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Puerto Rico’s World Finals winner, now targeting Daytona and Le Mans

A piece of motorsports history was made on Sunday, as Victor Gomez IV became the first Puerto Rican driver to win the Am class of the Lamborghini Super Trofeo World Finals – effectively crowning him as a World Champion of the prestigious one-make series.

Watch: Victor Gomez on the Lamborghini SuperTrofeo World Final

Change Racing’s Gomez won the biggest race of his life, adding the global title to his North American Am class crown of 2020, at Misano’s World Circuit Marco Simoncelli. This season, Gomez stepped up to the ProAm class of his domestic series for the iconic Huracan model, finishing second in that championship before tasting World Final glory on Sunday.

Gomez started the Final in third and survived a wild first corner – where “two cars were literally hitting me side by side” – to score the most important victory of his career. 

“Last week was one of the most intense but most gratifying of my life,” says Gomez. “We were able to secure a strong second place in the ProAm category in North America. My focus was on that, but we faced so many problems with the car. We faced a brake failure, ABS issues and radiator problems, so the team had a lot of work to do!  

“I have to give a shout out to Change Racing, they were exceptional all weekend, and then it was time to focus on the World Final, and I targeted becoming a world champion and bringing that title back to Puerto Rico. I really wanted to put Puerto Rico on the map in the motorsports world.” 

Victor Gomez IV, Change Racing

Victor Gomez IV, Change Racing

Photo by: Eros Maggi Fotografo

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Gomez hails from the Caribbean island, which is a territory of the United States about 1000 miles southeast of Florida and home to over three million people. 

“I just got back from Italy,” he adds. “And it feels amazing to give that back to the people of Puerto Rico. People love motorsports here, but we definitely need to be more on the map in the circuit-racing world. It feels special.” 

Gomez grew up surrounded by cars, as his family’s business has become the biggest car dealers on the island, representing many prestigious brands. 

“The Gomez family has been in the automobile industry in Puerto Rico since 1949,” he adds. “Our business, Gomez Hermanos, is the oldest and most experienced automobile company here and we now represent nine franchises including Lamborghini, Ferrari, Porsche, Jaguar, Land Rover, Audi, Maserati. My love for cars was from a young age, I tell people that I was raised in our showrooms! I loved the industry, and from that I fell in love with motorsports.” 

He tells the story of what kickstarted his racing career: “I started relatively late. When I was 17, my father took me to an F1 race for my birthday, where Ferrari Challenge was also racing, and when I saw that, my eyes sparkled, and I knew that’s what I wanted to do. One month after that I did a test at Palm Beach, and then just another month or so later I was racing at Daytona, doing 192mph on the high banks! 

Victor Gomez IV

Victor Gomez IV

Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images

“From that, I graduated to Porsche Cup and that became my school. I have to give them all the props, they taught me many things and opened doors for me. I won the Hurley Haywood Scholarship in 2017 and I got to compete against a lot of young, talented drivers. In 2018 I won the Gold Class, which was a special moment, and then I worked my way up to podium finishes in the Platinum Class. 

“We made our way up to Lamborghini Super Trofeo and won the Am Class last year, and now I’m a World Finals winner.” 

So, after his greatest success, what comes next? 

“That’s the big question,” he laughs. “Right now, I’m trying to digest the World Championship! I’d love to get into endurance racing, that’s definitely on my mind, so IMSA or World Endurance Championship, European Le Mans Series – they’re definitely on my radar.  

“My short-term goal is to compete in the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, and then my utmost goal is to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans one day. That’s what’s in my head, that’s the dream of mine.”

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Edition

Australia