Welcome back, to the rain-soaked Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. We are preparing for the second race of the day on this Saturday, for TC America, and the touring cars. Round three of the championship coming up, and this is the third race of the championship, in the wet. Three classes of touring cars will race, with a 30-car field. So, roughly ten cars per class according to the entry list. We have new contenders in TC and an expanded TCX class as well as a dynamic field in TCA. This is a melting pot with front and rear wheel drive cars. The front wheel drive entries will have a decided advantage. We will have a 40-minute race that is slated to begin behind the safety car.
The start of this race will be in single file. The rain has
eased up since the end of the truncated GT World Challenge America race you
have read about, and there were lightning strikes in the area. But after a wait for the lightning to clear
up, we are set to go racing again. Drivers
are in their cars, ready to go. What
kind of grip will the drivers see? A lot
of drivers might be intimidated if they do not have experience. This track is well worn and polished on the
racing line since it was built about a decade ago. There is runoff area. Jacob Ruud has a lot of road course
experience, but he has never raced in the rain.
So, he is excited, and he is on the overall pole and in the
TCX class. Drivers like Samantha Tan,
Roy Block, John Hennessy, and Steve Streimer, all in BMW M2’s, these are going
to be some interesting times with the new TCX class. TCX has more power and performance than the
old TC class. There are some TCR cars
with the DSG gearbox that could join the grid and there are rumors of another
manufacturer joining the championship, down the road. John Hennessy has the #50 Classic BMW BMW M2
ClubSport Racing.
Jacob Ruud will be driving an identical car. Steve Streimer had a great opening event at
Sonoma. He has elected to move to
TCX. Joe Federl will be another driver
to watch, in the Bossman Grooming #23 Nissan 370Z for TechSport Racing. He won here at COTA last year. He is at a home track as he is from Austin,
Texas. The Nissan is well suited on this
track. With rear wheel drive, one
wonders how this car will stack up in the rain, with three fast Honda’s nipping
at Federl’s heels in the hands of Mike LaMarra, Kevin Boehm, and Eric
Powell. There is a stout crop of TC
cars. There is a brand new Mini TC car,
the Mini JCW Pro TC I believe the name is.
The team has worked night and day for the last month to
prepare this car. It is the Mini Cooper
GP3 in the hands of Mark Pombo, car #60 for the Mini JCW Team. The sister car #61 is the original Mini
Cooper JCW which is in the hands of Pombo’s teammate Derek Jones this
weekend. It did not turn a wheel until
this weekend. The car has the same TCA
motor with more boost added. 95% of that
car is from Mini and the track and race debut have been in sync this weekend
here at COTA without a homologation phase yet.
In the TCA class, Caleb Bacon, has the pole. We will be keeping an eye on Caleb Bacon who
comes from a racing family, as he is piloting once again, the #18 Forbush
Performance Hyundai Veloster Turbo TCA Bacon in car #18 is teamed up with the
#33 Hyundai Veloster to be driven by Luke Rumberg. The qualifying times were set in dry weather
and it’s incredibly wet right now as the race is underway. We have been under the safety car now for
eight minutes in these wet conditions.
Another driver to keep an eye on, is P.J. Groenke, the Canadian, driving
the #25 Toyota 86 for TechSport Racing.
Groenke is teams in this race with Jesse Love in car #22.
Groenke, a former champion in the old TCB class, was praying
for rain, and doing a rain dance, as he has run well here at COTA before, and
praying and dancing must have paid off because the track is soaked right
now. We are looking at this being a race
restart and not an official start. There
are two flag posts here at COTA, one farther up the front straight than the
other. This will be a single file
restart/start. The key will be everyone
getting lap[s in this rain. TCX and TC
are splitting apart and so are TCA.
Jacob Ruud and Steve Streimer are close together and we are racing as
the green flag falls. We are green
indeed. Here come the RC cars up the
hill.
Joseph Federl takes the lead. Three wide, look, in TCA! Wow!
Hard to tell who is where with the spray. Clean and green so far. 30 minutes left in this race. The clock has already ticked down to that
point and John Hennessy slides his TCX BMW as Joe Federl and Eric Powell are
chasing hard in TC and TCA. Kevin Boehm
is making a move for DXDT Racing. Kevin
Boehm had an open trailer last year when he started in SRO America last
year. Powell moves around Federl for the
lead and Boehm has lots of experience with four national championship titles.
He is feeling the car out in the rain as Joe Federl moves
around Samantha Tan in the BMW as she straddles debris on the road. Tan in the TCX class BMW M2. There’s a 75 horsepower difference between
TCX and TC. Again, Tan, like the others
in TCX is running a BMW M2 ClubSport.
