TC America powered by Skip Barber Racing School returns to Circuit of the Americas for the first time in two years. The last time we were here was in 2021. This is round five of the championship at an iconic venue. We join Ryan Myrehn, and Calvin Fish in the broadcast booth, and Amanda Busick in the pit lane. This is a fabulous racetrack, and we are going to see a great event today. There is also a go kart track just outside of the circuit, not to be confused with the actual course itself. Joseph Catania and his team are back in the fight today after the accident that occurred last time out at NOLA Motorsports Park. Joe’s son Lucas Catania is starting towards the front of the grid.
Another driver turning the page on his season is Daijiro Yoshihara. He has put the misfortune from both Sonoma and NOLA out of his mind and comes into the race weekend here at COTA with the intention of doing well and winning. BMW and Honda on the front row of the grid with Yoshihara and Catania. Sewell auto dealers sponsoring the Fast Track Racing team are at their home race in Texas this weekend. We are going to see a lot of drafting today here at COTA just like you’d see with a NASCAR Cup car at Talladega or Daytona for instance. This course is 3.427 miles with 20 corners. Lots of good overtaking spots through the esses on this course which are really through the first ten corners.
So the first half of the course is the “twiddly bits” as we’d call them in road racing, and run flat out, full chat down the backstretch but have patience again through turn 15 at the carousel. It is a triple apex. Watch turns 19 and 20 for track limits. There are tons of different corners and lots of elevation change. What we will also see with these touring cars is the difference in handling between the platforms. We’ve talked about this before with production-based touring and sports car racing a lot. But some corners will favor one car platform over another depending on if you are driving a front wheel drive or a rear-wheel-drive automobile.
These transmissions are stock and so all the gear ratios are different and there are discrepancies between gear ratios. This is the first of two races for this weekend. We have had a wonderful start to the year with this melting pot of different cars in TC America. Lap time and track position, as well as straightaway speed are the key focuses on this circuit at COTA. Colin Garrett wants to turn things around. TCX is now a growing class. It was an all-BMW party for the most part and we are now seeing Honda stepping up to the plate. Their North American Acura brand which we have seen have success in prototype sports car racing this year, they have a touring car in the works as well. Next year we will see an Acura Integra and that car will race at the Pikes Peak Hillclimb with Lani Unser at the wheel.
Jeff Ricca is not here. Over the weekend of this event, Ricca was of course taking part in the Nurburgring 24 Hours. If Clay Williams sweeps the weekend, he will get more points and extend his lead over Jeff Ricca. Ricca was part of the massive Hyundai program at the Nurburgring 24 Hours. So, Clay Williams is going to capitalize. We were hearing rumors a factory Hyundai TCR driver was going to fill in for Jeff Ricca due to his racing at the Nurburgring. That idea did not materialize.
Mini and Honda will be able to have a bite of the cherry in that case. Safety car lights out. Dai Yoshihara has now scored four poles in four races in the TCX class in 2023. Lucas Catania at his elbow. Catania wants a win and has a chance to get it today. TC America race one at COTA is underway! Yoshihara in TCX gets the jump and Maddie Aust is already pushing. The TC class race is already hot with Clay Williams trying but not making the move. Now, William Lambros leads the TC class from pole. Yoshihara is consolidating his lead already as Kenny Schmied passes Maddie Aust. This is Aust’s home track and so too for the Fast Track team. Side by side action in TCA as Lambros is eking out an advantage. In the meantime, Celso Neto, the veteran of Brazilian stock cars is being harried by Clay Williams in the Mini.
Neto on the inside through turn 15. COTA cuts back and forth, left, and right, and so the battles we see overlap in a big way. That is the nature of this place. Williams is off the road just a bit. Four warnings for track limits before you are penalized. Watch the curbs and the red and green paint. Alan Lozier in the Mini passes Cooper Broll for position as we see an accordion through the esses with Neto, Williams, and Cristian Perocarpi. The esses really put the strain on the Pirelli tires from turns two through nine and into turn 11 at the hairpin. The back straightaway is a real dyno run.
