It is touring car time, here at Sebring, ladies and gents. We are ready for race one of SRO TC America this weekend. We have several championships in the penultimate events of the touring car class as we are ready to turn the cars loose for a 40-minute sprint at the iconic Sebring International Raceway before we head for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway finale in a fortnight, two weeks. Sebring is hot and humid. 45 degrees Celsius track temp, over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. 32.6 degrees Celsius, ambient. So just over 90 degrees. These cars are very much production based and, in the heat, the safety nets for saving the car might kick in. Mini has expanded their program. Louis Perocarpi, team boss. His son, Christian Perocarpi will be racing with his dad.
They always raced against each other on the video games like Gran Turismo and now get to do so in real life. What a cool experience! There are five Mini's here at Sebring. The plan was to have the cars for Indianapolis as well. So, they will race both Sebring and Indianapolis with these five cars. For the Perocarpi family, Sebring is a favorite race track. Louis is the test driver and Christian is the one going for the title. Four TCA Mini's. Alain Lozier, a veteran of SRO America, and Canadian Touring Cars is here as well. They were transforming wrecked cars into race ready cars for this event and for Indianapolis. Christian Perocarpi is third in points in TCA only 44 points out of the lead.
Jacob Ruud is the man to beat in TCX. Colin Garrett, he pole man. But Ruud is the bloke who could be champion elect. Gresham Wagner in the Subaru BRZ for Techsport, penalized in qualifying is caboose on the grid in 37th spot. He will be slicing and dicing through the field. Less horsepower, but close racing. Different engines, different drivetrains, and so on. You want mechanical diversity? You've got it. Two formation laps before we get going and the tires are definitely warm enough in this heat. Everyone is getting their sight lines. Split starts between the three classes. Colin Garrett, on pole, has won three races in 2022.
They were here racing in January in a six hour endurance event from 3PM-9PM. Jacob Ruud had issues here at Sebring in 2021. Ruud says Sebring is not his favorite track but he will go for it indeed. Safety car lights off. The classes splitting apart down the Ulmann straight. This place opened in 1950 and hosted the first Formula 1 U.S. Grand Prix in 1959 and holds the classic 12 hour race in springtime. TC America underway! We're racing! Colin Garrett gets the jump ahead of Lucas Catania. He goes the long way but has to know discretion is the better part of valor.
Kevin Boehm shoots into the TC lead and Carter Fartuch in TCA wants his first win since VIR and now is being hounded by Brnyon Tiner and Devin Anderson. Gresham Wagner is really pushing as we have a car off the road in the dirt. At the front, Colin Garrett leads as Jacob Ruud is now third. He is racing each of his teammate and Stephen Cugliari is turning it on as well. Ruud slides through Le Mans corner. Down the Ulmann straight and into Sunset Bend. Anderson to the inside of Tiner and so is Christian Perocarpi.
Perocarpi is just amazing. He has really done well. He is fightng for the class title in TCA. Watch your entry through Sunset Bend to set up for the front straight. Branyon Tiner ran fifth and fourth at Road America last time out. Anderson is being harried and he got mugged at the start and had to defend but is now third and he wants a spot or two back. Kevin Boehm adding the spice to the Honda in TC qualifying two seconds faster than everyone else. Yikes. Clay Williams in the Mini and Matt Ibrahim in the BMW are coming for it as well. Williams 56 points down on Kevin Boehm. He has to catch him and put him away to cut into the points lead. We will keep an eye on a speedy Subaru of Gresham Wagner as well.
Jacob Ruud wants a second consecutive TCX title. Colin Garrett though, is controling the lead. He can score maximum points. That is for sure. He did the preparation with testing and has the track knowledge. Short track stock car racer, Colin Garrett, who has run NASCAR XfinitySeries, and he was watching Formula 1 as a kid and decided to go road racing too. Road racing, sports car racing is what he wants to do as we see Carter Fartuch dropping like a stone and Branyon Tiner passes for the lead on Christian Perocarpi in TCA! Wow! Tiner, in the Hyundai Veloster for Bryan Herta Autosport instead of the Elantra sedan.
Clay Williams is reeling in Kevin Boehm. Boehm and Williams are scrapping hard. Williams is closing up and fast. Poor old Ibrahim is trying to avoid overheating the BMW. The TC spec Mini is still being developed but is imprving race by race. Halfway through 2022 we thought Kevin Boehm would run away with the championship. Clay Williams though, he has come alive too. Many drivers in the paddock are looking ahead already to 2023. The "silly season" is definitely on. The gap is equidistant to what we have seen these last couple laps.
Branyon Tiner is pushing hard and so is Gresham Wagner who has come from 13th to the lead in ten minutes! He can gain 15 points on Carter Fartuch after this race. Wagner is flying. Branyon Tiner is too. He is going for it. He is putting in the work race after race. He also does a lot of sim racing. So, he is able to learn the track that way. Devin Anderson is really pushing hard. Six podiums in 2022 and five runner up finishes. Techsport Subaru want a 1-2. Williams goes to the inside of Boehm. He is really going for it. No overheating for the Mini and he is working over Kevin Boehm like mad right now.
Williams stalking the leader of the championship. He needs to make his move. Matt Ibrahim is also really pressing on hard. Ibrahim cutting lap times very similar to the top two. He started an aftermarket parts business to pay for college and now that business is really booming for him. He and his team mate Chris Valdez drive these brightly colored race cars inspired by comic books. Williams is probing Boehm, trying to pick up the draft down the Ulmann straight named for Alec Ulmann, the founder of this great circuit. Through Sunset Bend, Boehm has the answers and Williams, you know he wants to make a lunge but can't just yet.
