Starting from pole and winning Race 1 of the weekend for the GTS category at Sonoma was Andy Lee of the No. 20 BestIT Racing Chevrolet Camaro. 

The original start of the race was aborted due to the No. 16 SGV Motorsports Porsche Cayman of John Allen stalling on the formation lap. 

Lee led the field to the green on Lap 2 over Michael Cooper of the No. 10 Blackdog Speed Shop Camaro. The two Kinetic Motorsports Kia Optimas of Mark Wilkins and Ben Clucas slotted into third and fourth, respectively, followed by Andrew Aquilante of the No. 32 Phoenix American Motorsports Ford Mustang Boss 302 in fifth.

By Lap 5, Lee and Cooper had built a large gap at the front over Wilkins, Clucas and Aquilante, with Lee about four car-lengths ahead of Cooper in the lead. During that lap, the No. 73 GTSport Racing Porsche Cayman S at the hands of Jack Baldwin passed Aquilante to take over fifth position.

A tremendous battle between Clucas, Baldwin and Aquilante began at Lap 10 as Baldwin executed a perfect pass on Clucas through Turns 7a/7b for fourth position. Aquilante then got by Clucas on the next lap through the Turn 6 carousel.

Baldwin then looked to get by Wilkins with Aquilante chasing him. By Lap 14, Baldwin had closed right in on Wilkins and he was able to make the move a lap later, again through Turns 7a/7b, slotting into third place. Aquilante then got by Wilkins in Turn 4 on the next lap, dropping Wilkins to fifth from third in a matter of two laps.

Lee held a 0.366-second lead over Cooper at Lap 17 and completed a flag-to-flag win, being victorious for his first time of the year but sixth of his World Challenge career with his last win coming in 2013.

"It’s been a crazy couple of years," said Lee "We used to be on podium every race and you start to take it for granted a little bit," said Lee.

By finishing second, Cooper remains in the lead of the GTS drivers' championship points standings.

Lee had the fastest lap of the race with a 1:42.398 and will start on pole once again for Sunday's Round 16 race. Lee's fastest lap eclipsed the previous race lap record held by Baldwin (1:42.964, 2014.)

Round 16 for the GTS class is set to begin at 11:30 pm ET on Sunday.

Follow @VAVELSportsCar on Twitter for continued coverage of the Pirelli World Challenge weekend at Sonoma Raceway.

Aaron Durant is the editor of the VAVEL USA Racing section. Follow him on Twitter at @DoubleA291.