Perocarpi passes Williams now for the runner up place but the two Mini’s are going to have a tough road to try and catch Celso Neto who is currently top of the shop in the TC class. Neto getting into a rhythm and eking out a gap. He ran very well last time out at New Orleans. Colin Garrett is now up to P3 in TCX in the Rooster Hall Racing BMW, the points leader in TCX and he has his hands full, look, from Kenny Schmied in car #14. Maddie Aust and Adam Gleason are reeling in Garrett as well. So the two Fast Track Racing BMW’s #09 and #21 are showing what they’ve got early doors.
This is a fast-paced race. Only 40 minutes in duration. Adam Gleason living a dream. Adam Gleason and his wife Mandy went to racing school together. Another worthy point is that Kyle Loh is struggling. He has been at or near the front all season through the performances we saw from him at both Sonoma and New Orleans. But here in Austin, so far he is on the back foot at the wheel of the #73 LA Honda World Racing Honda Civic Type R TCX.
William Lambros leads TCA over Devin Anderson in second and Spencer Bucknum is the championship leader. Spencer Bucknum admitted that the Honda is not the strongest car to have here at COTA. Well, don’t tell Will Lambros that. He is leading in class in the TCA division as we speak. P.J. Groenke in the Mini is being harried now by Mario Biundo. Ryan Eversley has been tutoring Biundo. Eversley unable to be here at COTA to assist Biundo but he is really gaining confidence and of course Spencer Bucknum too is a top contender.
Colin Garrett is breaking away from Kenny Schmied running down Lucas Catania and Dai Yoshihara. Kenny Schmied meanwhile is in a world of pain. He is pulling his BMW M2 CS Cup off to the side of the road with mechanical problems. That is not a safe haven, and the marshals will be contacting the team. Maybe he must do a Control, Alt, Delete. Look at this! Yoshihara is getting defensive in his scrap with Lucas Catania in the meantime. Catania tries to get inside into The Carousel and makes the pass. Yoshihara gives it up.
Catania knows that he has a challenge on his hands and here comes Colin Garrett! Garrett to the inside of Yoshihara! Yoshihara chops across the nose of Colin Garrett. Catania is second in points. Yoshihara fifth in points based on the misfortunes he has had this year so far. Into the braking zone, Luca Catania continues to play defense. Catania is compromising his corner exits. He has to be very careful. Colin Garrett pulling to the inside of Yoshihara and now, Maddie Aust goes around the outside! She is a former cheerleader and championship gymnast, and Maddie Aust got the racing bug.
Aust is also running U.S. Formula 4 open wheel cars. Garrett deep into turn two and Catania is still fighting! Side by side for the lead! Nose to tail for the lead and the stock car veteran Garrett comes out at the top. Yoshihara is in the fight and here comes Adam Gleason. Gleason thinks, “oh, they’re having a little party, and they didn’t invite me!” In the meantime, Maddie Aust also still wants the slipstream opportunities and Aust is right there behind Garrett. Three wide to the outside to the braking zone at the end of the backstretch and Maddie Aust takes it away!
Catania and Garrett squabbling for second place. Yoshihara runs wide through turn 15 with massive understeer! This third sector, the front wheel drive cars give up a bit of performance over the BMW’s which are rear wheel drive. Maddie Aust leads her first lap in TC America. Former champion of this class, Johann Schwartz is looking on. He is part of Rooster Hall Racing. Garrett grabs the lead, but he is loose! He is sliding his way through the corner, and he saves it! Holy cow! Here’s it all again, in slow motion.
He momentarily loses ground but has the runoff room here at COTA to save it. In the TCA class Spencer Bucknum has the advantage but is being monstered, look, by P.J. Groenke. This is a battle for the final podium place. Devin Anderson leads in the class right now as we watch this scrap between the Honda and the Mini. Devin Anderson in the Techsport Subaru wants to take advantage for dead sure. Shaoyi Che in the other Techsport Subaru is pushing and wants a shot at this. Celso Neto in the meantime is in control in TC over two seconds ahead of Cristian Perocarpi still battling with teammate Clay Williams. Don’t get too feisty.
