The first race of a brand-new season for 2022 in SRO TC America, takes place here at Sonoma Raceway in the northern California wine country, powered as always by the Skip Barber Racing School. Three classes running together as we join Ryan Myrehn, Calvin Fish, and Amanda Busick. We will be missing one driver on the grid today, as we mourn the loss of the late, great Joey Jordan. His family gives the command for the drivers to fire their engines. Joe Jordan was an integral member of the touring car paddock. He was a colleague, friend, and driver. Joe lived for racing and the SRO was a part of his family. His wife Janice is thankful. Over the winter, Joe Jordan passed away. Rest In Peace, Joe. You have taken the checkered flag in heaven. His brother, Jim Jordan is class manager. Joe Jordan's sone Joey is driving today too.
Steve Streimer has pole for the opening event of the championship. Steve Streimer has TCX pole. Mat Pombo on pole in TC. Carter Fartuch has pole in TCA debuting the new Honda Civic SI in that class. Several wrecks happened in a very rainy qualifying sessions, and so, the grid was set by times from Free Practice 2. We have a massive, 36-car field. Kevin Boehm dropped five places as a penalty for a tech infringement. First green flag racing for many of these drivers. Steve Streimer leads the field for HARD Motorsports alongside reigning champion Jacob Ruud. Next up, Steven Cugliari and Mark Wilgis, then Marcus Cattanea and Olivia Askew. Green flag! Ruud to the inside and Cugliarti goes for it too and poor old Steve Streimer gets freighttrained already.
Here come the TCA cars. Mat Pombo will go for it and everyone is coming up the hill. Carter Fartuch, and here is Christian Pericarpi in the #61 Mini. Here come the TC cars as Kevin Boehm wants a title after coming up short in 2021. Clay Williams is slowing. Unlike the TC spec Mini's, that TCA spec car has a big old wing on the back of it. Something's not working on that car. He's off the pace and it could indeed be game over. Joey Jordan is moving up and the Mazda team have been working the kinks out on that car in the electronics department. They are getting close to being where they'd like to. The antilock brakes are also being worked on and they need a new system. They had a truncated season in 2021 and that's a tough deal.
Christian Pericarpi is looking for his first win having run four races last year. This was a graduation gift for Christian Pericarpi from his dad Louis Pericarpi who runs the team. Ronnie Bucknum who raced in Formula 1 for Honda and ran at Le Mans for Ferrari, and his son Jeff Bucknum raced open wheel cars and sports cars. This is the third generation as Spencer Bucknum is making his sports car racing debut in SRO TC America. The BMW M2 TCX cars running right together as Jacob Ruud is trying his hardest to run and hide but Steven Cugliari wants to go for it and battle Ruud for the title in 2022. Cugliari has a background in Mazda MX-5 Cup as well.
Ruud won a bunch of races in 2021 and finished second and fourth a few times as well. The Racine, Wisconsin, native was on a roll last year. In TCA, meantime, Colin Harrison is battling Sally McNulty who had a few top five's in 2021. McNulty works on the car and has assistance from VGRT, Victor Gonzalez Racing Team. Kevin Boehm has pressed his way from sixth to second. Sally McNulty works at a dealer by day and on her race car by night, with 15 sponsors supporting her endeavors. She is out there to race and to catch the eye of a TC team. Carter Fartuch in one of the Skip Barber Racing School Honda Civic SI's has the lead in TCA.
You work your way up from TCA, TC, TCX, and then into GT4 and GT3. We see Spencer Bucknum with damage. But, Spencer Bucknum's grandfather, Ronnie, ran for Honda in Formula 1 back in the 1960s. The family are well known with Honda. Jeff Bucknum had a Honda motor in the Indianapolis 500 as well. Kevin Boehm in the meantime, is pressing Mat Pombo. Someone has spun someplace. We shall see what happened there. Kevin Boehm is more of an engineer in 2022 and he has mechanics working on the car. He is focusing on engineering and driving. His day job is a Senior Vehicle Dynamics Engineer and test driver for Honda Performance Development. He tested the new production Acura NSX. He won in TCA in 2020 and nearly beat Eric Powell in TC last year. He also was very quick in club racing.
Honda vs. Honda as Kevin Boehm makes his move on Mat Pombo. Can Pomb return the favor? Boehm from sixth place to the lead, but it is early doors yet. Boehm finished third and first here in his first TC races last year, his first races in this category. Olivia Askew may have spun and has dropped down the order in TCX and overall. Lucas Catania has also gone by Steve Streimer. What has become of Clay Williams in the TC class Mini? He must be running again. He has gone by both Jeff Ricca and Matthew Ibrahim. 27 minutes left in the motor race. Mark Wiglus and Garrett Adams, new drivers in the TC class. They are BMW drivers.
