unser quickest time of a 1:43.474 placed her sixth overall, fourth in the Cayman Pro/Am class.

Qualifying was held on Friday afternoon with Unser targeting a strong starting position. Improving upon her best time of the weekend by a few hundredths of a second, the Kellymoss driver once again set the sixth fastest time overall, fourth in Cayman Pro/Am. Her second fastest time improved her position by one spot with Unser showing good consistency at Sonoma Raceway.

Photo credits: Kyle Schwab

For the opening race of the weekend, Unser lined up from sixth on the overall grid, fourth within the Cayman Pro/Am class. The Kellymoss racer was quickly on the move as she overtook Cayman Masters driver Greg Cecchi on lap one. This was an important manoeuvre as Loni now ran directly behind class rival Anna Cecchi.

As Jens Hantson and Alain Scalzo battled for second overall in the early stages, both Cecchi and Unser closed in on the duo. Unser was now consistently lapping faster than the drivers ahead and this enabled her to reduce the margin to Cecchi to under a second. By lap five, Cecchi’s advantage had reduced further and was now just half a second as the drivers began to fight over third place in the Cayman Pro/Am class.

On lap eight, Unser’s pressure told as Cecchi made a mistake on the exit of the second part of the chicane. The Charlie Hayes Racing driver was slow off the corner as she battled oversteer and as a result, Unser moved to the inside on corner exit. Misfortune then struck as Cecchi and Unser made contact as Cecchi corrected the car with Unser receiving damage and subsequently making contact with the wall. It was a disappointing end to race one for the Kellymoss driver who was showing good speed in her pursuit of a third-consecutive podium finish.

The schedule at Sonoma Raceway meant that both Porsche Sprint Challenge North America races were held on Saturday and as a result, there was little time to repair the car. Although qualifying inside the overall top-5 for race two, Unser elected to start from the rear as the damage to her car was unable to be fully fixed in time.

Unser drove smartly at the beginning of race two to ensure that she did not interfere with battles taking place throughout the field. As a legacy of the race one contact, Unser was forced to pit at the end of the first lap to retire the car as the damage sustained was too severe to race competitively. However, by starting race two this ensured Unser collected championship points and this was a smart move which might pay dividends as the season progresses.

It was a challenging weekend for Unser at Sonoma Raceway as the Kellymoss driver was unfortunate to be caught up in the race one incident. Prior to that, Loni was showing good pace while aiming to add to her podium tally in the series. Unser will be aiming to bounce back when the Porsche Sprint Challenge North America drivers visit Circuit of the Americas on the weekend of May 17th/18th.