Michael Hurczyn is next in the serial, and he started at the back of the TC field but is now up to fourth spot. Hurczyn is a former TC America champion. Bucknum knows he is vulnerable. In the meantime, Maddie Aust leads Luca Catania and poor old Colin Garrett is dropping back but the stewards report that there is some smoke coming from the BMW and it is getting worse! Catania must be pulling his hair out, thinking, “what on earth do I have to do to win one of these races?!” This team is giving it everything with a small crew. No way of telling what that smoke is but it is getting worse. Is that oil? Is it something else?
Spencer Bucknum has dropped a spot to Groenke as Mario Biundo and Shaoyi Che are making inroads and Che is the one who is looking for an opportunity to pass. Groenke makes good his escape for fourth spot. Groenke, Biundo, Che, battling for fourth in TCA. Make that third. Catania still has that smoke plume out the back of the BMW. It seems to be getting worse as he is chasing Maddie Aust. It looks like it is leaking out the back of the car and not just out of one tailpipe or the other. Aust leads by half a second over Catania. Your top six as it stands is Maddie Aust, Luca Catania, Colin Garrett, Adam Gleason, Dai Yoshihara, and Kyle Loh.
Colin Garrett snagged the CrowdStrike fastest lap away from Kyle Loh and recorded a 2:23.960. Fast lap in race one sets the grid for race two tomorrow. Adam Gleason is eating Colin Garrett’s dust at this point with 17 minutes left on the board. Johann Schwartz was here at COTA back in March when Colin Garrett ran the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race that took place here. Catania, the smoke out of his car is getting worse. I wonder if the differential is suffering. Maddie Aust is defending the lead of this motor race. These two drivers are both seeking their first career wins.
Could Catania break the duck today? Massive slide, tightening his hands but losing the rear end. Colin Garrett is gaining on these two with 15 minutes remaining and poor old Kenny Schmied trundles into the pit lane. Whatever issues we saw him have earlier have been getting worse and it is game over for the #14 BMW M2 CS Racing for AOA Racing. Did he get enough laps to score points making 50% of the race? I think so. Rooster Hall Racing looking on. They are hosting Command Sargent Major Gretchen Evans, the recipient of the Pat Tillman Award.
Pat Tillman of course a former NFL football player killed in action as an Army Ranger in the war in Afghanistan. One of the founders of Team Unbroken, an athletic team of veterans, is Command Sargent Evans. They were founded in 2019. Catania is going to go for it to make a move on Maddie Aust. Garrett moving in on Catania and Aust, both. He decides discretion is the better part of valor. The smoke out of the rear of Catania’s BMW has gotten worse. Maddie Aust has a clear road in front of her. So far, she is ticking the boxes and really getting the puzzle together.
Aust, Catania, Garrett, the top three. Garrett looming large as Catania’s car continues to smoke. Aust right on the limit catching the tail end of the TCA field. Catania now is right on Maddie Aust’s six. The TCX lead battle rages and now, through the lapped traffic they go and to the outside on the backstretch. Well, well, well. Toby Grahovec, the team boss at Fast Track Racing thinks very highly of Maddie Aust and his praise is shown through her performance in this afternoon’s opening race of the weekend. Aust is answering every riddle Catania is throwing her way.
They slide over the sausage curbs on the exit of the last turn. Garrett lurking in the distance but got a wee bit stymied by the still smoky BMW of Catania. In the meantime, Celso Neto has an ice cream headache dealing with Clay Williams. Clay Williams finished second in the championship last year with four victories. Neto is defensive and does not get the run. Williams to the outside over Neto in turn two and now through the esses, Williams takes the lead in the TC class. Neto is trying to counterattack. This is massive for Clay Williams as far as the championship is concerned. This is massive for Williams with Jeff Ricca not here and participating for Hyundai at the Nurburgring 24 Hours.
