Time to kick off Sunday action for SRO America at Circuit of
the America’s. Let’s start with race two
for touring cars (TC America). After two
days of incessant rain, it is time to go racing in the sunshine. Thank goodness! Today’s conditions are totally different from
the downpour yesterday, with a rapidly drying track. TCX, TC, and TCA were playing nice together
yesterday. TCA cars have front wheel
drive. TCX cars have 70 more
horsepower. Jacob Ruud could whistle off
into the distance today. Jeff Ricca was
the TC class winner catching Eric Powell.
Ricca scored his second COTA win.
Caleb Bacon held off Derek Jones in TC.
Jose Blanco, open wheel racing exile, he will be one to watch around this massive 3.426 mile circuit. The length is long. The first corner is uphill. You can brake late and then wind down through the esses. Track limits are surely a factor. Don’t get an advantage, or too much of one. The last segment of the lap is very technical. Some have straightaway speed and other cars have a handling advantage. If you run the ideal racing line between turns 12 and 15, that will be a major deal. There is some puddling around for these 30 cars. Watch out for the painted lines with loaded tires. Lots of runoff area, but keep your eyes peeled.
Word is, more TCX machinery is set to join the grid later in the season in the SRO TC America division. BMW has many TCX cars. But cars from TCR with DSG gearboxes are allowed and more manufacturers will be kicking the tires. This class is blooming. How will the TCR cars with the DSG gearboxes compare to the BMW M2 ClubSport’s we are now seeing in this new category? Only time will tell. The TC America platform is being embraced around the world by the SRO as the cars line up in Noah’s Ark formation. First two by two start for the touring cars. Here we go, for a full 40-minute motor race as they trundle down the front straight.
Steve Streimer is poised. Jacob Ruud thinks, “hang on, we’re close. Not yet. Not yet.” Now! Green flag and they are away! Punch it! Green flag! Jacob Ruud controls the start up the hill through the haze for the first time. The TC cars are catching the TCX machines as Samantha Tan is beginning to move up, and it’s side by side stuff for the TC lead, getting feisty. Jeff Ricca and Eric Powell are battling and we should also watch Toby Grahovec and Kevin Boehm as well. Boehm just missed the podium yesterday. Jeff Ricca gets squeezed there by Joseph Federl I believe. Nope. It is Boehm moving past Ricca on cold tires.
Ricca is really motoring down the back straight as we watch the TCA cars taking their start as Derek Jones goes off and on in the Mini. Some brake lockup somewhere. Joe Federl did not have the grip with the Nissan 370Z in the rain although he won here at COTA a year ago in the first weekend of racing here and he is in his home race, an Austinite. Boehm, look, he has moved past Eric Powell. It’s Honda vs. Honda. Powell is moving ahead. Civic, Civic, and then Hyundai Genesis.
The Civic is built by Gradient Racing as a turnkey package and Gradient race in several different formulas of sports car competition. Jeff Ricca is a longtime Hyundai campaigner. Kevin Boehm has caught the TCX BMW of John Hennessy, the #50 Classic BMW entry. TCA cars are also battling and Derek Jones has bodywork flapping in the breeze. The TCA start is under review by the stewards. There is a TC spec Mini which is brand new. It is early doors in the development of that car. The TCA scrum is broken up a bit. Boehm, Powell, Ricca, Grahovec.
Grahovec went off the road in the wet yesterday. He was hopeful of a podium place. Mike LaMarra has moved by Austen Smith as well. That is one of the two LA Honda World Honda Civic Type R-TC cars. LaMarra at the wheel of #37 and #73 is in the hands of Frank Szczesniak. We have one of the Genracer cars in the lane for service. Kurt Washeim in the #88 Hyundai Veloster N TC for GenRacer is in pit lane for bodywork repairs and a tire rub. Caleb Bacon is chasing Carter Fartuch in TCA. Fartuch is charging, and fast.
