Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, back to Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, as we are set for the second and final race of the weekend for SRO TC America powered by Skip Barber Racing School. It is a blustry, cool morning at Road America and we are set to go racing. We have Ryan Myrehn and Calvin Fish calling the race in the booth and D.J. Clark in the pit lane. Three classes of touring cars set to go. Road America provides wonderfully exciting racing for the touring cars with a mix of brands as well as front and rear wheel drive configurations. We saw wonderful racing yesterday. Celso Neto won fair and square in TCX yesterday with the Acura Integra. Can he sweep? Cristian Perocarpi in TC with the Mini Cooper, delivered yesterday in big style.
Perocarpi has massive momentum. Perocarpi is so confident, he can beat the TCX cars with a TC spec Mini Cooper. P.J. Groenke in TCA also won yesterday after competing at Road America for years. Sally McNulty in the Ricca Autosport Hyundai, one of them. Jeff Ricca, the team boss, also set to go, two or three Hyundai Elantra's. Ruben Iglesias caught in a wreck yesterday, will not race in race two today, sadly. Celso Neto in the Acura Integra Type S, he will be one to watch for the Skip Barber Racing School team. Chris Walsh in the Carrus Callas BMW M2 CS Cup, he will be on the button this morning as well.
Wear Blue and Run to Remember, to help our veterans. Chris Walsh is an active member of the Air Force who will be promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. Congratulations, Chris. May God Bless You. Thanks to the men and women of our Armed Forces. Cooper Broll is ready to go and sadly, Aaron Kaplan who had a wreck with Cooper Broll, Kaplan will not start race two today, the Chicago native. We will perhaps have a dry race but watch the skies. We could have an unexpected shower. TCA is having it's swansong and next year in the touring cars, the TC and TCX class will be combined. TCA has P.J. Groenke, Bruce Myrehn, and Alex Garcia. Two Mini's and a Honda.
We are ready for a start. Celso Neto, the Brazilian in the Acura, wants to control this race. Scott Thomson spun his Mini in the cool conditions but will start from out back. Here we go. Green flag! Let's race! Cooper Broll challenging for second alongside Chris Walsh and a big lockup by Broll who moves to second place. Stone cold tires and he got all locked up into turn one. Celso Neto motoring ahead as Cristian Perocarpi is hassling Jeff Ricca in TC. Scott Thomson carving his way through the field. Walsh passes Broll. Perocarpi passes Ricca through the Moraine Sweep.
Celso Neto running off like a scalded cat. Perocarpi defending for the TC lead against Ricca. DeFreitas fourth in TCX in the BMW M2 CS Cup. Sally McNulty moving up in another one of the Hyundai's. DeFreitas in another Acura Integra runs wide into Canada Corner. DeFreitas was way, way off the road with Connor Attrell, the Canadian, moving up. Attrell in another GenRacer/Ricca Autosport Hyundai. Celso Neto leads Chris Walsh by two seconds while Cooper Broll is being monstered by the TC class leaders, Cristian Perocarpi and Jeff Ricca.
This battling is a precursor of what we will see next year with a combined single touring car class and shorter races. Ricca driving defensive and these two chaps are not afraid to trade paint! Yikes! Perocarpi makes the pass through The Carousel. Holy smokes! Ricca doing all he knows to keep Perocarpi honest. I wonder if the Hyundai has a speed advantage over the Mini. The Mini has the road car gearbox, and the fifth gear is a highway overdrive gear, not the ideal gear ratio to race. It is a slightly modified production car all of these cars are. The Hyundai has a sequential 8 speed transmission. Perocarpi can't find top gear. Is something wrong with the LAP Motorsports Mini?
Ricca holding off Perocarpi's challenge. Into turn five there is a large delta in performance. Ricca has raced for Hyundai in Korea and at the Nurburgring including the Nurburgring 24 Hours. This is fascinating because Ricca is showing the pace over Perocarpi. In the points, Ricca is 42 points ahead of Perocarpi, 192 points to 150 points. P.J. Groenke leads TCA by six and a half seconds over Alex Garcia who passed Bruce Myrehn for second place. Perocarpi cannot find a way past the Hyundai. MINI JCW/LAP Motorsports say that there is nothing wrong with the car. They are excited, racing against the Hyundai in TC.