Wilgus and Adams are a part of the four-car team in TCX for Fast Track Racing in cars #54 and #76. Garrett Adams ran twice at the Sebring round in 2021 for this team finishing third and fourth in class in TCX. Mark Wilgus is making his professional racing debut. P.J. Groenke has moved over from Techsport and the Subaru BRZ to the Mini Cooper and speaking of Techsport Subaru, one of their BRZ entries has backed it into the fence. They have three BRZ's entered this year for Gresham Wagner, Devin Anderson, and Chinese driver Shaoyi Che.
This is #22 and he lost it and spun backwards into the fence. That is Devin Andersen driving away, the son of team owner Kevin Andersen. He went for a downshift and locked the rear tires. This is the new Subaru BRZ TCA customer car with a 2.4 liter 4 cylinder motor. A big slide through the corner there as it is a battle of the Honda's. L.A. Honda World vs. Skip Barber Racing School. #42, Ken Fukuda, teammate to Kevin Boehm. Fukuda in hot pursuit of Mike LaMarra. L.A. Honda World are now running their program in house while LAP Motorsports is now just running their own Mini team. Yikes! Mike LaMarra, going rallying with a Scandinavian flick as the Honda gets tail happy!
Mike LaMarra saves it but maybe has a wee bit more brake bias to the rear than he'd like. Ken Fukuda started four races last year with a best finish of fifth spot at Watkins Glen in 2021. Fukuda wants a podium place. Catania in the TCX BMW has dropped down the order. Adams passes Wilgus in TCX for fifth. Fukuda has more speed than does LaMarra. LaMarra is hanging on by his fingernails. Eric Powell was the driver last year who won the title in TC America. Oh dear. Joey Jordan stops on track in the Mazda. Not good. Where did he stop and is he in a safe haven? He is in the no man's land between turn one and the cut through to turn six.
We see a good fight here for position. Nicholas Barbato who debuted at Indianapolis last fall, is at the wheel of the #88 GeoRacer/Ricca Autosport Hyundai Veloster N TC. Barbato had pole in his first ever race in the Hyundai at "The Brickyard" and finished on the podium in both events. Now he is monstering Clay Williams aboard the TC specification Mini. Sonoma Raceway is Clay Williams' home track. Williams has a more powerful car. LAP Motorsports has the blessing of the Mini factory. They provide technicians from Mini dealerships to reward their employees to work on the racing version of the Mini. Williams and Barbato are tied for the fastest trap speeds at 116.1 miles an hour while Boehm, Fukuda, and Ricca, have each been racing at 115 and a half miles an hour.
Fukuda has a lunge on Mike LaMarra for the TC podium! Wow! Who is lurking? It is indeed Clay Williams. We are getting close and are now at halfway. Clay Williams at Indianapolis last year went back to back. Tomorrow's race will have a grid determined by best lap times. Currently we can see Clay Williams at the top of the shop. Williams wants by LaMarra but can't make it work and Ken Fukuda can scamper away. Fukuda runs wide through the chicane and now has LaMarra and Williams on his six. Wow. This is heavy racing, and a great battle. Different cars, different gear ratios. The Mini has to be in it's sweet spot.
To the sharp end and Jacob Ruud is the man at the top of the shop with the TCX BMW M2. But guess who is on Ruud's back door? Yes, you've guessed it. It is Stephen Cugliari. Ruud cuts fastest lap of the motor race thus far at 1:52.331. Ruud was slower last time by at 1:54.2. So he may be getting tire degradation or encountering traffic. Cugliari, last time by, cut a 1:53.7. We can hope that Stephen Cugliari sticks around for a full season here in SRO TC America to show us what he's got. Kevin Boehm leads TC. He is racing with Skip Barber Racing School, but, he has the Crowdstrike livery on the car.
Boehm is a tad down the order. Carter Fartuch also leads TCA for Skip Barber Racing building a lead of five seconds over Gresham Wagner, racing for Techsport. Wagner has been racing Mazda MX-5 Cup for a number of years. Wagner actually began the race in second. My bad. Sally McNulty at the tail end of this train, the caboose, in a TCA car behind a gaggle of TCX entries. Jeff Ricca is now in the pit lane in the DCT TC division aboard his Hyundai Veloster. Ken Fukuda has to hang on as Clay Williams in the Mini is coming in a hurry. Williams is thinking, "oh wow. Those Honda's are having a little party, and they didn't invite me!" Does anyone wanna go waltzing in the garden? Does anyone wanna go dance upon the roof?
