SONOMA, California - TC America TCR and TCA Race 3 started with a bang as MINI JCW Team teammates Mark Pombo (#61) and championship leader Tomas Mejia (#60) collided at turn 2 giving flat tires to both cars and allowing Kevin Boehm in the #9 Boehm Racing Honda Civic Si and Tyler Gonzalez in the #57 Copeland Motorsports Hyundai Veloster Turbo to fight for the class lead.
On lap 2, Gonzalez would slip past Boehm for first with the #62 MINI JCW Team MINI Cooper of Clay Williams closing on the second-placed car.
Williams wouldn’t take long to make his presence known as on lap 3 would get past Boehm at the final hairpin for second in TCA but going into the carousel half a lap later Bohem would get the position back. The #178 VGMC Racing Honda Civic Si of Jonathan Newcombe would also slip past Williams to grab the third position.
In TCR Tyler Maxson and the #74 Copeland Motorsports Hyundai Veloster N would once again run away from the field, grabbing his eighth-straight win on the season with Roy Block and the #5 KMW Motorsports w/ TMR Engineering Alfa Romeo Giulietta and Victor Gonzalez in the #99 VGMC Honda Civic Type-R fighting for second position.
“I think we can carry this momentum forward and we have a great crew who will get us ready for Road America coming up!” said Maxson.
Block and Gonzalez would battle nose to tail for the remainder of the race with the Alfa driver besting the Honda to keep second position overall and in TCR. CJ Moses and the #04 DXDT Racing Honda Civic Type-R would come home fourth.
Back in TCA and with 19 minutes left on the clock, Williams would get past Newcombe for third in class with a nice move at turn 3 and use the clean air to catch the two leaders, who were 2.5 seconds up the road.
As the race went on, Boehm would pressure Gonzalez but the young Hyundai driver would not put a wheel wrong and go on to grab the TCA-class victory, his second of the weekend. Boehm would finish second with Williams and Newcombe coming home third and fourth.
“I just took this race corner by corner and hit my marks today. Copeland Motorsports does an amazing job, and I can’t thank them enough!” said Gonzalez.
TC America will next be in action August 28th-30th at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin for Rounds 9, 10, and 11 of the 2020 season.
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PROVISIONAL RESULTS - PDF Link