It is time for the second and final race of the weekend for SRO TC America here in the Virginia foothills and the lush greenery of a motorsports country club which is Virginia International Raceway, another American speed palace that has been around since 1957. After lying dormant for three decades, it was revitalized at the turn of the new millennium and is now a top class motor racing facility. Today, VIR rolls out the welcome mat for TC America as we saw Colin Braun, Kevin Boehm, and Gresham Wagner will in their classes. Will they double up? Will we have new winners in TC America race two? The cars are on track for their recon laps. 3 and 1/4 miles, 17 corners.
Massive field as the TCX class is exploding. We have ourselves a great scrum between Jacob Ruud and stock car veteran Colin Garrett, taking to sports car racing and touring car racing like a duck to water. Olivia Askew was bang on the money until the oil cooler went bang on the car. Jeff Ricca in the Hyundai is the TC pole sitter. We have 38 cars in three classes. Jacob Ruud and Colin Garrett are in the battle for the TCX championship. A miscommunication caught out Jacob Ruud yesterday and he knows he can win for his dad, for Father's Day. Colin Garrett's father, Ryan is also here. Garrett would love to break out the broom and sweep. Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.
OK. Time to race. Green flag for the TCX field. Tom Hansing puts the green flag out and we are racing. They fan out into turn one. Tight stuff right here as Olivia Askew pushes hard right from the off. TC start, Jeff Ricca gets the jump on Clay Williams and Kevin Boehm both. TCA, massive jump for Carter Fartuch. He is going to go for it in the Honda Civic. Christian Perocarpi, on his birthday, in the Mini, has some work to do. Carter Fartuch launched from a rocket is pulling away. Kevin Boehm muscles by Jeff Ricca.
40 minutes for this race and we are well underway. Boehm, going for it, at a track where he won the SCCA National Championship at the Runoffs a few years ago. Boehm to the top of the shop in TC. Through the Rollercoaster for the first time of asking. Tires not in the sweet spot just yet with mild mid-60s temperatures. Caly Williams going for it and passes Jeff Ricca for second spot, look. Williams needed to bring more power yesterday and had power loss. He's in good shape now. TCX scrap at the front. Ruud has motored away from Garrett while Steven Cugliari is right on Lucas Cattania's six. Colin Garrett resets fast lap of the motor racing and carving into Jacob Ruud's lead as P.J. Groenke in the second LAP Motorsports Mini and gets massive contact from one of the Hyundai's and from Sally McNulty in the Honda.
Clay Williams wants by Boehm, look, and he has the spot. Boehm wants to payu it back. Rinse and repeat from yesterday. Cha ching. Boehm looking to cash in. He has a lot of experience around this circuit. Boehm can roll speed with the Honda. Williams has to mimic the line. Boehm scored his first win here at VIR since the 2019 SCCA Runoffs. Flying down Madison Avenue to the Rollercoaster, Williams and Boehm, Mini and Honda, very evenly matched. Cool weather is helping the Honda perform.
Cattania makes contact with Garrett and spins a 360. The rear wing element is busted it appears. Colin Garrett wanted to make a move on Jacob Ruud, but now he is losing distance. Jacob Ruud extending his lead after his woes yesterday. Williams moves around Boehm. Can he pull away? Kevin Boehm tries to move over so the hot air doesn't hit the front end of the Honda. The Mini does not have power woes. They have dialed in their braking system. Williams whistling off into the distance. Boehm is keeping the big picture in mind and one of the Techsport Subaru's is off the road big style! This is a Full Course Yellow. Yes indeed. Full Course Yellow, now. Full Course Yellow.
Cattania gets a lucky break as he holds fastest lap of the mtor race so far, just ten minutes on the board. Jacob Ruud's two second lead is erased. Clean the slate and get a new piece of chalk to mark the lap times. Ruud took it on the chin with the other contenders. It took the shine off the prize. But he needs the competition to improve as a driver. He won seven races on the trot in 2021. Kevin Boehm leading TC ahead of Jeff Ricca. Ricca turned it on towards the end of the motor race yesterday. Great to have the families of the drivers especially for Father's Day.