This is shades of what we saw at Virginia International Raceway last time out. Something is going backwards with the performance of the Mini. Ten minutes done and dusted. 1/4 distance. Next year we will see 25-minute touring car races and on a handful of races there will be three races instead of two. The bulk will still be doubleheaders. Bruce Myrehn right on Alex Garcia's six! Oh my! Garcua has the inside on Bruce Myrehn, our mate Ryan Myrehn's dad. Bruce Myrehn has run Spec Miata here at Road America, his second year in the Mini at Road America and we should see him racing at Indianapolis in October, too.
27 minutes to go as Perocarpi is trying to solve Ricca's riddle. This is going to get feisty, believe me. Perocarpi trying again. He gives it up. Say what? Poor old Cooper Broll might be in a spot of bother, pointing the leaders in TC by. Broll is third in TCX in another of the Acura Integra's. Perocarpi is being more patient, waiting out an opportunity to pounce. Jeff Ricca is by no means an old guy, but he has been racing for a few years while Cristian Perocarpi is new to this. It is his father's team, and he is good as a mechanic. Perocarpi tries Ricca but can't quite make the pass. Keep it clean. No risk. No risk.
24 minutes on the board. Oh no. Trouble in paradise for Connor Attrell. The Quaker State motor oil sponsored Hyundai is in strife, the Canadian, making his debut in TC America. This TC battle is not going anyplace. Can Perocarpi find an answer to Ricca's riddle? Maybe he is burning the clock. He is getting closer than he was earlier. Maybe the tire wear on the Hyundai is showing itself. Perocarpi is reticent to pull out of line and throw the block. Perocarpi not close enough. Ricca remains in the clear. It is nip and tuck though. Oh dear! Alex Garcia with a right front puncture! Oh man!
So, Bruce Myrehn goes by. They were side by side at the start/finish line. Is it the tire, the wheel, or the suspension? There is bodywork damage to the Honda. Connor Attrell in the pit lane with the bonnet up. Not good. Celso Neto leads Chris Walsh by 5.2 seconds and Cooper Broll continues to hold third but with a slower race car than he wanted. It sounds like Connor Attrell's car has a loose intercooler hose. Jeff Ricca is buttoned up on the radio, focused on driving. It is a silent version of Kimi Raikkonen's "leave me alone, I know what I'm doing" quote.
Halfway home. 20 minutes down. 20 minutes to go. Celso Neto leading by six seconds. Don't use up your tires if we see a Full Course Yellow and a restart. It's horses for courses and the dominance must be because of the team at Skip Barber Racing, along with HRC and Acura. The BMW has been the dominant TCX platform for two or three seasons now. We should see more brands coming in for 2025. Stay tuned. There will be a new BMW coming. New brands are also kicking the tires. Ah. Deja vu again, cut and paste between Ricca and Perocarpi, the Pirelli tires, screaming for mercy! Suspension damage for Alex Garcia. Complete suspension failure, a broken trailing arm on the front suspension, bounding over the curbs. It was not contact with Bruce Myrehn.
Perocarpi is losing ground to Ricca. I wonder if Cristian Perocarpi's car is 100% healthy. Is it getting sick? Is he playing the waiting game? Ricca has pushed the bye bye button. No Balance of Performance worries, but Cristian Perocarpi cannot slipstream with the TCX cars. Cooper Broll has dropped to fourth being passed by fellow Acura driver Christopher DeFreitas. An unusual rate of attrition for a small field. Mini are being cagey with their strategy answers to questions, looking at the big picture, but running out of time with 15 minutes left on the board as Celso Neto just uncorked the fastest lap of the motor race at 2:24.2.
