It is time now for the second race of TC America this weekend at Sonoma Raceway, TC America powered by Skip Barber Racing School. We saw yesterday, the debut of TCX and great races in TC and TCA as well. 40 minutes of door banging, argy bargy and all of that. Contact is surely part of this on the 2.5-mile, 4-kilometer track with a dozen corners. It’s very hilly, up and down, with blind corners. The hairpins and chicane are places to watch. Tire degradation is something to watch as well, especially with front wheel drive cars.
Jeff Rica would have started second. He had a problem with the car and Jeff Rica
and the Hyundai Veloster have been scratched for this race. Michael Sousa in the sister car will start 16th
in the field. He has his work cut out
for him. Victor Gonzalez, too, one of
the contenders, has also been scratched.
He had a mechanical failure of some sort and the car was damaged beyond
repair. The sister VCMG Honda will be in
the motor race, in TCA on pole for Jose Blanco.
Mark Pombo will be another factor in the Mini Cooper. Also, in the #24 Techsport Toyota… Joe Federl
is in the car in TCA. He starts caboose
on the field in 33rd place.
He is taking over from Sammy Smith. The field has run the first of two formation
laps to clean and heat the Pirelli P Zero tires. Roy Block in the BMW M2 is starting on
sticker Pirelli tires. Jacob Ruud and
Tommy McCarthy for Classic BMW have differences in setups. There is a foot difference in height between
Tommy McCarthy and Jacob Ruud. More TCR
cars with DSG gearboxes will come into the field later in the year.
The TCX cars start and the TC cars, and the TCA cars start
separately. Here we go. Green!
We’re underway! The Classic BMW’s
sprint away and it’s three wides as around goes one of the Claissc BMW boys and
more spins! Here comes the RCA
field. What is up the road? Mike LaMarra is off the road and the TCA cars
keep stuff clean. Tom Capizzi and Steve
Streimer were both off the road. At the
sharp end, it is the Classic BMW’s in TCX, Ruud over McCarthy.
Eric Powell was inside Tom Capizzi who bashes into Toby
Grahovec and then a bunch of other chaps are playing dodge ‘em cars as well,
look. We have a safety car on course for
obvious reasons. Mike LaMarra in the
L.A. Honda World Honda Civic was in the penultimate row. He was well off the pace. Did someone brake check him? That was a strange incident. That was too much argy bargy, too many
fisticuffs. Poor old Tom Capizzi is off
the road as well. SRO has implemented a
yellow caution light that shows you want the track condition is, to mimic the
flags, so the drivers can see.
It is in every car in every class in the championship. Great safety feature. Joey Jordan developing the new Mazda 3
TCR. Ruud is in the lead followed by
McCarthy, Roy Block, and Kevin Boehm, with Eric Powell completing the top
five. Rob Hines, Mike Sousa, and Lindsay
Brewer are in the next places. Grahovec
got hip checked and LaMarra was seriously off the road out in the grass. Capizzi is stranded with suspension
damage. Game over. Jose Blanco leads from pole in TCA as Jesse
Love moves up and so does Caleb Bacon.
Mat Pombo, the veteran racer, gets freight trained on the
start and has to dig out of a hole. Jesse
Love won an ARCA race at Utah Motorsports Campus, formerly Miller Motorsports
Park. Jose Blanco absolutely knackered
his tires, but now he has a chance to save them and can go into full attack
mode when we go back to green. Tom
Capizzi has a fraught race today but will move to round two in early May at
Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
Just under 30 minutes left on the board.
Toby Grahovec will channel his frustration into moving ahead. Sally McNulty, on a smaller team, has one
crew member and they drive the car to and from the races on an open trailer on
the back of a pickup truck or a SUV. She
has raced Time Attack and then went to Skip Barber Racing School to get her SRO
license. She Is a fan of Corgi dogs and
of sushi, and a service writer at a Ford dealer, and looks for sponsors for the
car.
Good for her. She is going places. The stewards, meanwhile, are investigating the start of the motor race. We are back to green flag racing. Jacob Ruud leads the motor race ahead of Roy Block as Kevin Boehm is being challenged by Eric Powell. A much better restart, a lot cleaner going single file. Michael Sousa is fourth, and now we watch TCA and Jesse Love scrapping with Jose Blanco. Love also moves around Caleb Bacon. Joey Jordan in the Mazda in ninth place, shifting the H pattern gearbox along with sequential gearboxes or paddle shift systems on the steering wheel. Austin Smith in the BMW runs ahead of Jordan’s Mazda. Steve Streimer wants by Toby Grahovec, but no dice. Streimer all over Grahovec like a cheap suit. Streimer raced with driver Johann Schwartz last year and did very well, under team boss Adam Harding. Streimer ran one race in 2020. Streimer and Grahovec in the BMW’s want by the Mazda.
Joey Jordan in the Mazda in ninth place, shifting the H pattern gearbox along with sequential gearboxes or paddle shift systems on the steering wheel. Austin Smith in the BMW runs ahead of Jordan’s Mazda. Steve Streimer wants by Toby Grahovec, but no dice. Streimer all over Grahovec like a cheap suit. Streimer raced with driver Johann Schwartz last year and did very well, under team boss Adam Harding. Streimer ran one race in 2020. Streimer and Grahovec in the BMW’s want by the Mazda.him. Skip Barber Racing School have been involved in SRO America for a long time. Powell has his car’s alignment knocked out of square. So, No chance yet for T. Grahovec to go for it. BMW, Honda, Mazda, Hyundai, a great blend of manufacturers in this touring car class. Some bodywork damage for Eric Powell on the right front. It could be an issue for Kevin Boehm’s lead has widened. He is bish bash boshing it right now. Boehm was the 2020 TCA Champion.
Halfway through this race already. Kevin Boehm is in the pound seats. His wife Sharon assists him with building and setting up the car. Now, Jesse Love leads TCA over Mat Pombo and Jose Blanco has dropped back. He was second in Formula 4 single seater racing in 2020. Carter Fartuch, P.J. Groenke, and Clay Williams are all in line. Mat Pombo runs wide in the exit of the Carousel as he’s catching Jesse Love in the Toyota 86. Mat Pombo could move into TCR I believe, or TC. We’ll find out before Circuit of the Americas in May. Jacob Ruud leads overall and TCX by 3.2 seconds. Roy Block has been having issues with the BMW’s handling, but he’s holding his own today and is on the podium. Roy Block is racing in many championships including in South America. He will race touring cars there. He has raced Alfa omeo’s as well. Joseph Federl in the #24 Toyota 86 is in the lane. They’ve had a litany of mechanical woes on that automobile. The older spec Hyundai Veloster is running well. Rob Hines puts all kinds of pressure on Eric Powell. He is applying the blowtorch.
Hines lunges, and no dice there. Turn 11 to come. Discretion is the better part of valor? Not yet. Powell runs wide, and he keeps the spot, but the car has evil handling traits today. That Honda seems to be understeering like a pig. Powell is really pushing. Hines and Sousa as well, are right on his gearbox. In TCA, it’s still the Love vs. Pombo scrap. Powell is holding up a bunch of cars and Mark Pombo is really giving it some welly in the Mini. Poor old Powell is a shot duck, but he’s going to keep going. Passing is at a premium here at Sonoma Raceway. Try to do it between the Carousel and the remaining corners. Side by side stuff now between Sousa and Austin Smith. Hines is closer. Austin Smith has gone around Lindsay Brewer and Mike Sousa. Hines is trying while Powell slams the door in his face. Here comes Rob Hines and gets the pass done and dusted for P2. Powell still wants it. He is still fighting. But he’s not close enough. The Nissan 370Z is motoring away and speaking of motoring, Kevin Boehm is whistling off into the distance in the lead of the motor race. Austin Smith is right on Powell’s gearbox. Rubbing is racng, and Smith… bish, bash, bosh… races right past Powell. Bacon and Williams in TCA scrapping for the final podium place.
Touring cars use all the road and more unlike the GT3 and
GT4 cars. Al Bacon, Caleb’s grandfather
has four wins in Mazda RX7s at the Rolex 24 at Daytona in GTU in the 1980s in
IMSA Camel GT. Jose Blanco has his hands
full with Carter Fartuch and P.J. Groenke.
Kevin Boehm is on a Sunday drive, leading by a country mile. Rob Hines continues to run second in the
Nissan. Austin Smith has finally moved
‘round Eric Powell. Rob Hines has cut
into the deficit to Boehm. That’s Boehm
to Roy Block, actually. Powell is
managing the gap to Sousa while the wheel hop on that Honda continues.
Inside move and a touch between Sousa and Powell. Powell forces Sousa wide on the outside. Powell is still fighting. Never give up. That’s the racer’s motto. Use the chrome horn. Sousa wants by Powell. Don’t lift.
Two laps remaining in the race now.
Lindsay Brewer is also in the fight.
She has done go karting but is getting her first real taste of car
racing. P.J. Groenke also, is running
well, but he will be lapped. Last lap of
the motor race. Kevin Boehm leading the
TC class. Boehm moves around Roy
Block. That’s the TCX BMW. Another overall podium for a TC car, as Kevin
Boehm could make it, working their way by the Honda Civic in the hands of Mario
Biondo.
Jacob Ruud leads the motor race, and he will lap the Toyota
and the Mini. Poor old Caleb Bacon gets
lapped. That’s the Hyundai and for the
second straight day, Jacob Ruud and Classic BMW win the motor race ahead of
Tommy McCarthy. Caleb Bacon’s car is
smoking. That’s strange. But Kevin Boehm, is in the clear and wins TC
class competition on Sunday at Sonoma, with aplomb. Toby Grahovec and Steve Streimer are scrapping,
and they finish liner stern. Grahovec
seventh and Streimer eighth.
Jessie Love has had a wonderful debut and he wins another TCA race for TechSport. A clean sweep for Jacob Ruud. Break out the broom! Poles, fastest laps, and two straight wins!
#81 Jacob Ruud Classic BMW BMW M2 ClubSport Racing
Excited for the next races at Circuit of the Americas first
weekend in May.
Excited for the next races at Circuit of the Americas first weekend in May.
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