Mini vs. Honda spiraling down the Carousel and Clay Williams is on pace. Someone is blipping the rev limiter. Williams is not letting the pressure get to him. Nicholas Barbato in the sister Hyundai is also in this fight, the sister Veloster. They are catching one of the Hyundai Elantra N's from Bryan Herta Autosport. Hard to tell if that is Tyler Delgado in the #33 or Branyon Tiner in the #98. Williams is right on Fukuda's gearbox. Fukuda has his hands full and did Williams have to check up? Fukuda went to power and the tire said, "enough!" Williams jinks to the inside of Fukuda and Ken Fukuda defends his line slammin the door in the Mini driver's face.
Fukuda wants his first career podium place. Barbato looks to the inside of LaMarra. Fukuda struggling on corner exit now side by side with Williams and Williams makes the pass for third. Barbato covers Mike LaMarra off. Williams might just be able to pull the pin and set sail. Barbato and company are really pushing as they work past P.J. Groenke in sixth place. LaMarra is caught napping and here comes Barbato! Barbato late on the brakes in turn 11. Aye yaye yaye yaye yaye. He's off the road. Don't hit the tires. Barbato was a lucky, luck boy to stay out of those tire bundles! That was racing driver commitment, staying in it 'til the bitter end.
Barbato is the 2013 SCCA Pro Solo Autocross champion. So, those skills of racing against the clock around pylons really came in handy in avoiding those tire stacks. He won the Solo and Pro Solo titles in 2014. He has also run time trials and in GT Academy. GenRacing has two Hyundai Veloster's and one of them, the car of Jeff Ricca is a dual clutch car while Barbato is running the traditional car. We now have a Captain Cook at the #44 TCX car of Colin Garrett. Rooster Hall Racing is the team. Colin Garrett hails from Elmo, Virginia, near South Boston, and if you are a stock car buff you've heard of the famed South Boston Speedway, the short track there.
Colin Garrett has raced a ton around South Boston and has experience in stock cars. He was fourth in 2019 in the Canadian Short Track Nationals. He has run NASCAR Xfinity and truck series races and has also run in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series. Good to see Rooster Hall back with 11-11 Project celebrating veterans and he is doing that, and Operation Motorsports with the Patriot Car Corral, too. Check out Operation Motorsport. Many of their beneficiaries have been hired on by teams after starting as volunteers. Gresham Wagner is running well in the Tech Sport Subaru. He was runner-up here at Sonoma in the 2018 edition of the SCCA Runoffs. He has run in Mazda MX-5 Cup and was last year's champion winning five races with ten podiums.
He has overcome scoliosis which made him sit out of racing and he had surgery to turn his spine into one solid bone. But he got back to racing. As it stands now, third in TCA, Spencer Bucknum could very well finish on the podium. Bucknum has run open wheel cars and he is a quick study in touring cars. He comes from great genes as his grandpa and his dad were both great drivers, the Formula Pro USA Formula 4 Western Division champion. Spencer Bucknum is looking for a new avenue. Sports car racing is the golden ticket to be paid by factories. Open wheel racing is not the only route. 90 seconds to go and Jacob Ruud will win yet another race. He absolutely cleaned up in 2021 and will continue this performance into the first event of 2022.
Branyon Tiner, eighth in TCA spins the #98 Bryan Herta Autosport Hyundai Elantra N-Line entry. Tiner has run for BHA in WRL, a club level endurance championship. He has come out of karting. Bryan Herta is on site here at Sonoma Raceway. Meanwhile, it is the white flag lap here soon. Stephen Cugliari will race the full season in SRO TC America. Jacob Ruud wins the first race of the year! Cugliari second and Lucas Cattanea in third in TCX. To TC, Kevin Boehm has recovered from a five- place grid penalty and he wins the first TC America race. TCA goes to Carter Fartuch winning over Gresham Wagner and Spencer Bucknum. Two new drivers on the podum. Fastest lap t Jacob Ruud at 1:52.331.
That will put Ruud in the pound seats for tomorrow's race. Clay Williams on pole for TCA.
Overall/TCX: #1 Jacob Ruud Fast Track Racing BMW M2 CS Racing
TC: #9 Kevin Boehm Skip Barber Racing School Honda Civic Type R TC
TCA: #16 Carter Fartuch Skip Barber Racing School Honda Civic Si
Race two coming up tomorrow. Fast Track Racing is the racing arm of the Classic BMW team which was rebranded. Toby Grahovec is now the team boss who was driving in years past. He is focusing on the customer end of their racing program. Kevin Boehm drove from sixth to the lead and wins the motor race in the TC class. He has won here and also won in the STU class at Sonoma in the 2018 SCCA Runoffs. Carter Fartuch is the TCA winner. He and the team are far more prepared with better equipment than last year. He was the 2019 Saleen Cup Young Guns champion as well.
So, Jacob Ruud has his 11th TC America win of his career. Race two tomorrow for the drivers and teams of TC America. Don't miss it. See you then. So long, for now.
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