We watch Derek Jones in the TCA Mini, car #61. Good run as well, look, from Mike Stillwagon, in TCA running right ahead of Derek Jones at this point. Stillwagon is Carter Fartuch’s teammate for Skip Barber Racing School in the two Honda Civic SI’s. Stillwagon in #2, and Fartuch in #16. Stillwagon ahead of Jones, finishing eighth in both races at the season opener at Sonoma Raceway in March. Meantime, Jacob Ruud is really motoring, pulling a lead out on the rest of the field. With a rear-wheel-drive car he couldn’t compete with the TCA and TC cars in the wet yesterday. He scored a class win and could win overall today. He is 9.3 seconds ahead of Samantha Tan.
He has started for a couple of BMW teams and is now reunited
with Classic BMW, a team he ran with back in 2017. He was bummed about not getting the overall
podium yesterday and is going for it today, no question. Samantha Tan as well is running well having
raced in Europe and the Middle East as well.
She has run in GT4 SprintX the past couple years. The TCX car, in terms of power, is in between
that of a TCR car and a GT4 car.
It could have been Lindsey Brewer. Joe Federl leads a train of cars with the Nissan 370Z chased by a couple BMW’s. The rear-wheel-drive Nissan did not work well in the wet. But Federl is a tad slower than Boehm and Powell. Federl has been caught in traffic. Powell and Boehm have moved past Hennessy in TCX. He separates Jeff Ricca from the top two in TC as Boehm and Powell are really running well. Kevin Boehm will be reeled in by Powell. Steve Streimer is another TCX car in this scrap. Toby Grahovec is fourth, three or so seconds in-arrears of Jeff Ricca.
We also watch second place TCA runner, Caleb Bacon, who won yesterday’s race. He notices gravel in turn 19 but is catching the Honda’s in sector one, running right behind Carter Fartuch. There was some gravel spilled on the road. 25 minutes left on the board. Bacon and team mate Luke Rumberg said they have the power but not the handling, and we can see a massive lockup by the #22 car. That’s Jesse Love in the TechSport Racing Toyota 86. He had a double win at Sonoma in the opening round. In replay, we see the three cars fighting and Jesse Love gets in a tad too hot.
Love is the reigning ARCA West stock car champion, and he has raced midgets in USAC and at the Chili Bowl. Love has been assigned to race in these road racing events because of NASCAR increasing their road racing footprint, and many of the track on the SRO schedule also are on the NASCAR schedule for 2021. NASCAR goes to Road America, Circuit of the Americas, and Watkins Glen, also on the SRO schedule. The NASCAR championship has six road course races, one of which has already been run.
Love is racing in SRO and ARCA. Hennessy runs sideways in the TCX BMW following the TCA Honda of Kevin Boehm with Steve Streimer in the mix in TCX. He ran TC at Sonoma. Streimer and Hennessy are really turning the wick up. TCX cars have 70 more horsepower as Hennessy misses the braking point somehow or other. Podium places in class at stake. Boehm is a tad stronger through the twisty bits even though the TCX BMW’s have more power. As the track dries out, the TCX cars will show their cards. Streimer from Washington State, Hennessy, from Pasadena, California, running in Lamborghini Super Trofeo, last year, in 2020. Hennessy is driving in a ragged way. Streimer has more experience in these touring cars than does Hennessy. Jacob Ruud leads Samantha Tan now by 17 and a half seconds. Samantha Tan has ten seconds or so to TC leader, Kevin Boehm.
Some drivers really hit their apices while others run a tad wider line into the corner. Yesterday in damp conditions, it was a lot tougher. Watch the bumps in turn ten. Meanwhile, Streimer is really applying the blowtorch to John Hennessy. Streimer has the run. Can he go side by side with Hennessy? He will try under braking. The trouble is that outbraking on the damp is hard due to lack of grip. Streimer is going to go for it through the esses. Get the power down, but it is hard to do. Check the mirrors. Will Streimer do the switcheroo?
What is your driving language? Are you using it to distract your rival? 17 minutes left on the board. Streimer tries the inside and decides discretion is the better part of valor while Kevin Boehm is happily whistling off into the distance. Boehm is somewhat in the clear. He is a four-time SCCA national champion. He won several races and the championship in 2020 after winning by 62 points, coming from SCCA Club Racing, and running at the annual SCCA Runoffs. He felt he had to succeed at the Runoffs before going pro.