Celso Neto and Jeff Ricca going for fifth. Ricca has just one car this weekend. Nicholas Barbato crashed the sister car at Road America and could not answer the bell for the Sebring event. Celso Neto fends off the challenge from Jeff Rica through the esses and now into the Tower Turn. Use the curbs. Ricca goes by for P5 around the Brazilian driver. Shaoyi Che and Mike Ogren battle for sixth and seventh place. Subaru vs. Honda in TCA. Several championships are running these different cars around the world. Christian Perocarpi is now down to fourth place in TCA while Gresham Wagner has the advantage.
Carter Fartuch remains in fifth place. What on earth happened to poor old Fartuch? I wonder if the car is overheating. It could be. Crossing over the seams in the concrete down the straight is like being in a paint shaker. Such character to the track. Ask the drivers about repaving the place and they resoundingly say, "forget it!" #RespectTheBumps. Wagner, I believe it was, had an engine change and started caboose on the grid. Branyon Tiner is hanging tough and picking up the pace, pressing Wagner. Tiner wants to lead the motor race. Christian Perocarpi is going for it too, forcing Anderson to go defensive in the other Subaru. Devin Anderson deep and wide through Sunset Bend, sons of their respective team owners. Devin Anderson's dad Kevin Anderson owns the Techsport Subaru.
Alain Lozier in one of the other Mini's is way off the road in the grass, spinning the car! So, the Canadian has had a tail happy, loose race car, but is going for it. Colin Garrett has gapped Lucas Catania by three seconds. Lozier has crunched the turn one tire barrier. Big damage stage left on the Mini. They will have to fix that pancaked door before Indianapolis. Game over for Alain Lozier. First time for him to race at Sebring and this place, has a massive learning curve. The layout, the corner rhythm. The bumps and the blind corners are hard to deal with. Sebring is a car breaker. You have to embrace it. It is hot and sticky all year at Sebring, spring or fall, it does not matter.
Perocarpi is really going after Anderson. Williams has dropped off a bunch from Boehm. Four and a half seconds now between the two as Gresham Wagner is building the lead over Branyon Tiner. Matt Ibrahim makes a move on Clay Williams who is surely in a spot of bother. His title hopes are going up in a plume of smoke, figuratively of course. Christian Perocarpi has also gone off the road pursuing Devin Anderson for the final TCA podium place. Colin Garrett and Rooster Hall Racing have done very well, and they are expanding their team in terms of cars. He is a protege of Johann Schwartz who drives with Todd Brown in their GT4 car. Gresham Wagner, from Williamsburg, Virginia, he was a five-time race winner in Mazda MX-5 Cup last year.
Trouble for Ken Fukuda in the #42 Skip Barber Racing School Honda, locking the front brakes in turn ten and going straight on. Modulating the brakes over the bumps is a hard thing to do. He has not had the best race but is a true fighter. He has been racing here in the states and in Asia as well. Clay Williams is fine now but is now third. Matt Ibrahim could be in the pound seats for a wonderful finish and his best of the year after running third in May at NOLA Motorsports Park in Louisiana. Luca Catania too, his time will come for a win. He has also really shown well in 2022. What will happen at Indianapolis? We'll see. Plus, we have another race here at Sebring tomorrow.
Issues for Clay Williams had to do with heat. The paddock as a whole is trying to deal with it. Williams is recovering now though. Fastest race lap sets the grid for race two tomorrow. We could see raindrops for the second races tomorrow for every category in action. Colin Garrett has the fastest lap of the race at 2:19.566. He is going to win from the pole and score fastest lap to be on pole for tomorrow's event. If you dominate the weekend, you can really carve into the points lead to move in the championship with just three races left to go after this one.
Garrett scored a podium in race two at Road America last time out. Hard to say anything more about Kevin Boehm, running a brilliant race from pole and withstanding the pressure from Clay Williams in the Mini Cooper JCW TC car. Williams has pulled one second as a gap out over Matty Ibrahim. The Clay Williams Mini has had electrical woes during races this year and recover. The new car is parts and pieces from two different Mini models. This LAP Motorsports Mini is pretty much custom built. Across all SRO America divisions, we have seen an incredible drive today from Gresham Wagner and I don't believe we have seen a drive like that all season.
Colin Garrett off the road with two minutes left. He is leading by eight seconds. He had a lapse in concentration. Lucas Catania and Jacob Ruud both smell blood. Garrett the minnow and Catania and Ruud, the sharks. White flag this time by. Colin Garrett's lead will be cut in half. Can he back off? Don't risk it. This is going to be a squeaker! White flag. One lap to go. Lucas Cattania is coming in a hurry. So is Jacob Ruud. Time has elapsed. Final lap. Kevin Boehm leading TC and Gresham Wagner leading TCA. Give a call to Branyon Tiner though. He has really done well and will earn his best career finish in TC America.
White flag for Gresham Wagner. Garrett staying clean but he did have a moment in turn ten, Cunningham Corner. One corner away, and Colin Garrett has led from green to checkers and the Virginia native is your winner at Sebring in TC America race one! Ibrahim beats Williams for second. Garett at 2:19.566 earns fastest lap and pole for tomorrow's race.
Overall/TCX: #44 Colin Garrett Rooster Hall Racing BMW M2 CS Racing
TC: #9 Kevin Boehm Skip Barber Racing School Honda Civic Type R TC
TCA: #21 Gresham Wagner TechSport Racing Subaru BRZ TCA
So, race one for touring cars is in the bag. Tomorrow is the second and final event of the weekend. Coming up, the big boys and the big toys, GT World Challenge America and the GT3 cars are ready to rumble. Stay tuned.
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