Of course, that is a race we recently spoke about on the blog. Go back and look for my highlighted race report on that one. I think you will enjoy it. Neto’s fastest lap is just a wee bit quicker than Clay Williams. Catania now on the defensive over Colin Garrett which is allowing Maddie Aust to get away. Garrett almost threw his race away a wee while ago. Oh dear. Garrett slides a tad. Catania is still going even while chucking the smoke out of that car. The team at Fast Track Racing calls Maddie Aust “Mad Dog” and she is living up to that nickname presently.
Maddie Aust graduated high school and will attend college at TCU and she won an SCCA national race the weekend before this race happened. Catania wants to take the fight to the inside but Maddie Aust slams the door in his face. She is vulnerable though. Catania is going to push. That smoke has not affected the performance of his car. The seas are parting in traffic for Aust even though there is a big gaggle of traffic ahead. Aust to the outside, she has to give the lapped cars enough room.
Trying to read out of class traffic is very new for Aust and Catania gets balked by the traffic and now Garrett pounces! Garrett is really going for it. Catania is right there on Aust’s back door. He tucks into the draft of a TCA car. Garrett is not close enough to make a move on Catania either. Here’s Catania, Aust on the defensive. Catania snags the lead, four minutes away from a win. Aust still wants it into the stadium section! Catania wants a win, no question of that, with just three and a half minutes of this motor race remaining.
Maddie Aust is now second and coming under pressure from Colin Garrett. Garrett makes yet another move and Aust is out of sync through the esses. Garrett tries getting to her flank. No dice. Aust slams the door again. Catania is running away. Catania, despite the smoke, is still in the lead. Catania has no pressure. Garrett closing on Aust. Will traffic be a factor? Catania has to pass the TCA leader and Yoshihara could be off the pace, again!
It is Yoshihara who has dropped off the pace! Left front flat tire! One lap to go. Let’s see if we can stay green. Catania leads Aust and Garrett by 7/10ths of a second. He has to execute after finishing runner up half a dozen times last year and a couple times so far this year. The battle is for second. Aust is loose and here comes Garrett. Garrett to second. Catania is too far down the road it seems. Catania’s car has been spewing smoke for half an hour and it could be coughing and sputtering. It looks like Catania might just hold on.
For Lucas Catania, he has had a dozen podiums but never the top step. Is today the day? Colin Garrett is still dealing with the pressure from Maddie Aust. Just a couple corners to go. One turn left. Catania to the checkers and finally, he wins a TC America race! Colin Garrett is second. Maddie Aust third. Adam Gleason and Kyle Loh fourth and fifth. Devin Anderson wins TCA over Will Lambros and Spencer Bucknum. LAP Motorsports and Clay Williams are going to score a bucketload of points with championship rival Jeff Ricca racing in Germany this weekend.
Williams wins in the TCA class! Wow! What a motor race! Fun to watch and very clean. Colin Garrett at 2:23.960 scores the CrowdStrike fastest lap.
Overall/TCX: #26 Lucas Catania Rigid Speed Company BMW M2 CS Racing
TC: #60 Clay Williams MINI JCW Team Mini JCW Pro TC
TCA: #22 Devin Anderson TechSport Racing Subaru BRZ TCA
A great race one for TC America here at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. Lucas Catania has finally won a race! What a big relief! He has run at the top consistently for two straight seasons and the team changed the differential last night in the late hours. The smoke they thought was rubber in a brake caliper and he says it could have been an axle seal. But he still wins this motor race. Rigid Speed Company from upstate New York, congratulations! Well deserved.
Clay Williams is thankful to his team at Mini for a big win. We do not know what happened to teammate Cristian Perocarpi as he comes over to give a congratulatory hug to his teammate. Maddie Aust says that she was going down the backstretch and had to send it. She will be on pole for race two. A great race in race one today and stay tuned for the second race tomorrow as there is a bunch of racing room here at COTA. Devin Anderson, TCA winner says that maintaining pace will be a key deal for race two tomorrow and maximizing the Pirelli tires as well.
Three wins for Anderson and his fourth in his last six starts including wins at the conclusion of 2022. We’ll do it all again tomorrow. See you tomorrow for race two. More racing to come today. Stay tuned.
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