Clay Williams in one of the other Mini’s is monstering Luke Rumburg at the moment. Rumburg has found a home with the Zignyl Hyundai team. Streimer is going to go for it on Hennessy, and some argy bargy, some hip and shoulder. Wow! Hennessy is not giving up. Watch the water offline under braking. Streimer is moving in on Tan as Williams has also moved past Rumburg. Clay Williams in the Mini is up another place. Williams in car #62 started caboose on the field, stone last, in 35th. He is fourth and just outside of the podium in TCA, chasing Mike Stillwagon.
Less than 13 minutes to go as Stillwagon is 15 seconds ahead of his rivals, drifting the car all over the road in this front wheel drive Honda. In the front wheel drive car, use the gas pedal to help if you are drifting off the road. There’s some bodywork damage to one of the Forbush Performance Hyundai’s. Caleb Bacon has a loose rocker panel on the left side of the automobile. He has been off the road somewhere. Hopefully, it will not work its way loose and damage a tire. TCA leader Carter Fartuch runs right behind. This is a fair fight. Carter Fartuch is the shark smelling blood in the water, definitely. Another of the TechSport Nissan 370Z’s has damage and is falling behind. That is the yellow car of Rob Hines, car #21. That whole front end is damaged on the 370Z and so is the rear corner. He was a Touring 2 champion in the SCCA way back in 1999, was Hines. An experienced club racer. Less than six minutes to go. Hopefully, Hines’ bodywork stays in place before this race is done and dusted. We also see a smaller team doing well, car #780 of Sally McNulty for Team Sally Racing, a Honda Civic Si.
McNulty comes from a drifting and time attack racing background. She is getting assistance from Victor Gonzalez. McNulty will tow the car, work on it, and drive it. She is a service advisor at an Audi dealership as a day job. Kevin Boehm is looking for a victory. He s not used to finishing off the podium. Jacob Ruud, meanwhile, is dominant. He is on a Sunday cruise, ahead by some 22 seconds over Samantha Tan. Fast lap is 2:26.1 by Jacob Ruud as Samantha Tan is reducing the delta and she is clocking in a 2:27.4. Caleb Bacon still leads despite his damaged race car. Fartuch and Stillwagon may finish on the podium. Bacon ran well at Sonoma and was tied for third in points before the races here at Circuit of the Americas. We have a lot of races to go around yet this season at some good tracks. White flag for Jacob Ruud. One lap to go. He is putting in lap times within a tenth of his best. Amazing. Oh dear. Mike LaMarra, from fifth in class in TC, has beached the Honda Civic Type R in the gravel trap!
Did he get tipped into a spin? We shall have to look at a replay, maybe. Jacob Ruud has stayed perfect in 2021. He will make it four wins in TCX. There’s mirror damage on the left side for LaMarra and he may end up with nil points after this motor race. Kevin Boehm, in the meantime, has a fair gap over Eric Powell as he is going around P.J. Groenke in another of the TechSport Toyota’s, the #25 Toyota 86 in the hands of the Canadian veteran.
Caleb Bacon continues to lead teammate Luke Rumburg. Meantime, Jacob Ruud is on his way to victory. He has had two wins at Sonoma and two wins at COTA! Caleb Bacon celebrates a well-earned race win as well. We will have the winners listing in just a moment. We keep an eye out too, for Kevin Boehm. He has won as well. His second win of 2021 in race two of the weekend at COTA, fourth overall. Tan and Streimer are next up followed by Boehm and Powell in TC. Hennessy wins TCX. 2:24.2 for Streimer at the end of the motor race? Whoa! How did he pull that rabbit out of the hat?
So, the winners are:
Overall/TCX: #81 Jacob Ruud Classic
BMW BMW M2 ClubSport Racing
TC: #9
Kevin Boehm DXDT
Racing Honda Civic Type R-TC
TCA: #18
Caleb Bacon Forbush Performance Hyundai
Veloster Turbo TCA
That is all she wrote for the touring cars in Austin,
Texas. Our next event will be at the
classic Virginia International Raceway in Alton, Virginia, in about five
weeks. Looking forward to that
event. For now, so long and take care,
everybody. But do not go away just
yet. Plenty more racing to come in
Austin. Stay tuned.
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