McCann Cruises to TCR Victory At Watkins Glen; Pombo Wins TCA

McCann Cruises to TCR Victory At Watkins Glen; Pombo Wins TCA

Watkins Glen, NY - TC America Race 1 was held under the late afternoon sun at Watkins Glen International with Michael McCann Jr and his #3 McCann Racing Audi RS3 LMS leading the field to the green flag.  At turn 1 to start the race, championship leader Michael Hurczyn would get his #71 FCP Euro VW Golf GTI around the #34 Risi Competizione Alfa Romeo of James Walker to grab third position.  A few corners later, Mason Filippi and the #12 Copeland Motorsports Hyundai Veloster N would leap past McCann for the lead, just prior to a full course caution being called for a heavy incident by Nick Wittmer’s #91 TechSport Racing Subaru BRZ tS just two minutes into the forty minute event. 

The race went back to green with 22 minutes left on the clock with Filippi leading McCann in TCR and Tyler Maxson in the #74 Copeland Motorsports Mazda MX5 Cup leading Mark Pombo’s #59 MINI Cooper JCW in TCA. 

Heading into the bus stop with 19 minutes remaining, McCann was able to slip past Filippi for the TCR lead with the top five running within 1 second of each other.  McCann would slowly draw away from the rest of the field and go on to take his first TCR win of the season.

At the same time, Mark Pombo was able to get past Maxson going into the bus stop and take the lead in TCA.  Pombo would never look back and go on to take the class victory, his second of the season.  Behind Pombo the TCA class would finish with Maxson in second and Taylor Hagler third in the #77 X-Factor Racing Honda Civic Si. 

With 13 minutes left on the clock, Nate Vincent and his #72 FCP Euro VW Golf GTI was able to get past both Hurczyn and Filippi to claim second position.  Shortly after, championship leader Hurczyn would follow Vincent past Filippi for third.  With under 2 minutes remaining Hurczyn would make his run at Vincent, but came just short and had to settle for the final podium position.

The TCR Cup victory would go to the #41 TWOth Autosport Audi RS3 LMS of Travis Hill with the #18 EXR Team by Premat Audi RS3 LMS of Stephen Vajda second and Christian Cole in the #27 McCann Racing Audi RS3 LMS third. 

TC America TCR/TCA Race 2 will go green on Sunday September 1st at 10:50am ET, streaming live at https://live.sro-america.com