Austin, Texas - TCR driver Scott Smithson paced Thursday morning's TC America practice at Circuit of the Americas. Toby Grahovec topped the TC field, while Kevin Boehm was fastest in TCA. Thirty cars across TCR, TC, and TCA classes took to the track for the series' first practice session.
Early on in the 35-minute session held under partly cloudy, 80 degree Fahrenheit weather conditions, Victor Gonzalez Jr. in the VGMC Racing #99 Honda Civic Type-R topped the charts with a 2:22.870 followed by Smithson, in the DXDT Racing #17 Honda Civic Type-R with a 2:25.032. Smithson improved his time to a 2:24.886, followed by Roy Block in the KMR Motorsports w/ TMR Engineering #5 Alfa Romeo Giulietta who slotted into third with a 2:24.886.
In TC, Auto Technic Racing's Tom Capizzi, in the #52 BMW M240iR Cup posted a 2:27.758, good for 7th fastest overall in the early going. Grahovec in the Classic BMW #27 BMW M240iR slotted into second in class with a 2:27.966.
In TCA, Boehm in the #9 Boehm Racing Honda Civic Si posted an early session time of 2:35.525, good for 20th overall.
Fifteen minutes into the session, Smithson then went to the top with a 2:22.032, while Capizzi went faster to a 2:27.549. Grahovec then went to the top in TC with a 2:27.293.
With just over 12 minutes left in the session MINI JCW Team's Tomas Mejia in the #60 MINI Cooper JCWs posted a 2:35.494, good for top spot in TCA at the time. Boehm fired back though with a 2:34.949.
The top times held for the balance of the session. The second TC America practice of the weekend is set for a 2:10 green flag Thursday afternoon. Follow along at https://www.tcamerica.us/live.
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PROVISIONAL RESULTS - TCAM_PRAC1