Racing runs in the blood of many families and is passed between fathers and sons or fathers and daughters. Motor racing is different. You need moral and financial support as the kiddos start racing in go karts. You need family support. It is a great way to bond and it is wonderful to see so many drivers with their families. Olivia Askew, her dad, David Askew, is racing in GTWC America in a GT3 car. The safety crew continues to clean up the shemozzle. It was Gresham Wagner, yesterday's winner, slding off the road and absolutely clobbering the tire wall! Let's hope he is OK. Glad to see Gresham Wagner walking away, but my gosh, that was a massive shunt!
Wow. The front end of that Subaru BRZ is used up. Techsport and Skip Barber Racing are both based here at VIR. Techsport will need to make sizable repairs. Wagner is a Mazda MX-5 Cup champion. But years ago he had to take a break from racing for back surgery to correct something in his spine. Red flag to fix the barriers. We'll be back with you in a wee while. The cars are in the lane under parc ferme conditions. Race cars don't like to be shut off and then restarted. By the way, Gresham Wagner walked away from the Subaru BRZ under his own steam after the car was thoroughly damaged in the front end.
Again, massive damage to the Subaru as it comes in on the tow truck. Insofar as contact between Colin Garrett and Luca Cattania, racing incident. No further action from the SRO stewards. Mat Pombo says that the heat has been a big deal for the LA Honda World Honda Civic Type R. These cars are street cars and the mechanics that work on road cars for a living, they also work on the race car. They had issues in qualifying, but they know to be patient and keep the car in one piece, on this old school track. Pombo has raced at VIR for a quarter century. He knows this speedway. Racing luck is the deal. Kevin Boehm with the factory cars is tough to beat. All these guys are old school club racers before they became pros.
Just keep getting better. LA Honda World had been run out of LAP Motorsports in Indiana but now they are in Los Angeles, California, at the L.A. Honda World dealer, to maintain and prepare the cars. Kris Valdez and the BMW M2, this is the DRS & Garagistic team. Two BMW M240iR's, with bright, flashy paint schemes to have fun with their liveries. Matthew Ibrahim and Kris Valdez, the two drivers on the team. Valdez, his passions are racing and motorsports, but also a massive skateboarder. He did a challenge where every day of the year you have to do a different skateboard trick. It was a massive undertaking to plan out the skating tricks. Overall top speeds. Steven Cugliari at 149 miles an hour is fastest.
Carter Fartuch leads TCA. Fartuch says it would be OK to end the race now, but he wants to go for it. Fartuch, worried about Gresham Wagner. Could he have lost brakes? There is a major battle between the Skip Barber Racing School team and the Techsport Subaru team. The Skip Barber Racing School moved to VIR in January after being based at New Jersey Motorsports Park. They are running a bunch of programs with their racing school and with their racing program itself. They want to take their schools to Europe and they survived the pandemic when all that was going on.
Kyle Busch, NASCAR Champion, went to the Skip Barber Racing School to hone his chops as a road racer. 42 current NASCAR drivers went there to help with road racing. Michael McDowell, too, who is a Daytona 500 champion, and a road racing veteran. Good news. Red flag lifted. We're going back to racing. Brett Scroggin is another driver to look out for in the second half of this race. We have a transponder issue for Kevin Boehm. He is on track but is not shown in the correct place. He should be second in TC.
Ten TCX cars to watch. Boehm is out there. He's in good shape. A great mix of manufacturer involvement in all classes. Gresham Wagner may have had a technical issue on his Subaru. Let's hope they are back at Watkins Glen next month. Gresham Wagner, as we said, is fine. He walked to the safety vehicle under his own power. We need to get the clock rolling because we have GT4 and GT3 still to come. So much technology improvement in cars and in soft walls. The next safety wave will be in the steel catch fencing. This new geobrook system is an I beam system and the catch fences are in sections.
The circuits are implementing this new system. Jacob Ruud started on the TCX pole, building a lead over Colin Garrett as Garrett was scrapping with Cattania who got the rough end of the pineapple. He is now caught up to the rest of the pack to put in a bid for victory. In TC, we have seen Clay Williams, Kevin Boehm, and Jeff Ricca fighting it out. Williams is the class leader over Boehm, Ricca, and Barbato. In TCA, the highlight of the motor race is Carter Fartuch who has the lead, still. Ge was scrapping with Gresham Wagner, now retired from the race.