Jeff Ricca and Toby Grahovec, both are moving up well. They are seventh and eighth, just off the TC
podium. Samantha Tan has raced endurance
events in the Middle East and Europe this year already. She was on the curbs but races on.
We are watching the older Mini, in the hands currently, of Derek Jones, car #61. This is the aforementioned Mini Cooper JCW. The Mini’s excel in these wet conditions. Derek Jones has run with Mini JCW and Louis Perecarpi, who is the team manager. Derek Jones has run with LAP Motorsports and Mini JCW in several different championships over the last decade. We also see Caleb Bacon, TCA polesitter leading the category. He has had an up and down day. Grandson of Al Bacon, who had much success with Mazda back in the 1980s.
Whoa! Steve Streimer spins out and more drama on this wet track. Fortunately, other drivers have avoided him. Jacob Ruud was also twitching through that section of the course. So, we are seeing some slick conditions out here that have caught out several competitors. Jeff Ricca in the Hyundai Genesis is up to second as we watch Eric Powell get back on track. Jeff Ricca has moved up with his #78 Hyundai Veloster N TC. Ricca did not finish race one at Sonoma as he drifts the car. The sister car of Michael Sousa raced well at Sonoma. Sousa is not racing at COTA this weekend, and a different driver is.
Jacob Ruud is racing well in conditions he’s never seen. However, Eric Powell is expected to excel in these conditions. Jeff Ricca is teamed up with Kurt Washeim in the other Hyundai Veloster for GenRacer this weekend, car #88. Ricca of course, runs the #78. Eric Powell is running with Skip Barber, the racing driver who has founded a well-known racing school of course. The Skip Barber School is really putting their passion for teaching people how to drive race cars, into their team. Jacob Ruud, in the mist, wriggles through turn two.
Steve Streimer is back on the road and second in TCX but is losing time and has been passed in TCX by Samantha Tan while Eric Powell moves t the lead of the motor race. Eric Powell is someone we hope can move ahead into further and higher categories. 2020 was a tough year for drivers who didn’t have a solid ride due to the pandemic. Anyhow, Joseph Federl has been passed by Toby Grahovec after Grahovec also has gone by Mike LaMarra, who he tips into a half spin, and with a front wheel drive car, mash the gas pedal and you will be able to go ahead without spinning the car. Joseph Federl is n0oot too far up the road from LaMarra. He owns this team along with Mario Biundo who is competing in this race and Biundo has franchised automobile dealers for several different car brands such as Ferrari and Bentley. He is pals with Mike LaMarra and they have put a dealer network together.
Meanwhile, Kevin Boehm is moving up, passing Austen Smith in his BMW, while Boehm is hotly pursuing LaMarra as well, look. Austen Smith is at the wheel of the #51 Auto Technic Racing BMW M240i Racing Cup, a team car to the one driven for the same time, with the #52 on the door, by Tom Capizzi. In the wet, we could still see yellow flags. Only 18 minutes or less on the clock. Hyundai vs. Honda and Jeff Ricca has run down, caught, and passed Eric Powell! Whoa! Powell takes the spot back but Ricca, qualifying down the order, he has been the rainmeister today.
Bryan Herta Autosport has been supplying and preparing these cars with the assistance of former Formula 1 team manager and Porsche team member, David Brown, has been preparing these Hyundai TCR race cars as well, for BHA. No lack of juice from the Hyundai. Ricca moves back to the lead in the gloom, look. We can hear the rain falling as this race is going on. Lots of water on the road, drifting through the rain. We are halfway through this 30 minute race that was originally set for 40 minutes. So we have run half the motor race to this stage.
Ricca leads overall while TCX leader Jacob Ruud is third. Fourth overall is Toby Grahovec after moving past Joseph Federl. Grahovec at the wheel of the #26 Classic BMW BMW M240i Racing Cup car. Washeim is ninth, having qualified behind teammate Jeff Ricca. Caleb Bacon, polesitter and leader in TCA is running very well in the Zignyl sponsored #18 Hyundai Veloster Turbo TCA. That is one of the two Forbush Performance cars. Look at the big picture and don’t take too much risk. We see double yellow flags which should signify a safety car deployment.
Leading overall is Jeff Ricca with Eric Powell second. Jacob Ruud third, leading TCX. What has brought out the safety car? The track looks similar to how it did when we started the race. The field does bunch up behind the safety car. Cars at speed displace standing water and there will be puddling at slow speed. There is a wave by on yellow for TCX cars depending on what the stewards want as one of the Mini’s is stranded, the brand new version with Mark Pombo at the controls. This is to be expected when you are debuting a new car in an actual race.
We have ten or eleven minutes left on the clock. This is a major reset for Eric Powell and Jeff Ricca. Powell might be plotting a strategy if we go back to green with just ten or so minutes on the board. The weather and the stewards’ decisions will dictate what happens. Samantha Tan is the next closest TCX car driver, second in class but down the order overall. Right now, in TCA it is a three-car scrap. Caleb Bacon battling Derek Jones, and the Puerto Rican driver, Jose Blanco at the wheel of the #99 VCMG Honda Civic Si.
Blanco has had success in junior open wheel categories and is adapting well to the wet. He is probably getting his first taste of the wet in a closed cockpit car like a touring car. Victor Gonzalez was racing for his team. He is a good driver and was so close to winning last year before getting a win at the end of 2020. The TCA battle might get tasty should we go back to green ith less than seven minutes to go. No indication yet? Well, the safety car lights are off. So, we might have a race to the end. The safety car is in the pit lane.
Jeff Rica leads over Eric Powell. Green flag, and Jeff Green gets the jump and here comes Jacob Ruud in the BMW, but he knows he does not have to fight it. Another Safety Car? Maybe not. Ruud passes Toby Grahovec. Can he run down Eric Powell? We are good to race. Joe Federl has his hands full with Mike LaMarra, and Kevin Boehm is coming too. Boehm bangs fenders with Federl who goes from fourth to sixth and here is Mike LaMarra as well.
The visibility is getting worse. Hard to see if there is a race even going on here. What can Toby Grahovec do? He is a veteran of this touring car racing. Time is almost up. Four minutes or so left in the race. Federl is being pressurized again. Who is pushing the Nissan driver? The Pirelli tires have held on in the rain, the rain tires. The drivers are keeping their wits about them as well. Federl drops down another spot. Austen Smith is also in this scrum for sixth and seventh in TC. The Boehm and LaMarra race is still steaming along, too. Someone is using a rag to clean the inside of their windscreen.
The Mini’s go sideways over the curbs. The rain has been incessant during this race. Smith and Federl are moving along and Smith drifts sideways. Federl is right on his door now. Federl lets two cars go by after he gets loose as well. Rear wheel drive with that Nissan 370Z. Federl is hanging on by his fingernails there as Lindsey Brewer tries to pass as well. The clock is almost out. White flag for the leaders next time by. The spray off these cars s unreal. Ricca leads Powell. We’ve received the white flags. Checkered flag next time. LaMarra, third, and Boehm fourth.
Grahovec has dropped like a stone unless of course his transponder is on the fritz due to the rain. Brewer is pressing Federl. He is hanging on for dear life on damage control. He won this race at COTA, last year. Brewer is learning how to drive touring cars and she was also running in the Skip Barber formula cars championship. Final lap now. Jeff Ricca is going to win his first race of the season. Jeff Ricca has come back and is going to win in the rain from 15th on the grid, and a TC car wins overall in TC America race one at Circuit of the Americas!
LaMarra just pips Boehm for third spot. Boehm fourth.
Ruud fifth and wins TCX. Austen
Smith and then Joe Federl followed by Lindsey Brewer. Caleb Bacon wins TCA followed by Derek Jones
and Jose Blanco.
Overall/TC: #78 Jeff Ricca GenRacer
Hyundai Veloster N TC
TCX:
#81 Jacob Ruud Classic
BMW BMW M2 ClubSport Racing
TCA: #18 Caleb Bacon Forbush Performance Hyundai Veloster Turbo TCA
An amazingly clean race even in pouring rain. Jesse Love comes home fifth, racing midgets and also stock cars, he has done well today slinging touring cars around in the rain. He swept the weekend last time out at Sonoma Raceway in March. Mike LaMarra has run very well and TC cars come home first through fourth overall in the rain. Jeff Ricca has been racing Hyundai’s for the last 7-8 years. Ricca says the track is very grippy when wet and feels the rain was a blessing in this race today and his setup paid off.
Jacob Ruud is amazed he ran his first race in the rain ever and won it in class in TCX. Caleb Bacon said he had a great car in the rain, and he wins. He and his team knew the car would run well, starting up front, leading the whole motor race. He carries on a family tradition, begun by his father back in the 1980s. The front wheel drive cars really did their stuff in the rain today. More TC racing tomorrow. Looking forward to bringing you the action.
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