Vin Anatra also clocked in a 2:28.561 and is 2.8 seconds behind Scott Thomson battling in TC for fourth and fifth place. Thomson is 4.4 seconds down on Sally McNulty. Celso Neto, fastest lap, 2:24.267. Neto leads Walsh by eight seconds. 14 minutes to go. Celso Neto became the youngest podium finisher in Brazilian Touring Cars. He ran in Stock Car Brazil and NASCAR Brazil as well. He was the youngest podium finisher at age 18 in 2018. Neto is the real deal. P.J. Groenke untroubled in TCA leading by 15 seconds over Bruce Myrehn, his Mini teammate. Myrehn is 3/10ths of a second up on Groenke's lap time in the Mini sponsored by Solutions Through Synergy. Myrehn competed and won in a ten-hour club level endurance race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Vin Anatra has moved Scott Thomson out of the way for fourth in TC and he is still scrapping with the Mini. Hyundai vs. Mini and Anatra runs off in the clag, the gray dust offline. In the first year, you ventured offline at your own peril from the repave, it was the first repave of the track since 1995 and of course the winters in Wisconsin are harsh. The foundation of the surface is very strong. So it stands up well to the wintry conditions. DeFreitas passes Anatra and now, Cooper Broll brings the Acura to the pit lane and the bonnet goes up on the car. Christopher DeFreitas will likely have his first career podium in the touring cars.
That will be a major feather in his hat. Eight minutes to go. Cooper Broll's #19 Acura Integra is overheating. Mild weather here at Road America, so, I find that strange the car would be overheating. So unusual for the attrition rate in a sprint event like this one. Neto's lead over Walsh has ballooned to ten seconds plus. Cooper Broll exits the pit box, but will he roll to the paddock or get back on track? In the TC class Jeff Ricca's lead has grown to 4.7 seconds over Cristian Perocarpi. It has been bizarre seeing Perocarpi's lap times, losing time and now gaining it back. Ricca leads in class by five seconds. Perocarpi can't be playing a massive head game, can he? Not at this stage.
Maybe the team are being coy with the info they are giving us. The gap is now 3.8 seconds. Perocarpi must hustle to get to Jeff Ricca in the closing four plus minutes. TCA traffic looming ahead for Jeff Ricca. Had Jeff Ricca did not miss the races at Circuit of the Americas, from racing at the Nurburgring 24 Hours, he lost the title. We thought a driver like Mark Wilkins would have been a stand in for Ricca but that never happened. Scott Thomson being tutored by Clayton Williams. Clayton Williams, on the radio, talking Scott through the race. We are getting down to the wire. White flag next time by.
Anatra and Thomson uncorking fast laps. But Anatra is faster. Thomson goes back to the inside and some contact between the two of them. Some argy bargy out of turn six. Hopefully no damage to the tires. White flag. One lap to go for Celso Neto. Thomson is now back on the horse through turn six cresting the hill right at the turn in point, sending it through the kink for a big head of steam towards Canada Corner. Celso Neto leading Chris Walsh by eight seconds, three seconds between Ricca and Perocarpi in the TC class while we watch the Anatra and Thomson dice. TCX traffic ahead will help with an aerodynamic tow.
Jeff Ricca will now take solid control of the TC points lead with four races left, as Celso Neto, Skip Barber Racing Team, and Acura win for the third time in 2024 holding off points leader Chris Walsh in second spot. Meanwhile, Ricca is in big, big trouble and Cristian Perocarpi comes through to win the TC class as in TCA it is P.J. Groenke winning. Perocarpi wins over Ricca! Ricca in second! Did he go off the road? Was there a fuel starvation issue? My gosh! That was a wild one. Vin Anatra beats Scott Thomson to the line for fifth place. Ricca's last lap was 12 seconds slower than Christian Perocarpi and Scott Thomson with a 2:28.2 threw down his best lap.
Break out the broom! It is a sweep for Celso Neto! Ricca back on the pace on the cooldown lap. Cue the dance music for the results.
Overall/TCX: #22 Celso Neto Skip Barber Racing Acura Integra Type S
TC: #37 Cristian Perocarpi MINI JCW Team Mini JCW TC Pro
TCA: #62 P.J. Groenke MINI JCW Team Mini JCW
A Mini 1-2 in TCA with P.J. Groenke ahead of Bruce Myrehn. A great race today. Next time we speak to you about SRO TC America, will be the doubleheader at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama, three weeks from now. Join us in Alabama then, everybody. Take care. More racing still to come. GT cars, Pirelli GT4 America and GT World Challenge America, set to race later on today. Please do stay tuned.
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