Green flag. Green flag. We see a 200-300 foot gap between the classes. Just 16 minutes to go before this one is done and dusted. Jacob Ruud leads and here comes Garrett as Olivia Askew wants it and Stephen Cugliari also wants a bite of the cherry. Cugliari going for it as Williams and Boehm are in it in TCA. Barbato still looks to get past team mate Ricca. Mat Pombo can't make the move stick as someone is off in the dust. Boehm wants fresh air and wants the lead to cool the Honda down. Clay Williams in the Mini, the JCW Mini, he is pushing hard as well. Ricca right behind Boehm.
Boehm, on Madison Avenue, has the horsepower. More carnage as Olivia Askew is off the road and the other is Garrett Adams. Adams stuck in the mud, figuratively. Williams is losing steam. Power issues again for the Mini! Unbelievable! Ken Fukuda makes a pass as Matt Ibrahim also goes by. Williams is in a spot of bother. He needs to do a reset. Can Clay Williams dig back? The clutch, is it playing up again? In TCA, Fartuch wants by Anderson. No argy bargy. Anderson keeps the lead. These teams are based 100 yards from each other here at VIR. Christian Perocarpi, the birthday boy in another Mini and we have Full Course Yellow. Garrett Adams did not hit the barriers and stalled. But now, he is back underway.
Turbo boost issues for the Mini. Points pay down to tenth place. This will be a two lap dash to the end and this motor race will get spicy. Sorry for the cliche again. But it will be elbows out time. It will be squeaky, squeaky time in the last waning moments. Give a call to series debutant Jessica Tracy for Random Vandals Racing. A brand new program. They've been doing club racing enduros and finding drivers. Jessica and Justin Tracy. Jessica, a mom to two children, and she is beginning a promising racing career under Random Vandals Racing and team boss Paul Sparta. Olivia Askew, we can see that BMW with fender damage. Crew chief and former racer Toby Grahovec calling the strategy for the team.
Lights out on the safety car. We should resume and be clean and green to the end of this motor race. The aforementioned team, Fast Track Racing used to be Classic BMW. Brake and accelerate at the same time to heat up the tires through the wheel and through the suspension system, the uprights. Steven Cugliari wants a win. He is hungry for it. He wants to taste the champagne. Green flag. Restart time with less than five minutes remaining. Ruud is the leader and now he punches it. Cugliari drops back and Colin Garrett, yesterday's winner is in the fight. Luca Cattania wants it after uncorking fastest lap. In TC, Mat Pombo, Matt Ibrahim, Ken Fukuda, and more. Side by side stuff between Barbato and Fukuda as Clay Williams is smoking in the Mini and he is slowing.
The TCA field will go by. Game over for the Mini. Christian Perocarpi in the second Mini wants by Devin Anderson in the Subaru. Carter Fartuch vulnerable in TCA. Devin Anderson wants it. Through the kink they go. TC traffic ahead running a cooler pace. Spencer Bucknum also having a great run. Three podiums in the first four races. We have a lap and a half to go. When will the overall leader hit the start/finish? Two to go. Debris flying on the road in The Snake. Garrett on Cugliari. Cattania, three abrewst tot he braking zone after Madison Avenue. Wow.
Garrett, the touring car neophyte is holding his own. Jacob Ruud leads the race. Cugliari defends over Garrett. Last lap. Second through fifth covered by the proverbial blanket. Garrett, from South Boston, Virginia, in front of friends and family. Cugliari looking at his third runner-up in 2022. Kevin Boehm leads Jeff Ricca in TC, going for the sweep. Devin Anderson ahead in TCA. One to go. Devin Anderson and his family team want to win on Father's Day. Side by side for second overall and the position goes the way of Cugliari.
Jacob Ruud will return to the winner's circle. It's a drag race for second. Jacob Ruud, from Racine, Wisconsin, wins race two in TC America. Cugliari to second. Fstrtuch around Anderson in TCA. Kevin Boehm wins TC. TCA finish into Hog Pen for the last time. Anderson wants it. Fartuch has it. It's a drag race. Skip Barber Racing School win at home!
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
Lucas Catania gets fastest lap at 1:59.608 finishing fourth, wondering what might have been. That'll be a bear. So, two classes won by the Skip Barber Racing School team and now we head from one great racetrack to another. From VIR to another fabulous speed palace at Watkins Glen International Raceway in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, in a month. Join us in the third weekend in July, for more SRO TC America action. Bye bye for now. Stay tuned. GT4 and GT3 racing still to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment