It is time to go racing for the first time in 2023 in SRO America for the Touring Car classes of TC America. We were supposed to have 26 cars on the grid and we have 25, missing one. New names and ld faces are here. New cars as well. On the overall pole, drifting legend in the new Honda TCX car. Daijiro Yoshihara and Kyle Loh. The new TC class Hyundai Elantra with Jeff Ricca, he is ready to go too. We are lining up by class for sure. Devin Anderson is the polesitter in the TCA class. Colin Garrett in the #44 Rooster Hall Racing BMW M2 CS Racing. Drift king Daijiro "Dai" Shihara, who has done drifting, Super Taikyu, and a record holder in an electric race car at Pikes Peak in the Pikes Peak Hill Climb. We have a great mix of cars and manufacturers.
TCX has been an all-BMW class for it's whole history until now with the new Honda Civic Type-R TCX. Devin Anderson, the pole sitter in TCA in the #22 Subaru BRZ for TechSport Racing with Shaoyi Che the Chinese driver. Lucas Catania in the fifth place in the #26 Rigid Speed Company BMW M2 CS Racing. In Balance of Performance, SRO TC America class director Jim Jordan said that the Honda had to be pegged back a wee bit to compete against the BMW's. There are Honda's throughout the field. L.A. Honda World have three cars. HPD driver Ryan Eversley is the driver coach for the team featuring rookie driver Kyle Loh. The Toyota GR Supra safety car leading the field of 25 touring cars to the green flag.
No tire warmers in TC America. It is a cool morning in northern California. Stone cold tires. With front wheel drive cars, have rear grip and tire temperature. Ken Fukuda will not start. Michael Hurczyn has returned to the championship for this year. 40 minutes on the clock. A true sprint. Tire falloff could still be a factor even in a short race like we are about to see. The field down the short chute to turn nine. Three different starts for the three classes. TCX are off and running. Then we get to the TC field with a Hyundai and a Mini on the front row. Then the TCA cars.
Here we go. Green flag! We're racing at Sonoma! Daio Shihara is the leader and the fight is on. Kyle Loh has to give it up and here comes Colin Garrett. Jeff Ricca leads the field over Clay Williams, sliding off the road! Yikes! Ricca escapes. Colin Garrett, the seasoned veteran as Daijiro Yoshihara is pushing already. Loh has to get into a rhythm. Coln Garrett is pressing hard already. He really is. It is a dogfight in the TC class. Cristian Perocarpi and Clay Williams in the TC Spec Mini Cooper. Locking the brakes into turn 11, the hairpin. Yoshihara leads by one second.
Lucas Catania is up to third with Kyle Loh right behind him. Our timing and scoring is not working properly. Lucas Catania is being harried by Kyle Loh, still, into turn seven. Loh swings wide and is doing all he can. Adam Gleason, too, fifth place, from Indianapolis, Indiana, and now living in Dallas, Texas. This is his first race in TC America. Jeff Ricca leads the TC class in the #78 Hyundai Elantra N TC. He leads by 1.7 seconds over Michael Hurczyn. Hurczyn in the #8 car, the VGRT Honda Civic. Clay Williams is third.
In the TCA class, it is Devin Anderson leading the class in the #22 Techsport Subaru BRZ. Jacob Ruud, Kevin Boehm, and Gresham Wagner have moved on. Wagner in Toyota GR Cup. Kevin Boehm in Pirelli GT4 America. A dive to the inside, lookl, as Lucas Catania slams the door in Kyle Loh's face. Jeff Ricca is pushing hard still as well. Kyle Loh is monstering Lucas Catania on the outside. Catania has never raced against another type of car in his own class. So, he is sizing up the Honda for sure. The Honda has the midrange torque.
Loh is gettinf feisty and could indeed have more lap time potential. He was third in the West Coast Formula 4 Pro Series in 2019 and was a finalist for the IMSA Diverse Driver scholarship. He has mileage testing the Honda TCR cars as part of HPD Driver Academy. Michael Hurczyn in the Honda leads Clay Williams, the 2022 series runner-up. The Mini has a short wheelbase but it is a very potent machine. Clay Williams can go for the title knowing that Kevin Boehm would not be back but now he has a new challenger in the form of Michael Hurczyn.
Up the inside and he makes the pass. Ricca continues to lead and is far faster than is Clayton Williams as we speak. Here too, in TC, Sally McNulty is leading Kris Valdez. DRS has a single car effort after running TCA in the last couple of years. McNulty and Valdez are now in the TC class. DRS, Dynamic Racing Solutions is the team and that is Kris Valdez's business in the Los Angeles, California area. The exhaust on the Honda's seem to be moving around for some reason. Get on the power early but play chicken with the throttle at the same time.
AOA Racing, car #14, with Kenny Schmeid at the wheel of it. That is a BMW M2 CS Racing and so is Joseph Catania behind him. Sonoma Raceway is quite the track with all the elevation changes. You do need straight line speed as well as Kyle Loh is really pushing Lucas Catania who are both making inroads on Colin Garrett. Garrett at the wheel of the #44 BMW for Rooster Hall Racing. The BMW's are the fly in the ointment for the Honda's currently. Shaoyi Che, the driver from China, is hot on the heels of his teammate Devin Anderson at Techsport in the Subaru BRZ team.
Looming behind is Spencer Bucknum in the other L.A. Honda World Honda Civic SI. His father Jeff Bucknum drove and his grandfather Ronnie drove for Honda in Formula 1 back in the 1960s. Trouble in paradise for Daijiro Yoshihara from the lead! Something wrong with the #99 VGRT Honda and he has lost drive and will need to do a Control, Alt, Delete. He is not in a safe spot. Colin Garrett now leads over Luca Catania and Kyle Loh in third place. This was going to be a storybook debut for Daijiro Yoshihara. This means that Colin Garrett will have his hands full with Lucas Catania and Kyle Loh. Loh is still in the mix as well, look.
Colin Garrett and Luca Catania are both running 1:54 dead lap times and there is nothing to choose between them. A possible broken axle for Yoshihara who went off the road. Game over. Another VGRT car in TC, that is the #8 entry of Michael Hurczyn being followed by Celso Neto and Cristian Perocarpi. At VGRT, they are putting the car in neutral and have to fix the car for the race tomorrow. The silver lining is he knows he has the pace. No points can be scored. He will have to rebound for tomorrow.
Garrett, Catania, and Loh, the top three runners. Kyle Loh is new to fighting through lapped traffic in different classes which is a big deal in sports car racing of course. Colin Garrett had to adapt to that coming from late model stock car racing at South Boston Speedway, a fabled short track in Virginia. Mario Farnbacher talked to Kyle Loh about multi-class racing. They went through traffic management ajd overtaking slower cars in the Honda Performance Development Academy. Of course Ryan Eversley is the other driver coach. Luca Catania just got absolutely squashed by traffic. TC leader Jeff Ricca has 11 seconds in hand over Clay Williams.
Jeff Ricca has raced for Hyundai in Korea and also at the Nurburgring for Hyundai in the NLS series. Ricca is still 1.2 seconds up. Devin Anderson is your TCA leader although Spencer Bucknum has passed Shaoyi Che and Bucknum has not won at this level yet. This is the Honda Civic SI FE1. Mario Biundo the team boss is also running well in this race. Bucknum scored two podiums in the races here at Sonoma last year. Colin Garrett still leads the motor race. BMW, BMW, Honda. Rear wheel drive for BMW and front wheel drive for Honda in the TCX class. With front wheel drive, watch out, as the wheels are steering and accelerating. Tire degradation is more common.
The BMW is rear wheel drive and now, Bucknum is stymied and gets passed by Colin Garrettt. Kyle Loh, too, is held up a wee bit. Garrett vs. Catania. Catania can tuck the front nose easier whereas Garrett washes out a tad. He won seven races in 2022. Catania has finished runner up six times. How bad does he want the win? Loh is giving it the stick as well ut poor old Catania is still the cork in the bottle. William Lambros in the TCA Honda is a back marker but he cannot just hit the disappear button.
Catania knows the Honda is there, compromising his line in turn seven just a tad. Still 12 minutes on the clock. P.J. Groenke in one of the LAP Motorsports Mini Cooper's in TCA. Loh meanwhile is still chasing Catania. Plunging downhill into The Carousel. So many approaches are taken to this corner. He comes off The Carousel a wee bit off, away from his rival driver. Loh has to try and compromise Catania's speed. Yoshihara of course is out of this one and will reset for tomorrow. Under ten minutes now left to run. Jeff Ricca does have a Nurburgring program and he will miss the races later on at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
Clayton Williams is going for it. He won with the Mini on several occasions in 2022. But Jeff Ricca will challenge him for sure and the Balance of Performance is going to adjust things throughout the season. Quite the interesting mix of cars in the TC categories. They look different and they make their power in different ways, front wheel drive vs. rear wheel drive, and different transmissions and gear ratios as well. Celso Neto, the Brazilian, has some damage on his Honda Civic but he is running well. He is a veteran of the Brazilian Stock Car championship.
Shaoyi Che can pick up a podium but it is Spencer Bucknum reeling in the leader in the TCA class. Colin Garrett's lead is shrinking as he is in traffic and Lucas Catania can reel him in. This is a perfect opportunity for Catania. What can he do? The Mini on the outside is in the way which opens the door for Garrett. Catania tucks it to the inside and Spencer Bucknum is letting people through but, he has to know that he is in a battle with Devin Anderson. Three and a half minutes to go. Colin Garrett leading Lucas Catania who wants his first career victory.
Garrett has really had to manage his car. Catania is indeed keeping him honest. Colin Garrett is a quick learner and raced hard with Jacob Ruud last year who won the championship but is not back in TCX or TC America this year. He and Jacob Ruud split the wins last year, at seven race wins apiece. No white flag yet? That's interesting. We could indeed see the checkers next time by. This could be it. If Catania wants to make a move he has to do it now. Maybe the team is telling him he can do a quick lap but has to manage to eat a chunk out of the clock. White flag. One lap to go.
Colin Garrett seems to be the man to beat here. One last time through turn nine the right, left flick. No dice for Catania. Colin Garrett, the Virginian stock car racer/touring car racer. Garrett wins the race! In TCA it will be Devin Anderson winning in class over Spencer Bucknum. In the TC class, yikes! It is tight racing into the braking zone! Jeff Riccca wins the TC class unchallenged. The Hyundai Elantra TC model wins in class for the first time with Clay Williams coming home in second ahead of Cristian Perocarpi who passes Michael Hurczyn right at the end of the motor race.
Sally McNulty and Kris Valdez have had a battle and now Valdez is going to beat Celso Neto to the line by 0.166 seconds! Wow! That was a great motor race! We will have another TC America race tomorrow here at Sonoma and we'll see it here tomorrow as fastest lap time is going to set the Rowe pole award for tomorrow. So, here are your winners.
Overall/TCX: #44 Colin Garrett Rooster Hall Racing BMW M2 CS Racing
TC: #78 Jeff Ricca GenRacer/Ricca Autosport Hyundai Elantra N TC
TCA: #22 Devin Anderson TechSport Racing Subaru BRZ TCA
Race one for TC America at Sonoma Raceway is now in the bag. So, we will see you tomorrow for the second race of 2023 as SRO TC America has started off with a bang! More racing to come later today, so please, stay tuned. You will not want to miss it.
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